Prof Ken Attafuah
Professor Ken Attafuah is in the news for unenviable reasons. He appears to have jumped into the fray of whether or not Ghana needs a fresh voters’ register in a manner which has cost him his integrity.
Although he is not part of those who have signed a covenant with mischief-makers and for that matter joined the protest industry, his garrulous remarks on the airwaves in the past few days are pushing us to review our impression about him.
Maybe he is on a self-praising spree in a flawed manner. Of course, it is good to praise yourself if nobody does it for you; the caveat here being that the praise must be deserving of such self-treatment.
We wonder whether the good Prof. is deserving of presenting the National Identification Authority (NIA) as an agency which has performed creditably under his watch.
The Prof. should have taken cover under the table when his outfit was thought of as one whose data could be used for the purposes of compiling a voters’ register, considering the palpable inefficiency exhibited by the NIA in capturing the data of Ghanaians less the additional details the Electoral Commission (EC) deals with.
What exactly is he talking about and gleefully so on radio like a stressed serial caller from the NDC end of the political divide? Is he asking that the EC cede its rather complex assignment of compiling a roll of voters for the country to the NIA because of expertise in such matters?
The law would have been explicit as to whether or not the NIA be allowed to compile a voters’ register in its terms of reference.
The President’s word to him that he completed his assignment of compiling a register of all Ghanaians by the timeline of March ending should be what Prof. Attafuah should be preoccupied with.
A voters’ register is complex and, therefore, beyond the ability of the NIA to manage because it was not set up to handle the predispositions associated with a roll of holders of the franchise.
Even with the relative simplicity of compiling the details of Ghanaians and certifying their citizenship through the issuance of Ghana Cards, the NIA is wobbling with visible signs that that the March end deadline for completion is but a mirage. Salivating for a nod to compile a voters’ register with its varied complexities of polling stations and constituencies entries and others is a tall order.