Ever since the Government of Liberia announced the beginning of the conduct of the National Housing and Population Census, the process was greeted with myriad of challenges including claims of corruption, poor handling of the critical endeavor and unpaid enumerators onto to repeated change of dates.
In response to averting the impending calamity that would paint a gloomy picture of the country, President George Manneh Weah asked his Vice President Chief Dr. Jewel Howard Taylor to arrest the situation while he was out of the country.
Consequently, the Liberian first female Vice President convened several meetings with key stakeholders and officials of the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Service (LISGIS) to address the ruckus that had marred the census process that she described as essential to the development of Liberia.
“This is a process that is very important and it should not be politicized by any patriotic citizen, though there are issues but it has been handled and the process will continue because it is beneficial to the country and people,” VP Taylor said.
“Census goes beyond the George Weah-led government. It is an important tool that will be used to project all of what the government will need to know over the years in terms of development,” she indicated.
Vice President Chief Dr. Howard Taylor’s intervention saw the census being conducted successfully across the country as all of the bottlenecks were addressed with the support of partners and every Liberia.
For this, President Weah said in his state of the nation address that his decision to engender the intervention of Vice President Howard Taylor paid off in spite of the “various operational and logistical challenges. This was not to be unexpected, given the large scale of a project such as a national census.” Nevertheless, the Liberian leader added that with a strong and concerted effort from all stakeholders, these challenges are being handled, under the able leadership of the Vice President, to whom he assigned oversight responsibility.
“I have been informed that a significant percentage of the Liberian population has been enumerated, and that provisional census results are expected to soon be announced; while the census thematic reports and final result should be published shortly thereafter,” President Weah pointed out.
The Liberian leader emphasized how pleased he was to inform the National Legislature that the census process has been conducted in accordance with the United Nations technical recommendations for the 2020 Round of Census, and is inconformity with both regional and international standards.
“I therefore take this time to express my profound thanks and appreciation to all national and international stakeholders who formed a part of this national endeavor to deliver a successful Census,” he stated.
President Weah then gave a special thanks and appreciation also go to the many young persons who braved the tough environment across our Nation and worked from dusk to dawn until the process was successfully concluded. You are our National Heroes. Congratulations for a job well done!
