Census: Speaker Gani hails KNSG, stakeholders
By ALIYU YUSUF

THE Speaker Kano state House of Assembly, Hon. Balarabe Sa’idu Gani, has commended the state government, members of the state Assembly, the state’s Census Committee, local government council chairmen and people in the state, for their support to the success of last year’s National Population and Housing Census, which Kano emerged the most populous state in the country.
He made the commendation while addressing journalists on the figures released by the NPC at his Sharada residence yesterday.
Gani explained that when compared with the 1991 census, the population growth of the state has increased as a result of the rise in number of people in the state.
On the figures released by NPC which indicated that Kano has over nine million people, the Speaker observed that had it been that all were counted appropriately, the figures would have exceeded what was obtained.
He added that prior to the completion of the exercise, a lot of people had complained from various quarters that they were not counted, stressing that if such people were counted, Kano state would have exceeded Lagos state with wider margin.
On why the male figures have exceeded that of their female counterparts as contained in the census result, the Speaker observed that such may be attributed to the poor participation of the females during the head count, maintaining that physically, the population of females is higher than that of their male counterparts in the state.
He, therefore, stressed the importance of the head count, saying it could be used for formulation of many national policies especially on revenue allocation to the state.
The Speaker also observed that such figures could equally be used as a yardstick for Kano to project number of prospective voters for the forthcoming elections.
He further explained that if a population figure revealed that a particular constituency has for example 500,000 people and later during election, the number reduces or increases the development could lead to exposing electoral malpractices.
Hon. Gani therefore, used the opportunity to call on the people in the state to always imbibe the culture of embracing anything that will bring development to the state so that Kano will continue to be in the forefront in the country’s socio-political activities.
He also thanked all the stakeholders that took the pain of supervising the last census especially the 2006 state census committee, as well as the state government for the resources it supplied to see to the success of the exercise.