By Alpha Abu
Officials from Statistics Sierra Leone have urged the populace to own the Mid- Term Census taking place across the country. The call came at a Stakeholders Conference jointly hosted by Stats SL and National Council for Civic Education and Development (NaCCED) that was held at the Kingtom Bank Complex, Freetown on Thursday 16th December 2021.
Statistician -General Professor Osman Sankoh told the gathering of institutional representatives from the Inter- Religious Council, Civil Society, Council of Paramount Chiefs and Bike Riders Union, that it is a people’s census and they should take ownership of it.
He said when the headcount is completed, credible data will be provided that can be used by the government, its partners and research based institutions for the development of the country. He emphatically stated it is not in the mandate of Stats SL to determine what can be done with data collected from the census. He admitted a few grey areas in the 2015 census, for which he said they take full responsibility as an institution, but cannot say the process was fraught in its entirety.
The Chairman of Stats SL, Moses LJ Williams said reports from the field indicate the enumeration process is going on well across the country except for what he said were pockets of resistance in parts of the North. He clearly asserted that Stats SL is not a political institution and that with the census going on, people should focus on the nation rather than issues of region or tribe. He guaranteed of an accurate process.
Officials highlighted the role played by numerous supporters of this mid-term census that included the World Bank, UNFPA, Chinese Embassy, the Statistics offices of Ghana and Malawi and the Kenyan government. Kenya provided 20,000 Tablets and an equal number of Power Banks, following an appeal by President Julius Maada Bio to his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta.
A pilot phase of the census, according to the Stats SL authorities, was earlier, successfully conducted.
They said a pool of technical Consultants was drafted into the country that was able to assess, review and resolve issues emanating from the pilot census.
They also affirmed that the data that will be compiled at the end of the mid-term census has a redundancy and loss protection mechanism that is highly secured and reliable.
Presently 15,000 Enumerators are out and about collecting data, with reports of few incidences of people turning away the enumerators or attacking a few.
Participants at the event collectively agreed there should be scaling up of sensitisation about the census and for uniformity in messaging. There was also a favourable consensus that other groups join Stats SL in the sensitisation exercise. They also said they should be involved in the validating process of data collected.
Earlier NaCCED Chairman, Kalilu Totangi spoke about the initial uncertainty surrounding the census. He said the census space was being ceded to the political class and can be easily manipulated. He cited the 2015 primary census data as “unsatisfactory”. The NaCCED chairman expressed the hope that the stakeholders engagement will help create a more reliable census this time around.
Several opposition party leaders have openly expressed their opposition to the headcount which they feel can be used by the ruling party to score political gains, a claim that the government denies, restating its argument that it is for development purposes. Independent reports indicate that compliance to the exercise in the north is improving.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online 17/12/21
