Gov’t Using NIA to “Denationalise” 20m Ghanaians – Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said there are attempts by the Akufo-Addo government to disenfranchise millions of Ghanaians using “illogical” criteria for the registration and acquisition of the Ghana Card.

He has assured the public that the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will fight on the side of Ghanaians to ensure they are identified and not denationalised by the National Identification Authority (NIA) in the process of acquiring the national identification card.

The NIA has suggested the use of only Passports and Birth Certificates as documents for the registration of citizens for the Ghana Card.

However, Mr Mahama, who was addressing a gathering of supporters at the NDC’s Unity Walk held in the Volta Region on Saturday, 9 June 2018, said: “This is a deliberate attempt to denationalise 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”.

According to him, “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 certificate or passport to prove that they are Ghanaians, how are you going to register those people in Hodiyiri?”

“And, so, I don’t know, it is illogical and short-sighted 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”.

Source: ClassFMonline