December 7, 2007

The Census Topic is a sensitive issue in Somaliland

The population of Somaliland is estimated approximately One million seven hundred thousand. There is a bitter disagreement about the true population of the country. Some people make it a high treason to even mention that figure. Both academicians and ordinary people share the vision of exaggerating the population of Somaliland. They base their arguments on unscientific tribal counting.

This is a political issue and even the government down plays to make the records straight. Several attempts by the government to make the census of the country failed. Whenever this issue is approached the people start fierce campaigns to cheat and raise the population of their tribes. The present administration tried to make an electoral voter registration prior to the parliamentary election and this also failed because the people responsible of the various registration posts started to register false names for their tribes.

Immediately the process which would have determined the legitimacy of elections was stopped.

The new regions and districts that have been created by the Somaliland governments started new tensions between the tribes. Expansionist tribal political pressures came on the surface to annex villages to make districts for the new regions. All these maneuvers are to raise the population of that area and to legalize the creation of the region which is short of the standard of a region.

On the other hand the people have no identity cards that determine that they are citizens of Somaliland. It is unfortunate that the people –educated or ordinary do not know or care that it is important to make birth certificates for their children and the government of Somaliland have not taken measures to make it obligatory for every body to make these certificates for their new born babies.

I was one of the participants of a seminar sponsored by Habitat concluding a population and property study of Borama. I have learned that this statistics was first conducted in Hargeisa. They then went to Burao to conduct the same study and a meeting was organized to inform the people about the program. The people have categorically refused and the agency stopped the program.

It was then decided not to inform the public about the program in the other cities and only conduct the statistical study with the local councils and as a result of this the program was successfully implemented in Borama. The other pitfall is that the people will never tell the truth about the inhabitants of his house hold, and it is impossible to get a true population density of the country.

Frankly speaking and as mentioned in my paragraph above the real obstacle that made impossible to conduct census in this country is the eastern region. They do not want the true population to be discovered. The population is more in the western regions of Somaliland than the eastern regions of the country. They have more land than the west but with less population.

Somaliland is the only country in east Africa where the people have no identity cards and family registration sheet. Public notary was first opened in Hargieisa in 1964. People used to buy property by word of mouth and some people still do the same now. The people here do not like or care to follow the right instructions to make their house in order.

The British colonial administrations have not trained the people about the importance of these matters to the country. The British colonial administration’s presence was not strong in Somaliland and their interest was only to supply meet to their military in Aden. That is why they did not care to develop even the infrastructure of the country.

Demography is the study of statistics in order to show the stare of a community. It is the frame work to plan and assess for all political and socio-economic development activities. This issue is now even disrupting our decisions at higher level. There is always disagreement with the international donor agencies about the population of Somaliland. In this age of advanced technology it is difficult to hide any thing. It is better for us to leave exaggerating the population of this country and make our records straight.

Discipline is the training of the mind and character aimed at producing self control. It is time to change attitude and face the reality on the ground about the status of this country otherwise it will be very difficult to change the life style of our impoverished people.

Now the government of Somaliland wants to make an electoral voter registration in the country before the coming elections. I am not optimistic how this program will be implemented when our people are not willing to be honest about it. It is not possible to change the character and attitude of the people overnight. Experience shows that all attempts of making a true census of Somaliland failed.

I am one of the people who like the voter registration to be successful and hope that contrary to my assessment to be true. It is time to live on the reality on the ground and not emotional slogans regarding the status of this country.

In this new and increasingly complex world our success lies in our ability to change manners and every one of us should facilitate to accept the reality about the population of Somaliland and live with it. If the voter registration succeeds, it will be the frame work to share power in the country and the census of the population will follow to share the wealth of the country in future.