By Chinwe Imo-Eze Onwosi
The National Population Commission (NPC) has trained over 30 journalists on effective reporting of the 2023 population and housing census in Ebonyi State
The Federal commissioner NPC, Ebonyi State, Darlington Okereke, while declaring the one-day capacity building workshop open, held in Abakaliki, Wednesday, said the training will better equip Journalists with requisite information to enlighten the public during and after the census exercise.
Okereke said the campaign which was aimed at neutralising the negative prejudices and misrepresentation of the census exercise which most Nigerians carry.
He urged journalists to embrace the publicity campaign in order to properly educate and enlighten Nigerians on the need to support the successful conduct of the census especially as it was taking place immediately after the general elections.
Further noting that the Commission is gear in its mission of delivering an accurate census to Nigerians, and a strategic partnership with the media will form the tripod upon which the census architecture will stand to reach out to the Nigerian people.
The Ebonyi State Director of the Commission, Barr. Mrs Manyike Julie, in a paper presentation titled, “processes and methodology of the 2023 population census”, said that the 2023 population and housing census would leverage on a full digital methodology with the use of mobile application devices.
Manyike added that the commission has recruited a total of 786,741 functionaries consisting of 623,797 enumerators,125,944 supervisors, 24,001 Data Quality Assistants,12000 field coordinators,1000 data quality managers ,1639 training center Administrators and 59000 LGA level facilitators to be trained and deployed for the 2023 Census Nationwide.
Meanwhile, the State HOD, Public Affairs Department, Mrs Nwakaego Nwachukwu, in her paper presentation, “How to generate media contents on the 2023 population and housing census” urged journalist to explore measures to improve the quality of media contents on the census exercise through informed and professional reportage through field visits, features and interviews amongst others.
Also, HOD, Census, Mrs Leticia Onyeji and the HOD Technical, Mr George Nwankwegu, took participants on various topics, ranging from the history of Census in Nigeria to the technological innovations in the 2023 population and housing census.
The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ebonyi State, Comrade Tony Nwizi, in his goodwill message appreciated the Commission for the initiative, describing it as apt and pledged the support of Journalists in the State to enable the commission to succeed in its mandate.
He advised his colleagues to operate with zeal, and in line with the etiquette and codes of principles guiding the media profession, emphasizing developmental journalism above sentiments.
