By Nighwatch Team
Despite growing condemnation by opposition politicians, for the Sierra Leone People’s Party government not to conduct 2021 Mid-Term Population and Housing Census across the country, the ruling party is cleverly executing its tactics by conducting the 2021 Mid-Term National census, notably in provincial areas, targeting remote villages where illiteracy is very high.
The method of data collection, in the rural areas, occurs in different forms. Many people find it difficult to understand owing to the complex nature of the exercise and clarity in information flow. Residents in far-flung communities are not even aware of the ongoing civil registration exercise.
They said they were never able to verify their voter IDs unlike those in bigger towns. SLPP is seemingly engaging in hidden tactics to collect population data nationwide. There has been initial resistance put up by opposition parties to stop government from doing what it calls Mid-Term Census.
In March 31st this year, a group of 12 opposition parties, called the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP), out rightly condemned the pronouncement by the government to conduct a Mid-Term Census. The consortium earlier argued that there is no need to have a census in the first place.
Their argument is predicated on the fact that Sierra Leone’s Housing and Population Census is normally conducted after ten years (10). Advancing their points further, they argued that the last census was held in 2015, which means that the next National Housing and Population Census is supposed to be conducted in 2025.
The COPPP believes that the ruling government might rig the elections through gerrymandering and boundary limitations. Members of the 12 opposition parties launched a spiral of defences against passing into law two controversial bills: Mid-Term Census Bill 2020 and non-Partisan Local Councils Bill 2020. Both documents were greeted by opposition politicians with stack indignation and ill-recognition.
They requested that such bills should be expunged from Parliament, thereby preventing them from becoming laws. An attempt to forcefully pass the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census Bill of 2021 was followed by violent protest among the opposition members at a special summon outside Parliament.
It was one of the deadliest battles among parliamentarians who felt coerced to pass out a bill that is not in the interest of the masses, but only to allow government to hold on to power. Although existing democracies, around the world, usually command majority membership through voting quorum, Sierra Leone is a different case.
The governing party, SLPP, since being voted as a result of the 2018 General Elections, failed to clinch the majority in Parliament. It originally had 49 seats, while the opposition APC had 68 seats. To ensure that it beefed up its numerical strength, it slammed a petition against 10 opposition MPs who were beaten by the police. The MPs were members of the All People’s Congress (APC) party.
With their removal, APC was left with 58 seats. But that still could not help the ruling party (SLPP) to maintain a majority membership in Parliament. So they had to try other covert means to get themselves at the top. Government’s action, to axe the MPs, was widely criticized by a good number of Sierra Leoneans whose representatives had been removed unconstitutionally.
Many critics believe that it had never happened in the world for elected MPs to be removed on unconstitutional grounds. Neither has it ever happened in the history of Sierra Leone.
Although the cases against the sacked parliamentarians were heard by the country’s revered courts, many people still hold the view that justice was never served to the MPs who had entirely lost their seats.
With moves to swell its numbers in Parliament, after petitioning the 10 MPs, SLPP further reportedly influenced subsequent by-elections in the west of Freetown in their favour. One of the by-elections had to be cancelled and held later owing to election malpractice.
Around 2019, violence broke out at Goderich elections in Freetown between supporters of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and supporters of the All People’s Congress (APC). The election was held one year after, but was won by an APC candidate last year.
The SLPP Government’s determination to win more seats in Parliament was clearly manifested in its attempt to rig the country’s by-elections. It was trickery to have more seats to enable it pass bills in Parliament without sweating. They achieved same in recent by-elections across the nation.
The SLPP won more seats in its strongholds, but couldn’t stop the opposition from having majority of the seats. The opposition APC won all the remaining seats in the Western Urban Area in Freetown.
As it stands, the ruling SLPP government and the opposition APC are tied at 58 seats each, but one seat is pending. Thus the ruling government is still not having an easy work over whenever it wanted to turn critical bills into law.
The situation clearly forced President Bio to forcefully summon all MPs, while they were on recess, to meet outside Parliament at Bintumani Complex in April this year.
And it was during that unexpected meeting, on that day, with the determination to force MPs to pass the 2021Mid-Term Census bill into law. On that day, members of Parliament had the fiercest fistcuffs ever in the history of the Sierra Leone Parliament.
The Mid-Term Census could not be passed into law as it was rocked by human blows. The confrontation was fanned by the President’s angry speech, which set ablaze the choked frustration of opposition MPs who had had their colleagues kicked out unceremoniously from the Well in 2018.
However, just after that incident, government devised a master plan to enable it execute its ambition, which is to carry out the Mid-Term Census. This time Sierra Leoneans found it difficult to understand as NCRA (National Civil Registration Authority) solely champions voter verification exercise, unlike, in the past, when NEC (National Electoral Commission) used to do that.
In fact, according to our investigation, in Freetown and provincial towns, the process of data collection of residents is done by the NCRA. But, in most places, such as in Masingbi Town, Konike Sanda Chiefdom, Tonkolili district, staff were seen moving from one house to another asking about the total number of people making an household.
The same is done for most remote villages like Magborkoh, Madina and Mangay in Nieni Chiefdom, Koinadugu district. But what the people at Magborkoh couldn’t interpret is the printed letters on their house walls done by government staff: MTPHC/2021/057.
However, we understand the wording to mean Mid-Term Population and Housing Census 2021. The data collection is operating in different forms. The above places are considered to be opposition party (APC) strongholds. So the staffs sent there were only required to collect the number of people alive per household.
On a contrary note, “deceased family members” since generations of Slave Trade and slavery and those alive are recorded in manual registers for each household in Gorama Mende Chiefdom in Kenema District and elsewhere in the East and West Regions.
While conducting our investigations, at Gorama Mende Chiefdom in Kenema District, between 7th and 10th June 2021, we saw an official by the name of Janet explaining to residents at Mondema Town that the project was called SEARCH FAMILY.
“This Search Family is a project brought up by President Julius Maada Bio after his visit to the United States of America, where he asked for the help of our brothers, African-Americans whose roots are from Sierra Leone. The initiative was to help develop Kenema District like Makeni during the time of President Koroma,” she said while explaining in Mende.
Based on our observation, it seems to us merely logic to deflate the population in the north and west of opposition strongholds and inflate the population in the south-east, SLPP strongholds. It also sounds as a clever gimmick to persuade the people to have interest in the process since they talk of development.
Heads of family members are asked to give information about their origins, ethic group and place of birth, etc. The very boring and tiresome exercise sometimes lasted for 3 days or a week, depending on the size of the village. And the project is currently ongoing in the east.
The Search Family project is also meant to further deceive the ignorant residents about development aspirations, which have already been frustrated by the fake promises made by the New Direction government.
One of the promises made was to construct a tarred road leading from Mondema town to Kenema. The people’s gardens of coffee trees and cacao have been destroyed by a bulldozer.
“In December last year, they came with a tractor chopping all our plantations along the road,” complained Saidu Mustapha, a resident at Bondahun.
In retrospect, in May 2021, government started conducting National Civil Registration and confirmation exercise for voters. But the exercise is more effective in the Western Rural/Urban Areas and provincial townships.
Government has insisted that it is not carrying out a national census. Since its bill is yet to pass into law, in the first week of the process, Nightwatch press engaged one of Freetown’s central supervisors, Hanciles Bangura.
“This has nothing to do with the 2023 elections; we encourage the people to come and register or verify…,” he said in an interview. Whenever the issue of Mid-Term is publicly mentioned, there is intense disillusionment among educated elite.
Some critics say there is nothing like Mid-Term Census ever labelled or practiced around the world. And that the ruling government only wanted to play a trick in the upcoming elections.
Although the World Bank has promised to assist government to go ahead with the Mid-Term Census, most Sierra Leoneans doubt the exercise, which they describe as an illicit technique to enable SLPP win the 2023 elections. The Mid-Term Census Bill is yet to be ratified by Parliamentarians, but there are seeming covert moves already in implementation across the country.