By William
Yaw Owusu & Thomas Fosu Jnr
Tuesday June
12, 2018
The resolution of
the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to boycott the ongoing unique
national identification exercise for the Ghana Card has sparked heated debate
in Parliament.
Currently, the
members of the NDC are insisting that until the National Identification
Authority (NIA) allows Ghanaians to use their Voters’ Identity Cards as part of
the registration processes to acquire the Ghana Card, they are not going to
take part in the exercise which commenced last week.
The NIA said
applicants would have to produce a birth certificate, passport or produce two
referees to vouch for them to obtain the Ghana Card.
Case of Mischief
In what looks like a
clear case of mischief, the NDC Minority in Parliament issued a statement,
through its leader Haruna Iddrisu, to condemn the government for allowing the
NIA to restrict the identification requirements for registration to passports
and birth certificates alone, although the authority had said emphatically that
those without any of the requirements could still produce two referees to vouch
for them.
“The Minority Caucus
in Parliament has taken note of an announcement that the National Identification
Authority (NIA) will be carrying out a registration exercise in Parliament
tomorrow, Monday, 11th June, 2018.
“We find this
development very surprising for a number of reasons,” the statement said.
“First, it was our
understanding that the National Identification Authority would engage Members
of Parliament in a meeting to clarify a number of issues relating to the roll
out of the exercise.
This meeting was duly advertised in the Business Statement
at least twice only to be postponed again this time indefinitely when the
Business Statement was read by the Majority Chief Whip, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh
last Friday, 8th June, 2018. We still have no indication when this crucial
meeting will be held.”
“Second, significant
questions remain about the cost, scope and legality of the project, as well as
registration requirements.”
Project Cost
The NDC Minority
said “with regards to the cost of the project, the leadership of the NIA has
been less than candid with the people of Ghana. Whereas documents available to
us show that the total project cost is $ 1.4 billion, which can be broken down
into $1,221,476,123 actual cost and tax exemption of $176 million, the Chief
Executive Officer of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah, is on record as saying it will
cost $293 million.”
They further said
they were aware that despite the provision of support by the Akufo-Addo
administration in respect of revenue projections, the project had not been
brought to Parliament for approval in accordance with the law.
23 Million Ghanaians
As a result, the NDC
said emphatically that “we remain opposed to the restriction of identification
requirements for registration to passports and birth certificates. Our analysis
shows that this will prevent about 23 million Ghanaians from obtaining the
Ghana Card and deprive them of any benefit thereof.”
They also said “we also
have grave concerns about potential breaches of procurement laws and
processes,” adding “we are unable to participate in the registration exercise
slated for tomorrow at Parliament House.”
Illogical Move
Prior to the NDC’s
statement on Sunday, former President John Dramani Mahama lambasted the
government for trying to skew the Ghana Card process during the ‘Unity Walk’ in
Aflao in the Volta Region.
He described the NIA
registration requirement as ‘illogical’ and said “this is a deliberate attempt
to de-nationalise some of our people and we shall not accept it. We will use
every legitimate instrument that is possible under a democracy to ensure that
every Ghanaian is able to register.”
Hodiyiri Scenario
“If you go to one of
the villages in my constituency (Bole) and let me use an example, Hodiyiri,
it’s a small community in Bole Bamboi, perhaps, nobody in Hodiyiri has a birth
certificate or passport so for the 300 or 400 people in Hodiyiri with no birth
certificates or passports to prove that they are Ghanaians, how are you going
to register those people in Hodiyiri?”
“And so I don’t
know, it’s illogical and shortsighted and a very strong symbol of incompetence
that you cannot think far and see that on the basis of what you have prescribed
as a criteria for qualification of the national ID card, you are going to
disenfranchise more than 20 million of our citizens and that is unacceptable,
and so the NDC is going to do everything to fight for the best interest of the
majority of the people to make sure they are going to be identified to be given
cards so that they can be identified as bonafide Ghanaians.”
DAILY GUIDE
understands that when the NIA engaged the NDC during its sensitization
exercise, the opposition party appeared not to be concerned with the cost of
the project but rather the restriction of the identification requirements for
registration.
Gabby’s Take
Gabby Asare
Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP),
responded to the issues being raised by the NDC and exposed the opposition
party over the raging issues.
He posted on social
media platform Facebook that “John Mahama and the Minority are speaking against
the National ID registration. Anokwa! For eight years they spent money every
year on the NIA but were not able to issue a single ID for any Ghanaian.”
“Yep! Talk about
waste and incompetence. Now, they say they are boycotting the registration
exercise, and they are doing so with a silly lie that only Ghanaians with a
birth certificate or passport are allowed to register so it will de-nationalise
Ghanaians,” he fired, adding “that is not true! If you don’t have a passport or
a birth certificate you can still go to the registration point with a family
member (a Ghanaian) to vouch for you and you will be free to register.”
“Even if you were so
unlucky that at the time of your birth every single member of your clan were at
the village for the celebration and all of them (bar none) were hit by a huge
asteroid and died instantly, leaving you alone, you can still show up with two
Ghanaians to vouch for you to register and pick up your ID card free.”
“So, let’s ask them:
who are the NDC actually fighting for – certainly not Ghanaians? Please, while
at it, ask the NDC to refund every pesewa they spent in eight years on the NIA
without producing one ID card for any Ghanaian. That should shut them up – I
hope.”
Parliament
Yesterday in
Parliament, it turned out that the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof Ken
Attafuah, would brief parliament today on the activities of the authority
instead of the purported registration of MPs.
The First Deputy
Majority Chief Whip and New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Kpandai, Matthew
Nyindam, who made this known to DAILY GUIDE in parliament, said NIA officials
would brief the committee today as planned in the business statement of
parliament for the week.
He said the
minority’s intention to boycott the registration exercise is not only premature
but ill-advised.
Minority Press
Confab
Meanwhile, the
Minority in Parliament is expected to hold a press conference today to express
concerns over the registration exercise.
MP for
Ningo/Pampram, Samuel Nettey George, who was in parliament yesterday, said that
the Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, who superintends over the activities
of NIA, dodged Parliament after he was invited on several occasions to come and
brief Parliament on the exercise.
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