By Muhammad Nur Tijani

The Federal Government on Thursday urged Nigerians to make themselves available for the National Population and Housing Census billed for May.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the call at a townhall meeting in Kano organised by the National Publicity Committee on the census.

The minister, represented by the Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr Garba Abari, said the census was aimed at collating data for effective national planning.

He dismissed insinuations that the census questionnaire would ascertain the religion of respondents as falsely portrayed on some social media platforms.

Mohammed insisted that the data obtained were solely for national planning and development purposes as well as help in improving the nation’s security architecture.

The town hall meeting, he said, was organised to create the requisite awareness about the forthcoming exercise.

He stressed that the stakeholders were invited to obtain information and feedback from the grassroots in order to ensure a hitch-free exercise.

The minister also said that the publicity committee was working hard to tackle fake news and misinformation on  the exercise.

Some of the participants,  who spoke with NAN, advised the National Population Commission to embark on more sensitisation programmes.

The National Housing and Population Census would begin on May 3. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

(Edited by Chinyere Bassey/Mufutau Ojo)