IPNEWS: The political leader of the opposition Unity Party has asserted that the National Housing and Population Census preparation has been marred by controversies, characterized by complete corruption and a lack of well-defined policies.
Addressing a major news conference Wednesday in Monrovia at the Unity Party’s national headquarters, the former Vice President recounted that recently, Liberians witnessed the hauling and pulling in a saga of stealing of money intended for the Census.
The political leader of the UP claimed that said money was stolen by corrupt officials at the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS).
He noted that the census, which by law must be conducted every ten years, has not been conducted since 2008, adding that the census should have been conducted in 2018.
But according to the Unity Party political leader, the Coalition for Democratic Change government of President George Weah was not prepared to do so and seemed not prepared for it to be done.
“It is not surprising that before the actual counting of citizens begins, it is already allegedly reported on the eve of the Census that the Deputy Director-General for Statistics and Data-Processing of LISGIS, G. Alex M. Williams, (now dismissed) has predicted that the National Census exercise will be a ‘flop,’ and a banner headline on one of our local newspapers has screamed out: Enumerators to boycott the census. The question then is, what action does the president contemplate against the Board Chair of LISGIS, Finance Minister Samuel Tweh, and others implicated in this census saga? Was it not the advice of Mr. Tweh to the President that everything about the census was on a course that prompted the declaration, by the President, of a Census Holiday on Friday, November 11, 2022? So, what are we to believe here, that the President is serious? Certainly not!”, Amb. Boakai said.
Meanwhile, the top opposition figure has categorically denounced, condemned, decried, and deplored what he calls the disorganized manner in which the Weah Administration is handling the affairs of the State.
Ambassador Joseph Boakai stressed that the CDC led-regime has disregarded the rights of the people of Liberia to be rightly and correctly informed on matters that affect their lives.
“Fellow Citizens, despite my call to you to participate in the census process, that does not mean we will continue to tolerate the carelessness, heedlessness, and dishonesty that is associated with this CDC-led government. In fact, we should be critical as often as possible of the poor leadership qualities of President Weah and other government officials, which are returning our country to a pariah, failed state.
Today, we, therefore, want to categorically denounce, condemn, decry, and deplore the haphazard manner in which the Weah Administration is handling the affairs of the State, especially his government’s disregard for the rights of the people of Liberia to be rightly and correctly informed on matters that affect their lives; and on matters of presidential actions, which include travels of the president with an unusually large and unprecedented entourage that is costing the Liberian taxpayers millions of dollars, which could have otherwise be used for development projects and basic social services,” the UP political leader averred. Courtesy of By Blamo N. Toe)
