The Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Area in the Eastern Region who is also a former Government statistician, Daasebre Prof Emeritus Oti Boateng, says the 2021 Population and Housing census should provide the country the needed data on Ghana’s development deficit.
He said the #fixthecountry agenda is a peaceful democratic call to action that should be embraced with dialogue and honest exchanges amongst all stakeholders.
“recent agitations by a significant section of Ghanaians for fixing the country have grown louder and louder. In a democracy, this peaceful call to action must be embraced with dialogue and honest exchanges amongst all stakeholders. It is clear that the call to fix the country is a summons to development of mother Ghana ”
Daasebre Oti Boateng however believes, to succeed in the endeavor to fix the country, there is the need to first establish the type of fault lines to be fixed and their distributions among the various catchment areas in the country.
“There is also the need to know the size and structure of the population of the population in all the affected catchment areas to be fixed in order to provide the criteria for prioritization of actions as well as the vital information on the beneficiaries therein ” .
He stated that census is the sine qua non of accurate and comprehensive foundational data-base for developmental planning and decision-making in the country, adding that, data collection is a major scientific exercise that is apolitical and beyond partisanship. “without authentic facts, guesses cannot be fixed ”
Daasebre Prof.Emeritus Oti Boateng said this Sunday in Koforidua few hours to census night .
He said the 2021 population and housing census should provide the country the economic and demographic characteristics and dynamics to form the foundation for a restructuring of Ghana’s economy
Daasebre Prof.Emeritus Oti Boateng trumpeted that, modern-day census has nothing to do with taxation, that, it is purely for development.
He said population data has become the most important reservoir of statistics on the inhabitants of modern state and crucially important in planning for social and economic development and for formulation of realistic population policies, implementation, and evaluation.
Daasebre Prof.Emeritus Oti Boateng who served as government statistician for 17 years since 1982 called on his subjects and Ghanaians at large to consider the census exercise as a Clarion call to national duty, and cooperate with the enumerators.
The Eastern Regional Minister Seth Acheampong told Starr News that all is set for the commencement of census in the region.
He said few pockets of issues in some communities have been resolved hence expecting an accident-free census however, the Regional Security council will not be complacent.
Some youth met on the streets of the Eastern regional capital , Koforidua were however apathetic about the exercise warning that they may boycott future census if challenges of unemployment, housing deficit among others repeatedly identified during the census are not fixed.
According to them, Ghana does not make any good use of data obtained fromcensus to address challenges confronting the youth.
“We don’t see anything better from census. You take data periodically to know the challenges in the country but you don’t address them. so it is worrying that we keep spending money on census without solutions to problems found. It will come to a time that when they come we will not mind them ”
All 33 Districts and Municipal Assemblies in the Eastern region observed census night on midnight of June 7,2021 to usher the 2021 population and housing census which ends on July 11.
Source :Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Kojo Ansah
