By Abubakar Garba Osuman
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has directed the National Identification Authority (NIA) to ensure Fulanis are captured and issued with the Ghana Card.
Dr Bawumia made this known when he met the leadership of the National Council of Fulani Chiefs at the Jubilee House.
According to the Vice President, the NIA will deploy its personnel to Fulani communities across the country to conduct the registration exercise. “We arrived at this arrangement when I recently met personnel of the NIA,” he explained.
Dr Bawumia said that he has received several complaints from Fulanis of Ghanaian descent that whenever they apply for documents such as passport, Ghana Card, and even the National Health Insurance Card, they are denied. “It is time anomaly such as this is rectified once and for all,” he assured them.
“When you have a Ghana Card your will have access to other documents such as passport,” he reiterated.
The President of the National Council of Fulani Chiefs, Chief Iddrisu Bingle, said an issue of concern to them is the failure of personnel of some state institutions to accept Fulanis as an integral part of the Ghanaian society. It is on this ground that they are refused to be issued with national documents.
He reiterated the fact that “the presence of our ancestors in the country dated back to over 300 years. And as part of their contribution to the development of the country, our forebears had served in the security agencies, some of them were also farmhands on cocoa plantations as well as unskilled labour in other sectors of the economy.”
The leader of the Fulani therefore demanded the recognition of the roles their ancestors played in the development of the country.
“Not only that but we want to state that we are an integral part of the Ghanaian society. Because, apart from Ghana we have no place we call home,” Chief Bingle stated.
Again, the Fulani leadership bemoaned how their people are attacked, maimed and killed. And in some situations, their villages burnt to ashes. “As for killing of cattle, it is a sad normal occurrence.”
But the Fulani leadership admitted that, as any community of people, there are bad nuts among them. They thus expressed their readiness to collaborate with the security agencies in exposing perpetrators of criminal activities within their fold.
The Vice President however, assured them of the preparedness of the Government to ensure the security of every citizen.
Dr Bawumia said that the former Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, urged him to engage the Fulani in the country in order to address some concerns raised by the group.
This took place when the former Emir of Kano called on the Vice President in Accra in December 2021.
“It is therefore heart-warming to have the opportunity to meet with you today.” The Fulani, according to the Vice President, is the largest group in West Africa and are found in almost all countries in the sub-region, including Ghana.
