Some Sh 140 billion will be spent on the
national population census across the
nation which is expected to run for seven
days beginning August 26, this year. Speaking during the launch of a Publicity
and Advocacy Campaign for the 2012
Population and Housing Census, Prime
Minister Mizengo Pinda said this was a lot
of money, and that it calls for the
seriousness it deserves coming every ten years. This Sh141 billion comes from taxpayers
and development partners
and we
hope it will cover all the necessary
expenses, the premier said. However, the prime Minister emphasised
that there was no relation between the
forthcoming census and religious beliefs,
saying that it focused mainly on the
collective national development effort. He said that all matters connected with
faith were the preserve of the clergy
themselves in their respective
denomination and mosques for specific
purposes -- and were hardly relevant to
the census exercise. Touching on Muslims who had earlier
threatened not to participate in census
because the religious aspect was not
included in the questionnaire, the Prime
Minister dismissed such claims as
meaningless and wouldnt help anyone. I have read some of their concerns in
books which the Muslim used as a basis
for their intended protests
some of
these books are alleged to have
supported claims in certain statistical
data showing that Christians outnumber Muslims, Pinda noted The premier underlined that the
government wasnt in anyway involved
with such statistics, nor issued that data
because all government data are issued
by the National Bureau of Statistics. In any case, Pinda said knowing the
exact number of Christians and Muslims
will never be done alongside the census
exercise because of the sheer magnitude
of the work involved in doing so. He added that a refusal to take part in
the exercise means that you refused to
take part in your own development
when you consider that the government
is spending such colossal amounts of
money from the very taxpayers. Preparations for the 2012 census which is
slated for August 26 through September
2, this year, started way back in 2004. The preparation involved the mapping
professionals who traversed the entire
country and passed through every
village across the nation to designate the
enumeration centres. He said the government will use the
census information to chart out various
development activities, in policy making
and in poverty reduction strategies. The premier the government would
consider extending the time allotted for
the exercise just in case there was
need to do so, else the September 2
deadline holds. Earlier, the Dar es Salaam Regional
Commissioner, Said Merck Sadique noted
that the concerns raised by some Muslims
should be ignored by all Tanzanian. The exercise is not about religion
because we are not planning to build
churches or mosques
we need the
number of people for development
plans, the RC said, adding that the region
is putting final touches such as supply of census equipment as well as the
training more that 17,000 census
supervisors in his region. On his part Commissioner for Census,
Amina Mrisho Said echoed the sentiments
of the leaders, saying this years census
was very unique
because it goes
together with the register for national
identity cards. The commissioner assured Tanzanian that
all information collected during the
exercise will be treated as confidential
data. Speaking during the launch, the Second
Zanzibar Vice-President, Ambassador Seif
Ally Idd, said a big number of census
equipment had since been supplied. Lack of knowledge about the
importance of the census to society
remains a big challenge now
because
its through ignorance that people are
reluctant to participate, Ambassador Idd
noted In her remarks, the Deputy Minister for
Finance, Saada Salum said that the
training for census supervisors was
expected to officially wind up tomorrow
across the country.
THE GUARDIAN
