Africa-Press – Liberia. The Political Leader of the opposition Liberty Party (LP) Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence has called on President George Manneh Weah to with immediate effect dismiss the acting Director General of the Liberia Institute for Statistic and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), Wilmot Smith and others for the gross show of incompetence in handling the ongoing National Population and Housing Census (NPHS) in the country.
Senator Lawrence is representing the people of Grand Bassa County on the ticket of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) in the 54th National Legislature.
The ongoing census in Liberia is long overdue. It was last conducted in 2008 during the administration of ex Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The census has suffered multiple setbacks, ranging from reported acts of rampant corruption involving authorities at LISGIS, lack of funding, poor planning over the time frame, methods, training of enumerators, among others.
Enumerator trainings were conducted across the country with the government, through LISGIS failing to provide food, water and sitting fee for those who attended.
Government’s action prompted series of protests in some parts of the country. Those protests obstructed the movement of motorists and pedestrians and jeopardized normal working academic and other activities.
Last Friday, November 11, the start of the census was marred by serious setback when thousands of Liberians recruited to serve as enumerators and supervisors boycotted the exercise due to the failure of LISGIS to pay their US$50 each sitting fee for the training they attended.
They also expressed skepticism that the government, through LISGIS will pay them between US$250 and US$300 each at the end of the 14-day census.
In a statement released on her social media page late Friday evening, Senator Lawrence described the ongoing census as a “fiasco” and a total waste of taxpayers and donor funds
She observed that authorities of LISGIS failed to live up to its plan to deploy enumerators and supervisors within a period of 10 days prior to the census.
She stressed that all enumerators should have been deployed three days before the counting process for mobilization and awareness.
Senator Lawrence maintained that President Weah should fire officials of LISGIS that are involved with the census and guarantee the conduct of an audit at the agency.
“The president needs to take the most appropriate action by dismissing all those in charge, ask the GAC to audit the process and constitute a new management team with the requisite qualifications and expertise to work within the two months.”
Appointing stooges and surrogates
Senator Lawrence further cautioned against the appointment of those she called “stooges and surrogates” by the Liberian Chief Executive at various positions in government.
She stressed that as a country, Liberia’s human capacity gaps in key governance areas is a matter of public knowledge.
“In the face of our known human capacity problems, it’s quite unfortunate that the CDC-led Government would allow partisan politics overshadow the national interests by appointing stooges and surrogates in key governance areas such as LISGIS rather than maximizing the available professional expertise we have.”
She said Mr. Smith and others who are “responsible for the fiasco of a CENSUS exercise” must account for the wastage of much-needed resources.
On Weah trip
President Weah departed the country on October 31, to Morocco and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt where he attended the MEDays Forum and COP27 respectively.
On November 9, he departed Egypt and arrived in Paris, France to attend the 5th Edition of the Paris Peace Forum.
He’s currently attending the renowned Paris Peace Forum which serves as a platform upon which state and non-state actors engage in transnational cooperation for collective action. The forum is expected to climax on November 15.
Thereafter, President Weah will travel to Qatar and spend additional two weeks to witness his son Timothy Weah, who received a call up to the senior national team of the United States of America, features in the World Cup.
The President has been heavily criticized back home for using taxpayer’s money to travel to the World Cup along with a huge delegation.
Senator Karnga-Lawrence wondered while President Weah who declared the day for the commencement of the census as a National Holiday boycotted the exercise to attend to other events, including witnessing the World Cup opening matches in Qatar.
“All citizens of Liberia were asked to stay home to be counted, and we all did; except the President and his entourage, who are away from the Country for three weeks. The president has one week off official duty, and two weeks to attend the World Cup opening games.
It is far after 6pm in Liberia and after an all-day wait, all businesses and offices closed, we were just informed that no enumerators were deployed in Grand Bassa County, and probably the entire Country.”
Deceived twice
She maintained that it is troubling for the Liberian Chief Executive to announce a National Holiday when there has been no adequate preparation for the census to be conducted.
Senator Lawrence further recalled that the failure of the census to take place as planned and scheduled brings to two the number of times that Liberia and its citizens have been deceived by the government.
“The first was the President’s inaccurate response to the rice shortage. This is yet another manifestation of what the Weah-led administration has come to be known for- incompetence!”
Upon his return to Liberia from attending the 77th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, President Weah told reporters at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) that sufficient rice was in the country.
His comments were in respond to the shortage of rice, the nation’s staple food, which triggered astronomical increase in the price of the commodity at the time he returned to the nation.
Senator Lawrence pointed out that following several days of interventions by the Legislature, the deadline for the conduct of the census was extended to January 23 by the National Legislature.
She disclosed that though the move was intended to allow sufficient time for adequate preparation, LISGIS staged a fiasco process.
“We were informed by LIGIS that deployment was completed, and the process was set to commence today. The only inference deducible from their insistence on conducting the CENSUS today is that all measures were put in place to ensure the smooth execution of the exercise.”
Census outcome threatened
The realistic outcome of the ongoing census remains threatened due to the unsettled issues raised by the aggrieved enumerators and supervisors, many of whom have already abandoned the process.
Though the day commemorating the start of the census was declared a national holiday by President Weah, hundreds of citizens were seen at marketplaces going about their normal routines or services.
Inadequate awareness on the census, including the dishing out of huge sum of money to one Aloysius Howe by authorities of LISGIS are issues being raised by the locals.
Minister Tweah recently reported that the amount of LD160,000 was paid to Howe, who is one of his closed allies, for a social media public relations service on the census.
The worth for taxpayers’ monies and donors’ funds will not be actualized if steps are not taken promptly to address the lackadaisical manner and form in which the census is being conducted.
While President George Manneh Weah is away from the country, the peace and stability of Liberia also remain threaten if measures are not taken immediately to guarantee the payment of fees to the several thousand young Liberians who have been recruited to serve as enumerators and supervisors for the census.
Already, owners of local businesses who claimed that they were hired by LISGIS to provide catering and other services for the trainings of the enumerators across the country are also planning to stage series of protests in their respective regions.
They claimed that the government surreptitiously cancelled their contracts just few days to the start of the trainings
They further claimed to have spent huge sum of monies towards pre-financing the contracts and want the government to pay for the losses they have accrued.
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