2021 Census: Our Enumerators Were Not Selected On Political Grounds - Govt Statistician Debunks Allegation
The allegation that the 2021 population census is shrouded in partisan politics has been debunked by the Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Professor Samuel Kwabena Anim.
According to him, the allegation by the Member of Parliament(MP) for Banda Constituency, Ahmed Ibrahim that the enumerators were selected from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot be true based on the measures put in place to select applicants.
Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Professor Kwabena Anim noted that the Ghana Statistical Service in its quest to make the selection of applicants for the 2021 population census different from the subsequent ones where they rush to select enumerators set up an enumerator bureau.
He explained that the idea for the enumerator bureau is to build a career from the ground; from the enumerator level to a researcher and a statistician level, hence the formation of an enumerator bureau two years ago.
He stressed that at the close of the enumerator bureau in April 2021, they have had about 206, 000 applicants to build their career or be part of their data collection exercise and eventually progress in that area.
“We sent all the 206,000 applicants data to our District Census Implementation Committee which is chaired by the District Coordinating Director, and is a 8-member District Census Implementation Committee. We gave them guidelines that they have to use to conduct the interviews because we didn’t want to employ people from one locality to another locality because we want the respondents to feel comfortable to provide certain sensitive information to our enumerators who are recognized and respected in the area,” he explained.
He again mentioned that, "another condition was to employ people who understand the local dialect in the area, and so we gave the Committee the responsibility to do an in-person interview. The Committee ranked the applicants and brought the list to the Head Office, and the only work we did was to share the distribution to the Regional level for onward submission to the District Census Officer who is the convener for the District Census Implementation Committee to announce the names for the exercise".
He was emphatic that the structures in place could not have allowed them to add or subtract any name from the list sent to the Head Office by the District Census Implementation Committee; thus, they wanted grassroots to act as enumerators.
"So, under no circumstance will our process would have allowed for political influence,” he debunked the allegation.
<<Print>>