Embarrassing Census: Govt Strongholds Get More People, Opposition Areas Get Fewer People!
By Abu Shaw in London (02/06/2022)
All those who supported the flawed President Bio’s Mid-Term Census either in cash, or kind are an embarrassment, selfish, and unpatriotic to Sierra Leone.
“Laughable, disgraceful, embarrassing, deceitful,” are some superlatives used by Sierra Leoneans to describe President Julius Maada Bio’s Mid-Term Census. This is a provocation of unparallel proportions, according to citizens, in the aftermath of the SLPP government’s distorted Mid-Term Census result that was released on Monday, May 31, 2022. The conspicuous blunder that the illegal SLPP Mid-Term Census highlighted centres around the increase of population numbers in one area of the country and decreasing the population numbers in other areas. Adding the population numbers in the areas supposedly considered strongholds of the ruling SLPP in the southeast, and simultaneously subtracting the population in the stronghold areas of the main opposition APC party in the north, northwest, and capital city Freetown, is one of the most provocative political machinations in the census history of Sierra Leone. (Photo: Statistician-General Dr Osman Sankoh, right, during the Mid-Term Census release).
President Bio does not believe in winning elections freely and fairly and is therefore unsurprisingly promoting this negative accolade to win the 2023 elections by using the back door i.e. through the dubious Mid-Term Census machinated by his puppets at Statistics Sierra Leone SSL. The failed President Bio has misruled and mismanaged Sierra Leone in the last four years which continues to epitomise the harsh realities on the ground today in the country. What Sierra Leoneans are faced with regarding the disgraceful Mid-Term Census compiled by the Statistician-General Professor Osman Sankoh aka O’Mallam is reprehensible, to say the least. The angry backlash from citizens in and outside the country that followed the release of the result of the Mid-Term Census proves the dissenting voices and stiff opposition in the Sierra Leone communities around the world.
Never in the history of capital cities have records shown that the population in the seat of government power is less than in other parts of the country. Capital cities have and will always continue to remain the most populated parts of any nation. In short, capital cities the seat of power, have more population than any other part of a country since the record began. However, under the corrupt administration of President Bio in Sierra Leone, this normal trend has been polluted and distorted for selfish political gains. Sierra Leone is on the precipice and the provocation that the flawed SLPP census has generated, if not checked now, will cause an uprising hitherto unknown in the country. If the negative result of the SLPP government’s Mid-Term Census released by President Bio’s Statistician-General is anything to go by, Sierra Leone’s fragile peace is under serious threat.
Consequently, every vital stakeholder in Sierra Leone ranging from parliament, and the opposition parties, to the majority of citizens, has added their critical voices to the illegal SLPP Mid-Term Census of President Bio, a census that has no credibility and substance and is not in the interests of the people. All the critical minds have described the SLPP government as illegitimate, flawed, unconstitutional, and far from credible. Sierra Leoneans seldom used superlatives as demeaning against their government like what is happening presently since Statistics Sierra Leone released the undemocratic result. “We will never forgive the Statistician-General Dr Osman Sankoh aka O’Mallam for allowing President Bio to use and misuse him for the production of a census that is widely regarded as the worst in living memory.
The first bombshell prior to the release of the unpopular Mid-Term Census came from the Leader of the main opposition APC party in Parliament Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah who succinctly described President Bio’s Mid-Term Population and Housing Census as far from credible. The APC parliamentary Chernor aka Chericoco made this blast live in the House of Parliament where he ridiculed the entire census process, noting that the SLPP Mid-Term Census was flawed from the outset. Chericoco concluded by warning his parliamentary colleagues not to entertain the bogus census, amid applause from colleagues in the House. (Photo: Chericoco, centre, with the 21-Man APC Interim Committee).
This was what the Statistician-General Osman Sankoh said yesterday to the BBC Umaru Fofana: “The population of Sierra Leone from the 2021 Mid-Term Population and Housing Census is 7,541,641. I wish to emphasise that this population is the population of people who slept in Sierra Leone on the Census night, in various localities, various chiefdoms, districts, and regions,” O’Mallam said.
BBC: It means between the two censuses the population increased by less than 500,000. It makes a case for the ruling SLPP party who when they were in opposition during the last census in 2015, said their strongholds were under-counted while the national figures were bloated. They accused the ruling APC party of gerrymandering. Following that census, new Constituencies were created but the APC party now in opposition asked their supporters to boycott the Mid-Term Census citing unconstitutional behaviour by the government. They have also consistently accused the government of wanting to gerrymander. They said they would not accept the result announced today, which according to them is far less than the country’s population. Abdul Kargbo is the party’s Interim Secretary-General.
Abdul Kargbo: “Well we have a normal trend in our censuses in Sierra Leone since independence. This trend has been distorted by this census which clearly shows that this census is not reflective of the total population we have in Sierra Leone. This has created serious suspicion of the SLPP government to use this result of the Mid-Term Census to see boundary delimitation and thus create new Wards, Constituencies, and Districts in their strongholds as much as the elections are just behind the corner. My home was not counted. Several other homes were not counted. The 2023 elections are now clearly under threat for this very census.
BBC: If this under-counting of the country’s population, do you not blame that on yourselves in the sense that you asked your supporters to not allow themselves to be counted by the numerators?
Abdul Kargbo: The process was flawed. The process did not go through the constitutional provision and it is an attempt to blatantly force the census down the throats of the people. We will not accept the provisional results presented and we will oppose any attempt to delimitations boundaries and use flawed data. That was why we deliberately told our supporters not to participate.
BBC: The Chief Census Officer Professor Osman Sankoh said the country’s first digital census could not have got it any better. BBC Interview ends.
Using Statistics Sierra Leone SSL led by the SLPP party stooge Statistician-General Dr Osman Sankoh aka O’Mallam, Statistics Sierra Leone is one of the many state captured government institutions by President Bio that operate in the interest of the SLPP government rather than seeking the interests of the people. The Mid-Term Census last year was conducted for one primary goal i.e. to facilitate the rigging of the local, general and presidential elections in 2023 in favour of President Bio and his corrupt SLPP administration. Despite the national and international outcry and overt condemnations of the Mid-Term Census, President Bio forced his puppet professor Osman Sankoh to execute their plans for next year’s crucial elections. (Photos: APC Secretary-General Abdul Kargbo, left. And Professor Sankoh).
A Cursory Look at the 2021 Mid-Term Census Results
- ALL districts in the South and in the East registered a huge increase in a population ranging from 8% to 48% while districts in the North West, North East, and Western Urban registered a huge decrease in a population ranging from -14% to -49% exempt two districts with a very minor increase of 4.8% to 6.4% and the Western Area Rural with a ridiculous increase of 49%.
- The combined populations of the South and the East (3,770,003) equals that of the total population of the Western Area – Urban and Rural combined (3,771,638) with a difference of only 1,636! What a COINCIDENCE!
- Kenema District and Kailahun District combined (1,318,419) have a higher population than the Western Area – Urban and Rural combined (1,268,575).
- Pujehun District’s population (429,574) is higher than that of Bombali District (387,236) where the North Eastern regional headquarters town of Makeni is located.
- There is a dramatic drop in the Western Area Urban population from 1,055,964 to 606,701 representing -42.545%. Where has almost half of the Freetown population emigrated to?
- There is a ridiculous increase in the Western Rural population by 49.02%. Are the new developments (housing) enough to account for this increase in population?
- Bombali and Kambia Districts now have almost equal populations (Kambia 367,699 and Bombali 387,226). Kailahun and Tonkolili Districts are similar in this respect (Kailahun 545,947 and Tonkolili 557,257).
- Karene was recreated out of Port Loko and Bombali Districts. The combined population of Port Loko and Bombali in 2015 was 1,221,920. The combined populations of all three Bombali, Port Loko, and Karene Districts in 2021 are 1,205,587. There is a drop in population by 16,335 persons.
- The voter population alone of the Western Area in 2018 was 606,933 (only persons above 18years) while the entire population (all living persons including babies) of the same place is now only 606,701. How can the voter population be higher than the total population? Just to set people thinking as we look at the 2021 mid-term census figures. Courtesy: By a Concerned Citizen. (Photos: Freetown City Mayor Aki-Sawyerr and prominent Barrister Ady Macauley blast the SLPP Mid-Term Census).
A Brief Comparison Between 2015 and the 2021 Mid-Term Population Census
Eastern region
In 2015 = 1,642,370
In 2022 = 1,939,122
Percentage increase 18%
Northern region
In 2015 = 2,508,201
In 2022 = 2,502,881
No increase in population but a decrease
Percentage decrease 0.2%
Please note that my figure for 2021 for the north includes (North and North West)
Southern Region
In 2015 = 1,441,308
In 2021 = 1,830,881
Percentage increase 27%
Western Area combined
In 2015 = 1,500,234
In 2021 = 1,268,757
No increase
Percentage decrease 15%
If you think this Mid-Term Population Census was done in the interest of the people well see for yourself. Courtesy: By a Concerned Citizen.
