One of the National Census enumerators contacted the Open Gambia Platform (OG) a week ago so that we could take a keen interest in investigating their concerns about potentially severe consequences involving national security in the current 2024 National Populations and Housing survey.

The enumerators hired by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBOS) raise concerns about the electronic equipment (tablets and other devices) and data software operating systems the Nation Census officers are issued to conduct the Housing and Population Census are hired from Senegal.

They fear that information generated by our national Housing and Population Census will be compromised by Senegal or other agencies accessing the raw information and manipulating data for their national and strategic interest.

We agree with the concerns raised by the census enumerators. We further emphasise the crucial role manipulating National Housing and Population Census data plays in rigging elections and undermining our democracy, which has the more significant potential of destabilising our entire nation.

The world has witnessed role-playing by foreign intelligence agencies and international Consultants around the globe to influence the outcome of elections, especially the role Russian and Israeli agencies played in recent elections in Africa. Leaked communications by The Guardian reveal an unsuccessful attempt to smear Muhammadu Buhari and secure Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency before a pivotal election in Nigeria in 2015. In an undercover investigation, a group of Israeli contractors known as Team Jorge was exposed for allegedly influencing more than 30 international elections through the use of hacking, sabotage, and automated disinformation campaigns on social media.

Since the past elections, both Senegal and the Gambia have had subsidiaries of these election manipulators, outfits operating from Nigeria that offer their services to the government’s political parties to influence the outcome of elections in various ways, ranging from political campaign advertisement to tempering with the electoral operating system and manipulation of election results, as it has recently happened in Chad.

Based on research on election malpractices around the globe, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where both the Gambia and Senegal are affected, we followed up our investigation into the lead given by the national census enumerator on the risk posed by the equipment brought from Senegal.

We contacted another person working as an enumerator with the National Housing and Population Census to verify our leads. They confirmed the information as accurate and further provided evidence that if he reboots the electronic tablet issued to him from the GBOS, it will show the signatures and symbols of the Senegal Bureau of Statistics, which heightens the suspicious that the device might be linked to a network within Senegal.

However, because the census enumerators are not computer engineers, they wouldn’t be qualified to verify the principal rationale for using equipment and software licenses by the Senegalese National Bureau. It’s for our Parliamentarians, the opposition, other oversight agencies, and the National Statistics Bureau, who are tasked with implementing the program to assure the public of the security of the systems and not to compromise the data being generated from the population and housing survey, which protects our democracy and souvenirs’ territory integrity.

Another population and housing survey enumerator shared the reasoning that due to the World Bank sponsoring the project and Senegal conducting similar exercises last year, coupled with the fact that the Gambia Internet traffic source partly depends on the ace cable which passes through Senegal might be the reason for using the Senegalese IT equipment and networks for save on cost.

Even if we want to give the benefit of the doubt that if the information gathered that the tablets came from Senegal through their previous exercise, then the risks associated with the census far outweigh the benefits. Our entire national security system would be compromised because our neighbour would have all the demographic data of our country in its possession.

Secondly, as the project’s funder, it does not make sense for the World Bank to bring used equipment for this exercise. The World Bank has the necessary resources available to bring in new equipment, train Gambian enumerators on it, and allow them to use the same equipment in any other exercise of such nature, thereby enhancing the capacity of the Statistics department and protecting our national security and the credibility of our democracy which is the cornerstone for our security peace and stability.

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