Why are you 'throwing spanners in our work' – NIA asks Minority

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has expressed surprise about what it sees as the sudden U-turn by the Minority Caucus in parliament concerning documents needed for registering for the national identification card (Ghana Card).

The Minority has said its members will not be part of the registration process because they are against the NIA’s insistence that only birth certificates and passports would be used as proof of citizenship.

The registration is currently underway in parliament and only MPs from the Majority Caucus have availed themselves of the exercise.

Speaking in an interview with Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show, Head of Training at the NIA, Abudu Abdul Ganiyu told sit-in host Benjamin Akakpo that he was amazed at how the Minority initially agreed to the processes in passing the bill for the NIA but are now boycotting its operations.

“I don’t see why this should be a controversy, especially so when this bill was unanimously passed. So, how come that after they have passed it, at the time that the NIA has hit the ground to register Ghanaians they throw spanner in the works of the NIA?” he wondered.

The Minority insists Ghanaians without passports or birth certificates be allowed to register using their voter IDs.

In his response to that request, Mr Ganiyu said about 15 million Ghanaians have voter ID cards, which means “half of Ghanaians do not have the voter ID card, so, even if the voter ID card were to be part, we will still have about half of the population that will not be documented, so, in that case how will those people also get registered?” he questioned, adding that the Commissioner of Oaths and other relevant authorities will still be needed.