Ohanaeze Wants Igbo To Participate Fully In 2023 Census

Ohanaeze Ndigbo has urged Ndigbo and other residents of the Southeast to fully participate in next year's national population and housing census.

The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chief Alex Ogbonnia made the call during the NPC Stakeholders' Summit for 2023 Census in Enugu yesterday.

The spokesman of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization said the call was to avoid the possibility of pressing down the population of the region which could lead to denying them their fair share in the country.

"If you look at 1952, 1963, 1964 and 1974  census, they were all rejected for not meeting the expectation of the people.

"The 1988 and 1991 heralded crisis which was detrimental to Igbo cause and we also discovered in 2006 the census was not accepted due to errors in the figures.

"So now they are talking about electronic census, I hope they will come out with better and credible result," he said.

On his part, the Federal Commissioner, representing Enugu at the NPC, Chief Ejike Eze said the summit was to broaden the state level support base for successful conduct of 2023 census.

Eze added that the summit would help to create public awareness on the conduct of the census and provide platform for clarification and feedback.

The Federal Commissioner further said: "This is the first time the Commission is using digital technology for its census, adding that they had embarked on massive sensitisation programme for  southeast people.