The Independent Zango Communicators have chided the minority Members of Parliament (MPs) for their intended plan to boycott the ongoing national identification exercise for the Ghanacard.
According to the group, the minority’s views on the matter are “mediocre and juvenile especially when we are dealing with imperative national issues”.
The minority MPs have resolved to boycott the registration exercise if the National Identification Authority (NIA) does not allow Ghanaians to use their voters’ identity card as part of the registration process to acquire the Ghanacard.
Per the NIA, applicants would have to produce a birth certificate, a passport or produce two referees to vouch for them to obtain the card.
But the minority NDC MPs have condemned government for allowing the NIA to restrict the registration qualification to birth certificate and passport alone; they have subsequently threatened to boycott the exercise.
The Independent Zango Communicators in a press statement signed by its chairman, Imam Muhammad Salisu Sulaimana, said the action of the MPs betrays them as “envious group of politicians whose sense of patriotism is overshadowed with perfidious sentiments and skin pain”.
“It’s imperative for the minority to come to the realisation that Parliament is a house driven by serious national spirit, and can’t be toyed with in the light of political perfidy and mediocrity”, the statement said.
It pointed out that it should not be difficult for any true Ghanaian to go through the process to acquire a birth certificate as a primary document which qualifies them to acquire the national ID card or passport.
It said the Ghanacard must have the same equal value as the Ghanaian passport and therefore condemned the minority’s threat to boycott the exercise.
“The minority in Parliament must be ashamed of themselves for engaging in mediocre and juvenile discourse in regard to issues of eligibility and requirements for acquiring Ghanaian national ID card”, the statement concluded.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak