By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Opposition politician and presidential aspirant, John Oponjo Benjamin, has casted doubt on the authenticity of the recently released provisional census results.
Mr Benjamin said the results were flawed and argued that this was set to be so from the unset of the process when the government refused to listen to opposition concerns.
The 2015 Population and Housing Census provisional results were formally launched by President Ernest Bai Koroma last week at a lavish ceremony at the Miatta International Conference Center in Freetown.
The document revealed that Sierra Leone’s population grew by 40% over the last decade, from just under five million in 2004 to over 7.07 million in 2015. The South-eastern region, considered a stronghold of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), to which Benjamin belongs, has 44% of the total population, while the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC)’s traditional stronghold of north-west accounts for 56%, according to the results.
Benjamin, also known as JOB, a former National Chairman of the SLPP who is now seeking to run for President, said at a press conference hours after last week’s official launch of the census results that they needed to be examined. He said the party wouldn’t accept them until it was satisfied.
In December 2015, Statistics Sierra Leone conducted a nationwide census. However, the build up to the process was marred by controversies over recruitment of personnel to conduct the exercise, and some people complained about not been counted.
Benjamin said the SLPP wanted to be more involved in the process but that they were marginalized by the government.
“We are not just criticizing. We were anxious to be part of the system but we were shut out,” he said at the press conference hosted at his office at Congo Town in Freetown.
Census is conducted after every ten years. The statistics are used to help government and other organizations plan better for national development. They are also used by the electioneering body in the country to help plan elections.
Some critics have however accused the APC-led government of trying to compromise the census results in order to get strong advantage in the forth coming elections.
Benjamin urged Sierra Leoneans to keenly look at the provisional results and highlight the discrepancies in them.
The opposition politician said he’d convened the press conference to discuss a range of issues affecting good governance in the country at the moment, including the “pattern of tribalism” in the new cabinet reshuffle.
JOB is one of the many people contesting the presidential nomination of the SLPP.
(C) Politico 05/04/16
