Former President John Kufuor has backed a call by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the inclusion of voters’ ID card in the list of documents required to register for the National Identification Card.
According to the former Ghanaian leader, if citizens can use the voters’ ID card to decide who should govern them, then they should be able to use it to register for the National ID card, also known as the Ghana Card.
Mr. Kufuor made the comment in an interview with Joy News on Tuesday after he was issued with his Ghana Card.
“How would you say you also have the ‘kokromoti power’ (right to vote) [which] will make and unmake a government? So the voters’ ID has to be part of it,†he said.
The NDC and its parliamentarians have boycotted ongoing registration for the Ghana Cards insisting that the National Identification Authority (NIA), the agency spearheading the Ghana Card registration, must accept the voters’ ID card as a basis for registration.
The NIA however, insists, it cannot accept the cards because the law excludes it.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu
The Ghana Card registration is to provide citizens with a multifaceted identity card that will be used for voting, national health, driving license, etc.
However, as part of the registration requirement citizens are to provide either a passport or a birth certificate as proof of registration.
In the absence of those two identification materials, persons who wish to be registered and be given the new Ghana Card must come with two witnesses who must have registered already on the Ghana Card to testify that they are legitimate Ghanaian nationals.
The Strategic Thinkers Network Africa, a pressure group, has sued the NIA over the exclusion of the voters’ ID as proof of citizenship in their bid to register Ghanaians.
The group is seeking from the Supreme Court a true interpretation of what constitutes proof of citizenship.
Supporting the argument of the minority NDC, former President Kufuor also says including the voters’ ID in the process will make the citizens feel a part of the government.
“The document that will help the citizen identify….as a citizen with the sovereign authority in him or her [is the voters’ ID card]; so if the voters ID is not incorporated in [the Ghana Card registration] then when it comes to citizens going to make a government then where would [they] be?” the former President asked.
Source: myjoyonline.com
