The National Identification Authority (NIA) in the northern region are appealing to the general public in the region to report to over two hundred registration centers and register. Officials of NIA say they are worried over the low public interest in such an important national exercise.
Residents in the region have less than five days to register with the authority before it moves to Upper West region.
The mass registration which started on July 4, experienced some few rain showers resulting to the closure of some centers in the Tamale metropolis. The closure of the centers according NIA was to avoid rejection of pictures by their system due to poor lighting in most of the centers.
Unlike the Biometric Verification Machine (BVM) which was characterized by breakdown and battery failures, the NIA machines are not encountering the EC BVM problems.
The NIA has appealed to the public to exercise patience with their officers in the field so that they can take correct data of every citizen. Some of the registration centers in Tamale metropolis that our news team visited recorded low figures because of lack of public interest.
While some sit waiting for the NIA officers to come to their electoral area polling stations, others are unconcerned in spite of several months’ public education on radio and television. At Taha, Methodist primary school, only 178 registered since the start of the exercise on Thursday July 4 in the region.
At the Seventh Day Adventist Church at the Kalpohini Estate about 315 people registered, 303 at World Miracle registration center located at SSNIT Flat. The situation was no different in other centers like Nyohini presby junior high A and B.
Speaking to Zaa News about the exercise, a member of the NIA Operations Team, Alhaji Salifu Abdulai encouraged the public to take the opportunity and register because the team has only ten days in each region.
Alhaj Salifu said the remaining days left for the region was very crucial for both residents and the authority, hence the need for the people to get registered. The exercise Alhaji Salifu said was to identify each and every individual within age brackets of 6 years and above, national citizens and non citizens.
He assured that the NIA has a program to continue registration after the stipulated ten days elapses in each region.
This, however he said was not a yardstick for people to wait for the usual Ghanaians attitudes of rushing and accusing of the NIA of not doing their work well. Even before the NIA finished the stipulated ten days, there were some rumors of penalty fee before one can register. But Alhaji Salifu dismissed the rumors saying the NIA have decided on that. ’’Our focus now is to get people registered; the penalty issue is a policy issue and not the implementers to decide, Alhaji Salifu stated’’.