My Take on the South Sudan Population Estimates Survey 2021 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
Simon Yel Yel, a Juba-based South Sudanese political analyst
Editor: In the 2008 census, Warrap state had about 0.972 million people, while Central Equatoria had 1.103 million. In the 2021 population estimate survey, released in April 2023, Warrap (2.639 million) has twice the population of Central Equatoria (1.324 million), leading to a national uproar among the Junubeen.
By Simon Yel Yel, Juba, South Sudan
Sunday, April 09, 2023 (PW) — Guys, let’s be real for a second. Our belief is that we always believe in anything done by the UN agencies. So, don’t you know that the Population Estimates Survey was done by the UNFPA/UNOCHA in partnership with NBS?
Even during the announcement, it was done by the Representative of UNFPA and Hon. Isaiah Chol. Where’s the problem?
So, do you think any UN agency can favour the Warrap state? Come on! Leave the President and the SPLM party out of this. Now, do you still want the UN to conduct the General Elections?
Honestly, we are living in amazing times indeed! And my noggin tells me that we either deliberately refused to think or hatred has fully consumed our souls and minds. From a village idiot to a world-class scholar, and from young people to elders, the manner in which we understand things is wanting.
And as South Sudanese, I strongly believed something has bewitched us. We have mortgaged our souls to our tribes and politics of stupid!
With an upsurge of emotions displayed in our writings, in regard to this survey, I am fully convinced that we have surpassed the level of the then hatred between the Tutsi and Hutu. Indeed, Pope should come and pray for us, the citizens, in his next Peace Pilgrimage. With passion, we tend to hate ourselves more than Riek is Kiir, or Thomas is Kiir. It’s so sad!
I wonder how people want the estimated population of the deserted areas, where people have either gone to refugee camps in Uganda or Kenya, or to Sudan, to be equal to those areas currently being inhabited by their natives? This thinking isn’t only absurd but a vitriolic hatred anchored on intellectual nothingness. This is an indication that our souls are unconscious!
Let me ask this for a second: Are the Elections won on the population estimates? Hell no. Or, do people think the parties to the Agreement can accept to participate in the Elections in which the population was estimated by the survey? Come on! It’s not bad to be a reactionary, but at least, be a logical one. Come down your nerves, it’s not a voter register!
And to jog your memory, based on the Sudan Population and Housing Census-2008, the population of the Rek Dinka is bigger than that of the entire Nuer tribe. Go and do your maths, if you doubt it. PaanLuel Wël will sort you out if you don’t know!
And therefore, President doesn’t need to cook up the numbers to win the Presidential Election. Numbers are there. Just call back your parents from camps and challenge Kiir on the ballot, in 2024. Period!
Lastly, pump into your head that the boss of NBS is from another side of the NILE. Hence, at least wait for the General Elections to castigate the good Prof (Chair of the NEC) for having unfairly refereed the Exercise, because of his nativity, and bought the trophy
home. Otherwise, you got no case!
Yours truly,
Simon Yel Yel
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