By Mabinty M. Kamara and Abass Jalloh
The National Elections Watch (NEW) has in a press statement called on the government of Sierra Leone to cancel data generated from the 2021 Mid-Term census for which provisional results were released on Tuesday, 31st May 2022, noting that it was ‘flawed’ and not representative of the country’s population.
The local election observation body noted that the use of such results will have multiple, long-term implications and consequences for political processes and development interventions across the country.
“Considering all these issues surrounding the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census results, NEW calls on the Government to revisit or completely declare the provisional results of the Mid-Term Census null and void and not to use this data for political and developmental
purposes,” the statement reads.
This according to NEW was a result of many irregularities recorded in the preparatory stage and the census process itself.
The group through press statements expressed strong concerns about what they described as the ‘flawed nature of the Mid-Term Census project’ since its declaration by President Julius Maada Bio on the 21st of July 2020, with some questioning the lack of inclusivity of
‘all voices and opinions (political groups, civil society, etc.) in the exercise, and prioritization of a Mid-Term Census at the height of a health pandemic (COVID-19). According to NEW, despite any well-intended purposes, the census “remains a flawed process and cannot be the basis for future planning and growth of Sierra Leone. Moreover, the process remains controversial, lacks inclusivity, and was ill-prepared for.”
NEW said the current status of the Mid-Term Census data defeats the purpose of the President’s proclamation of a Mid-Term Census that could have otherwise helped “plan properly, ensure equitable distribution of resources, and foster economic and social development.”
Sierra Leone’s population is now estimated at Seven Million, five hundred and forty-one thousand, six hundred and forty-one (7,541,641) according to the provisional result of the Mid-Term census, with a total increase of four hundred and forty-nine thousand, five hundred and twenty-eight (449,528) which is just 6 percent more than the seven million and ninety-two thousand, one hundred and thirteen (7,092,113) that was recorded in the 2015 Population and housing census.
In this latest headcount , Western area recorded a population of one million, two hundred and sixty-eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty-seven (1, 268,757), whilst the North/eastern region has one million, three hundred and eighteen thousand, eight hundred and thirty-one (1,318,831) and one million, one hundred and eighty-six thousand, and fifty (1,186,050) for the north/western region, whilst for the southern region the population captured was one million, eight hundred and thirty thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one (1,830,881).
Days to the commencement of the controversial digital Mid-Term Census, the first of its kind in the country, the World Bank in a press statement dated 7th December 2021, stated its withdrawal of support for the process, stating that there were several critical actions points that required further technical work to be satisfactorily addressed, that included evaluation of the pilot census, the field operation plan for the enumeration, and ensuring enumerators are adequately trained before the commencement of the census.
“All these outstanding actions are necessary and must be addressed prior to commencing data collection to minimize the risk of inadequate and poor data quality. There is insufficient time between now and December 10, 2021, to satisfactorily address all pending actions,” the statement reads.
The Provisional result of the Census has received criticisms from opposition political parties who have noted that the data was skewed in favour of the ruling SLPP strongholds in the Eastern and Southern regions as against the North and Western regions.
Meanwhile the Deputy Statistician General, Andrew Bob Johnny at the weekly government press conference held yesterday, says they are strongly behind the census result that was announced on Tuesday 31st May 2022 by Statistics Sierra Leone.
This came following disputing of the census result by opposition party officials. “Stats-SL stands strongly behind these figures”, he asserted.
On the provisional result, he stated: “We have very slight, insignificant changes of not even one percent or even less’’.
Johnny disclosed that there were over twenty thousand (20,000) tablets from Kenya and that they were able to retrieved ninety-eight percent of them.
“Yes there are tablets out there, but what I can assure you is those tablets are ‘empty’ electronic tablets,” he confirmed, adding that all data in those tablets had been synced to Stats SL headquarters, in terms of what they need.
He said that the motive behind the collection of the tablets was because there were still some outstanding payments to me made upon handing in of the machines. He disclosed that the president had paid over thirty billion Leones [Le 30,000,000,000] to ensure that they honor and respect all remaining payments of all categories of staff.
“The process is being done; we have paid over eighteen billion Leones [Le 18,000,000,000] so far,” he added.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Solomon Jamiru Esq, said government experts and development partners agreed and acknowledged that the 2015 census had such material discrepancies.
Jamiru said there could be error in any process. He cited the 2015 census as ambitious and well -intentioned as it could have been, but had fundamental errors of coding of localities. “When you look at it across the board, it was not advisable to say ‘go to the specific region and cure it’; it demanded to do something comprehensively,” he said.
He added that people should not look at the fact that “World Bank disengaged”. “World Bank never disengaged because the process was fundamentally wrong. That’s perhaps because of the seeming political impasse; they would not want to be subscribing to something that some parties are at variance with,” he stated.
On the claim about ‘gerrymandering’ by especially the opposition, Jamiru said Sierra Leone has been doing boundary delimitations. He said in 2008 there were 112 constituencies, and by 2017 there existed 132 constituencies, whilst the number of wards rose from 394 to 446.
“At this point, nobody is talking about boundary delimitation because the data we have are regional totals,” he added.
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