By Edward Farah Marah
In December this year, Statistics Sierra Leone will knock on every door, enter every village, climb every hill and cross every river to count us. It is the 2026 National Population and Housing Census. Many will see it as just another government exercise. Some will see it as politics. Some will ignore it. That would be a tragic mistake.
The 2026 Census is perhaps the most important national exercise we will undertake between now and the 2028 general elections. It is not about the government of President Julius Maada Bio. It is not about the opposition All People’s Congress or any other party. It is about Sierra Leone. It is about you, your children, your community, and the next ten years of our national life.
Why should we care? Why must every Sierra Leonean, from Kailahun to Koinadugu, from Bonthe to Falaba, take personal ownership of this process?
For years we have been developing in the dark. How do you plan schools when you do not know how many children were born in the last ten years? How do you plan health centres when you do not know where pregnant women are dying? How do you provide clean water, electricity, feeder roads, agricultural support, when you do not know where the people are, how they live, and what they need?
Since our last census in 2015, Sierra Leone has changed dramatically. We survived Ebola. We survived COVID-19. We endured the 2017 mudslide. Thousands of young people have migrated from villages to Freetown, Bo, Kenema and Makeni in search of jobs. Thousands more have left the country. The Freetown we knew in 2015 is not the Freetown of 2026. The villages are not the same. If we continue to share resources, build schools, and allocate drugs using 2015 data, we are deceiving ourselves.
A credible census gives us the truth. It tells us how many we are, where we are, how we live, and what we need. That truth is the foundation of real development.
There is a simple democratic principle: If you are not counted, you do not count. Census figures determine everything that matters in governance.
They determine how constituencies are demarcated and how many seats each district gets in Parliament. They determine how the national cake is shared among districts and city councils. They determine the formula for distributing health workers, teachers, and agricultural inputs. They determine where government and partners build new schools and hospitals.
If your chiefdom is undercounted because your people refused to be counted or because enumerators did not reach you, your chiefdom will be punished for ten years with less development, less representation, and fewer resources. No politician can save you from that. This is why chiefs, mammy queens, youth leaders, okada riders, market women, and every household head must ensure that no one is left behind in their community.
We are heading for presidential, parliamentary and local council elections in 2028. What will the voter register be based on? What will constituency boundaries be based on? If we go into 2028 with disputed, out-dated population figures, we are laying the foundation for disputed elections.
A clean, transparent and acceptable census in 2026 is the insurance policy for peaceful elections in 2028. That is why political parties must stop playing politics with the census. Telling your supporters not to participate or to inflate numbers does not help you win; it helps destroy the credibility of the very election you want to win.
We cannot ignore the elephant in the room: there is deep distrust. Citizens have heard rumours about the division of Freetown on social media before any official white paper. They have seen councils starved of funds – zero disbursement in 2025 and only 50% in 2026, according to Freetown City Council – and yet are told to trust central government with a sensitive national count.
This distrust is legitimate, and Statistics Sierra Leone must address it head-on. This census must be the most transparent in our history. Publish the enumeration maps. Publish the methodology. Invite all political parties, the Inter-Religious Council, civil society, the media, and international observers to monitor every stage – from mapping to counting to data processing. Count every Sierra Leonean, whether they are APC, SLPP, or do not belong to any party. Count them whether they are Kuranko, Mende, Temne, Limba, Krio, Fullah or Kono. A census is not a political headcount; it is a national headcount.
Taking ownership does not just mean opening your door when enumerators come. It means vigilance.
It means community leaders ensuring enumerators actually visit every hamlet, not just sit in the chiefdom headquarters town and fill forms. It means young people volunteering as census monitors. It means the media asking hard questions without sensationalism. It means citizens demanding answers and verifying rumours with Statistics Sierra Leone before sharing fake news.
Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora must also play their part by encouraging their families back home to participate fully and accurately.
The 2026 Census will cost billions of Leones. Development partners will support it. Thousands of young people will be hired as enumerators. But all that money and effort will be wasted if we, the people, do not own the process.
This is our country. These are our numbers. This is our future.
Let no one tell you that your one household does not matter. It matters. In December, when they knock, be there. Be counted. Be truthful. Ensure your neighbour is also counted.
Because a nation that does not know itself cannot develop itself.
Be counted. For Sierra Leone.