After days of controversies, Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL), Sierra Leone’s agency in charge of demographics, has indefinitely postponed the Mid-Term population and Housing Census.
The indefinite suspension of the exercise has been linked to the non-arrival of materials. The census was scheduled to take place in April this year with the recruitment of 20, 000 enumerators. SSL was also on the verge of recruiting international consultants to fast track the exercise.
Key activities like cartographic mapping, piloting of the questionnaire and submission of report for same had already been commenced by SSL before the exercise was put on hold.
The exercise helps government to know the exact number of people in the country for effective planning.
About a month ago, government announced the conduct of the mid-term census, a move that generated mixed feelings among the public.
Many Sierra Leoneans say it is illegal and premature for government to embark on such exercise.
Civil society organisations and political parties share the view of Sierra Leoneans on the illegality of the act.
Loud voices were raisedon the proposed census when World Bank announced a grant of US$6M for the exercise.
It was recently argued that the said sum announced by World Bank emboldened SSL to have gone ahead with a process that has been criticised by several experts and stakeholders.
Opposition parties say the process lacks the hallmarks of international best practice.
They also claim that the recent postponement of the enumeration exercise from December, 2020 to April, 2021 underscores the deficiencies in the planning.
The parties also claim that the proposed exercise arguably would have been the largest statistical activity in the country had it gone ahead.
In what appears an apparent move to block the exercise, a group of 11 political parties including the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) came together and spoke with one voice.
The political parties remain highly critical of the exercise, and drew the attention of donor partners: World Bank and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities to it.
Technical failures bordering on the timing, preparedness and credibility of the proposed Mid-Term Census were picked up by opposition parties.
The donors reminded the inter-governmental agencies that they had immensely contributed to the development of Sierra Leone.
However, the parties urged the donor community not to fund an illegal activity whose outcome would be unknown.
The consortium sees the proposed funding of the exercise as one of the greatest blunders on the part of the international community.
“It will be a blunder of epic proportions if such a huge amount of money is used to prop up a process that is rushed, high-risk venture leading inexorably to unreliable results,” the consortium claims.
They also argue that the risk of failure far outweighs the justificationsfor conducting a census midway instead of waiting for the ten-year cycle to end in 2025.
Representatives of the political parties vowed to embark on a campaign to tell the people of Sierra Leone not to participatein the process.
The parties consider the proposed census as a breach of a due process by the New Direction Government.
It is also the view of political parties that SSL does not have enough to conduct a credible census in less than five weeks.
APC is on record to have addressed two letters of concern to development partners explaining why a credible census could not be conducted at this time.
“Owing to its unpreparedness, SSL has had to defer the census, reschedule the initial date to 19th April, 2021,” APC claims.
APC and other opposition parties also claim that cartographic mapping which is a crucial exercise requires several months of preparation for a successful outcome.
“The field work of the cartographic exercise should have been completed, at least, 3 months to the enumeration exercise to allow for office review and printing of maps for enumerators,” opposition parties’ press release reads in part.
The main opposition also noted that the Statistician-General had to rely on sound technology to ensure an expedited process.
Opposition parties also argued that the head of SSL, could not provide proof that Sierra Leone has the necessary infrastructure to support its sophisticated application.
Contemporary trends have shown that advanced countries do not find it easy applying pure electronically-based technologies to national exercises.
The parties made reference to the 2016 elections in the United States adding that the world power was in no hurry to go ahead with paper-based processes to avoid the myriad of unforseen challenges like hacking, inadequate exposure and training as well as data corruption.
Sierra Leone, opposition parties say, has to contend with a lot more than hacking.
Inadequate exposure and training as well as poor electricity and internet services worsening every day were also challenges that would have hunted the population census.