The National Identification Card also known as Ghana Card is generating a lot of controversy and panic. And, there is no end in sight to the frustration and anger. A large section of the population, that is, those who lack passports and birth certificates and therefore cannot meet the stringent requirements needed for the card, are in a state of panic and fear, and wondering if they will ever be able to acquire this all important national document. They feel, and rightly so, that their constitutionally guaranteed rights as citizens of our great republic are being deliberately eroded.
Given the daily back and forth between the ruling NPP and the main opposition party, the NDC, on the Card issue, you would have thought that President Akuffo Addo will demonstrate competent and able leadership by rising above the fray and appealing to both political parties to knock it off — to stop the partisan bickering and go back to the drawing board, parliament and come up with a new and better law that will cater to all Ghanaians irrespective of their being in possession of passports, birth certificates or not.
Instead, the President became a flamethrower with his blatant and shameless attacks on the NDC. He incredulously accused the party of hypocrisy and sabotage for helping to write the law that enabled the Ghana Card only to turn around and agitate against it. He called the NDC’s approach breathtaking and opportunistic.
“The lust for power should not cloud one’s sense of judgement,” the president admonished his opponents. Hogwash I say. For exercising its right of refusal to participate in what it terms a scam being perpetuated by the NPP, the NDC becomes the target of barbs and innuendoes from a sitting president? Unbelievable.
I am super irritated at Mr. Addo’s rhetoric. It is not only outrageous, it is also condescending and fails grossly to take into consideration the avalanche of complaints that have greeted the introduction of the Ghana Card. The president is just being tone deaf to concerns that impediments have deliberately being placed in the path of ordinary Ghanaians eager to register for their Ghana Cards to enable them access government services in future.
One can surmise from the Mr. Addo’s sustained attacks on the NDC that he is fully aware of the benefits that his party will ultimately accrue from the exercise. It is a strategic move. Lambast your opponent on a divisive issue and you score political points. And, his talk of genuine Ghanaians will be able to register for the Ghana is poppycock, absolute nonsense. Who are those genuine Ghanaians the president was referring to? My aged mother is a genuine Ghanaian through and through, born in Accra to a Gold Coast police officer, my grandfather. She is happily living out her years in Balogu Fon, Yendi.
Like millions of other genuine Ghanaians, she has neither a passport nor a birth certificate. All she has in her possession is a voter ID card that she used to vote in past elections. Yet, this reality does not seem to deter Mr. Addo and his government from insisting on those foolish requirements they have put in place to sabotage and frustrate my mother and millions of her fellow citizens.
All well-meaning Ghanaians should not condone this push by the NPP towards a police state where every citizen is identified by a common denominator, a national card. They should peacefully and legally resist the Ghana Card. It has the potential to push the nation towards anarchy and we can least afford chaos and disorder. Ghana has come a long way for a few dishonest and power hungry politicians to plunge our wonderful country into endless violence.
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