A sizeable number of Ghanaians have expressed shock at the ferocious force with which the opposition National Democratic Congress has been battling the National Identification Authority and the Akufo-Addo administration over the exclusion of the voter’s identification card as an alternative way to show one’s Ghanaian citizenship.
Their seemingly violent resistance to the registration of Ghanaians on the Ghana Card platform is hinged on their presentiment that the ruling New Patriotic Party would use it to rig the 2020 elections, according to Samuel Ofosu-Ampofoh.
At a press event held to present to Ghanaians the reason behind their strict opposition to the ongoing registration exercise, Mr Ofosu Ampofoh stated that the New Patriotic Party intends to disenfranchise thousands of Ghanaians using the data gathered by the NIA. They believe that since the platform is being manned by the government in power, it is so easy to deliberately remove names of people who hail from regions which do not support the NPP in elections.
The above reason is a far cry from the over-hyped mantra of not admitting the voter’s identification card as proof of nationality which they claim will denationalize millions of Ghanaians.
It would be recalled that the NIA bill was presented to Parliament and the two sides unanimously endorsed it and passed it into law. No sooner had the NIA began the registration exercise than the Minority in Parliament raised objections to the whole exercise. They have since petitioned the Supreme Court to force the NIA to include the voter’s identification card as a proof of nationality, something that goes against the grain of the law that mandates the outfit to undertake the exercise.
Suffice it to say that they have always had this notion that the Government of Akufo-Addo implementing this Ghana Card registration would not be in their supreme interest but could not postulate same from day one.
Many a man has been puncturing holes into the inclusion of the voter’s identification card as another means to establish one’s Ghanaian citizenship, hence, this new turn of events.
It begs the question; Should the New Patriotic Party and other political parties embrace the Ghana Card if the NDC had been able to implement it? Does it matter which government implements the policy? This reason being advanced by the NDC is preposterous and derisorily laughable.
The NDC has an affinity for looking at every single happening in this country with political lenses. They cannot sift national issues from those that are political. The registration of Ghanaians on the Ghana Card platform under the National Identification Authority has no relationship with elections. The scope of work being undertaken by the NIA transcends registering people who have attained 18 and beyond. It also covers children who are given birth to.
This propensity to attach partisan politics to every single issue in this country by the opposition NDC ought to be resisted and uprooted. It dents our democracy and affects the socio-economic development of the country.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
