April 5, 2016 By Victoria Saffa
An opposition politician vying for the flag bearer ticket of the leading political party is at odds with members of his party for criticising the recently released provisional results of the 2015 census.
Thorlu Bangura – an SLPP supporter and politician – would not understand the criticisms some members of his party have levied against the census report.
The report was officially launched by President Ernest Bai Koroma last week, putting the country’s population at more than seven million, and the northern region topping with more than 2.5 million.
Writing on his social media page, the veteran politician said that he did not see any reason why some senior members of his party are mad about the results and fiercely criticising the outcome.
According to him, most of the other aspirants are into a profession that they are ill prepared for because they do not know the exact significance of the result.
“I see no reason for the fierce critics of some SLPP corners. I am throwing this out to aspirants who want to enter into a profession that they are ill prepared for. I warned members of our party, who said that census are a precursor to national elections, if this is true, why do you hate the results?” Bangura asked.
He continued that some of his aspirant colleagues lack the experience to lead as they do not understand why a political party in power should not be pushed to conduct a census.
Bangura explained that to the untrained politician, a census is about the population spread of the nation – who gets what, how and when.
In reality, he remarked, it is about defeating the opposition, through a simple corrupt process to reduce the opposition’s strength in each constituency.
Therefore, he advised other senior members and aspirants of the party to carefully make sure that the party do not lose the next election.
Thorlu Bangura was once a Member of Parliament, and also served as a minister for two government departments – Trade and Industry and Information and Broadcasting.