The National Commission for Civic Education (NaCCED) has engaged Statistics Sierra Leone, paramount chiefs tribal and community heads on community cooperation on the 2021 Mid-term Census at the Bank of Sierra Leone Complex in Freetown.
The program is to encourage and enlighten local heads and their people to see better reasons why they should cooperate with the Census officers especially now that the Census is at the mopping stage.
The 2021 Mid-term Census reached the mopping stage where people and places that were not counted during the beginning of the census will now be reached and counted.
Chairman for the National Commission for Civic Education, Kalilu Totangi said the Commission sees it necessary for community people to participate and cooperate with the census officers and that it is their role to educate people on Civic matters rather than leaving it to the politicians who will miss guide them and discourage them from participating.
The National Council for Civic Education is charged with the responsibility of deepening democracy and good governance, promoting national cohesion and sustainable development, through civic education and development communication, civic engagement and community mobilization and knowledge management
PC Fayia Sundifu Brima Sovula the IV from Kamajei chiefdom Moyamba district is the Secretary General for the National Council for Paramount Chiefs.
He said the engagement should have been done before the census start so that they can disseminate clear understanding message about the census to their people which would have alleviate some of the challenges Census officials faced at the start of the Mid-term census.
He further said to them as paramount chiefs, they do not see the organising of the Mid-term census as a political issue but rather a development issue.
Samuel Ansumana the Director of Communications Statistics Sierra Leone said Statistics Sierra Leone has done several engagements with local heads in the provinces except for Freetown which is the reason why NaCCED invited them to have the engage with these local heads.
He furthered that: “Part Two of the Census Act of 2002 makes the Mid-term census legal and people should disregard statements that the census is not legal. Census staffs have covered over sixty percent of the targeted population”.