Communities urged to participate in Census

Bolgatanga, Jan. 12, GNA - An Opinion Leader in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region, Mr Solomon Akakeya, has urged people in the Region to participate actively in the Population and Housing Census, scheduled for this year.

Mr Akakeya, who made the call when he chaired the Yorogo-Gabiisi community Students' homecoming party on Monday, advised the students on their responsibilities and roles they have to play in national development.

He urged them to involve themselves in educating the people on the impending population and housing census and tasked them to influence their parents and other relatives to readily give out information during the exercise.

He said the situation where people held superstitious beliefs that humans could not be counted was baseless and should therefore not be encouraged.

He also urged communities not to read politics into the programme, when it starts, since it transcends beyond politics and religion.

Mr Akakeya explained that the census was very crucial for development and without it; it would be very difficult for Government to execute development projects fairly and equally to communities.

He said the creation of electoral areas was based on the previous Census and many communities who did not get themselves involved in the exercise, could not benefit from the electoral zoning.

He said most Non-Governmental Organizations also use the census for development programmes in the communities they operate in.

The Students expressed their dissatisfaction on the poor performance by pupils in the area, compelling them to travel to the southern parts of the country in search of non existent jobs.

They said there was the need to organized free vacation classes for students in the community to discourage them from idling and migrating.

GNA