December 16, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
The statutory body charged with the responsibility to conduct national census, Statistics Sierra Leone is expected to launch a toll free line today to help expedite the on-going Mid Term Population and Housing Census.
Head of Communications at Statistics Sierra Leone, Samuel Ansumana has assured the public that the toll free mobile phone line, which is going to be launched latest Thursday this week, would be open to the public to closely monitor the process. He called on members of the public to use the line to call and make reports about the process whiles further admonishing that it must be used for its intended purpose.
He said it is immature for them to start giving figures six days into the process. He expressed that the current activity is encouraging although they were faced with few challenges at the beginning ranging from late payment of enumerators to acceptance issues. He said their enumerators have been coached to move on to the next house if they face resistance from family heads or landlords.
“The activity should be owned by the people of Sierra Leone devoid of political affiliations or tribal and regional lines”, he told this medium.
According to Mambu, the current SLPP government, when in opposition had advised the previous APC government against de-amalgamation that it would surge government expenditure by creating more constituencies and districts.
“But they did not listen, and they went ahead blotting the wage bill of government”, Mambu blasted.
He furthered that Sierra Leoneans should see this census as a fundamental activity that is key to the development of the country at large. He said as a Civil Society Organization (CSO) they will continue to talk to Sierra Leoneans to remain united and support the ongoing Mid Term Census “because their destiny is in their hands”, Charles Mambu noted.
However in Kono, three people are in police custody for assaulting an enumerator who was trying to conduct interviews at a compound.
The government insists that the previous census was incorrect and would not stand the test of time that is why they are going ahead with this census to correct what they referred to as anomalies. It could be recalled that the 2015 census established the following: North-2.5 million. East- 1.6 million, West- 1.5 million and South- 1.4 million with a total population of 7,092,113.