By Justina Auta

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has started nationwide sensitisation and advocacy to educate Nigerians about the forthcoming National Population and Housing Census.

Director-General of the agency, Garba Abari, said this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.

He said that the sensitisation is to enlighten the public about the importance of census toward national planning and development.

Abari, who is a member of the National Publicity and Advocacy Committee for the census said ‘’the National Population Commission (NPC) has an elaborate publicity in the media advocacy workplan that will definitely saturate the airwaves in the next few weeks starting from today.

‘’The NPC is not unaware of the role of advocacy, enlightenment and sensitisation in creating necessary awareness around the census issue.

‘’Now that we have put the general elections behind us, the next important national event ahead of us is the national census,” he said.

He, therefore, appealed to the media, Civil Society Organisations, religious and traditional leaders, as well as other stakeholders to sensitise the public about the exercise and encourage them to participate fully.

‘’The media, community leadership, community ombudsmen, religious leaders, professional groups, everybody will be brought on board through conscious, extensive and expansive process and programmes to ensure necessary knowledge, awareness among Nigerians.

‘’It is not as if Nigerians are not aware of the census, perhaps what they need to see is continuous and consistency in awareness.

‘’There will be consistent messages every minute through the media, radio, social media, town criers, newspaper, television and discussions,’’ he said.

He reiterated the commitment of NOA in carrying out sensitisation programmes across every local government, especially rural areas, on the need to be captured in the exercise. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu