The Minister for Communications and Digitalization has warned that the deadline for the registration of SIM cards in Ghana will not be extended for a second time.
The exercise which began on 1st October, 2021, and originally scheduled to end on 31st March, 2022, was extended by the sector Ministry to 31st July, 2022, due to the fact that, over 7.5 million citizens and residents at the time, were yet to obtain their Ghana Card, to enable them register their SIM cards.
According to the Minister over, 12 million Ghanaians have so far linked their Ghana Cards to their SIM Cards, against almost 16 million Ghanaians who have received their Ghana card as reported by the National Identification Authority.
“I therefore take this opportunity to urge all those who’ve not registered their SIM cards to do so as the deadline of 31st July, 2022 will not be extended,” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful stressed when speaking at a forum by the National Communications Authority (NCA) in Kumasi.
She indicated that, the exercise will ultimately help build a credible and safe SIM Card database in Ghana.
“Most people access their internet through their mobile devices. We must make sure that they do so safely. We must make it difficult for the criminals who hack our systems and defraud us through multiple online channels to operate, and this SIM registration exercise is one of the steps the government is taking in that regard. Essentially this stresses the point that this exercise will enable the establishment of a subscriber database with integrity to keep the consumers safe from scams and fraud.”
The Ghana Card, which is the only source of Identification for the SIM registration, has been a hot cake in past months since the registration exercise begun.
The issuing body of the Ghana Card, National Identification Authority (NIA), has indicated that, over 15.7 million Ghanaians current have received their Ghana cards.
According to the Executive Secretary of , Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, data available to him reveals that 16,969,034 persons have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed as of last week.
However, he gave multiple reasons why some people who have registered have not been issued with their cards.
“There are people who have double-registered. That is potentially a criminal offence. Those ones are being individually investigated. There are those whose cards have gone into adjudication, not because of double registration but because they have sought to change their vital data in the custody of the authority, such as bio-data. For such people, the system arrests their application, and it joins a queue.”
“For such people, until the outstanding issues are rectified, they can’t receive their cards,” he added.
According to the Citizenship Act 2000 (section 7):
“A person is a citizen of Ghana by birth if he was born on 7th January 1993 or born after that date in or outside Ghana and at the date of his birth either of his parents or one grandparent was or is a citizen of Ghana.”
Per this legal definition, every Ghanaian who attained 21 years on after January 7th, 2022, is a Ghanaian by birth. It does not matter the ethnic affiliation, ability to speak or understand any acclaimed Ghanaian dialect.
With such simple, straightforward and concise definition of who is a Ghanaian, yet, some of us, Muslims Right Activist, have recorded a series and continuous observations and complains made with grave concerns at which some state officials and individuals are abusing the legal and civic right of citizenship verification of some Ghanaians.
It is sad and an act of highest level of ignorance for a ‘supposed’ trained state official to verify the nationality of a person based on ethnic affiliation or ability to speak a known local language or dialect.
It has been observed that, these acts of human right and identity abuse are commonly perpetuated by state officials during national identification registration exercise and passport acquisition at the Passport Office, National Identification Authority, Electoral Commission, Birth and Death Department who are supposed to be well trained and well versed in definition and use of best approach to ascertain to verify nationality of some suspicious persons. Their officials commonly ask the registrant, who mostly Muslims, of their hometown or tribe or the Ghanaian language they can speak before approving or disapproving their nationality.
Mostly, these officials harass, intimidate, abuse physically and sexually some targeted group of persons, especially Muslims and those whose ethnic affiliation is not from Ghana.
Muslims in Ghana, especially our women, have suffered more than enough of continuous and deliberate religious discrimination, harassment and oppression either at the school, workplace, Ghana card registration centers, passport acquisition offices and sometimes in public places such as in ‘trotro’ and intercity buses where pastors Christianised every passenger in the bus.
In spite of several attempts Muslims in the country have used diplomatic means to draw attention of human right institutions on the increasing violation of Muslims right in the country, we still on daily basis receives complaints of Muslims being treated like aliens in Ghana by supposed religious leaders among whom are elders, pastors, Reverend Fathers, priests and members of one religious denomination to the other. Contrary to what the biblical scriptures expect the genuine believers in the Scriptures must act and behave towards all mankinds and animals.
Tema Passport Office Assault Case On A Muslim Lady:
The recent sad event of a Muslim’s right violation happened at the Tema Passport Acquisition office where a Ghanaian Muslim lady was subjected to a humiliating abuse and assault by an immigration service officer paid by the taxes of the same lady he and other accomplices treated and assaulted like how some cruel people will attack a goat that eats his or her last available food.
The innocent victim, Maryam who has her great grandparents being Ghanaians was subjected to sexual harassment, beatings, kicking, dragged on the floor, her hair cover and footwears removed and seized in the full glare of black Ghanaians and no much attempt were made to save her including a police officer on duty. (Her narration is attached)
Why is there so high prejudice among passport office and NIA officials that most Muslims are not Ghanaians?
Cases of Allegations of Sexual Abuse:
There has been some cases where these unscrupulous and unprofessional officials at passport office had told another officer who was a Muslim, after he questioned him why he was intimidating a Muslim lady, the interviewing official replied that, the Muslim ladies are beautiful and neat so he just want the lady to meet him later outside office before he will approve her for the passport.
Mostly, some Muslim ladies of other ethnic group not listed as one of the main Ghanaian ethnic group have been subjected to public humiliation, intimidation and harassment, so they feel vulnerable and succumb to all kind of demands from the official who ‘unscrupulously and criminally’ use their position to demand sexual favors from the innocent Ghanaians who are victims of institutionally-created biasness towards their citizenship right.
The Case of Fulanis, Hausas, Zabrama’s and Songhai’s
Mostly, people in Ghana from these West African ethnic group but have their grandparents even born or migrated to Ghana during their youth age married and gave birth in Ghana and now having grandchildren in Ghana, have had their children and grandchildren’s citizenship as Ghanaians denied or challenged wrongfully.
They are deliberately and wholesomely labeled as foreigners. They mostly will have to go through a lot of frustrations and humiliating approach of proving and defending their citizenship.
Questions begging for answers:
Why must a Ghanaian be intimidated and assaulted, by a ‘supposed trained and educated officer’, before his or her nationality can be ascertained.
Do the Immigration Service officers at the passport office and NIA registration centers have a different definition or approach to ascertain the nationality of who is a Ghanaian contrary to the laws of Ghana?
Is the Immigration Service having a challenge of training their officers adequately before posting them? If so, then that institutional challenge must be addressed immediately to avoid bringing embarrassment to the Immigration Service.
Where are the ‘people of conscience’? Why is it a crime to be a Muslim in Ghana? Is it a crime to want to dress and appear modest in a hijab dressing? What is the crime of the Muslim woman?
The way forward:
It is about time we are publicly made aware, if Passport Office and Immigration Service officials have a different definition or approach of determining who is a citizen of Ghana, if so, then they should let us all know that immediately.
It will be prudently and judiciously right for the whole world to know, if citizenship is in anyway determined by just being able to only speak a local dialect or belonging to the few listed tribes in Ghana?
The prejudice that, every Muslim is a suspected foreigner in the minds of Passport Office and Immigration Service officials must be completely erased from their memory.
We Muslims and non-affiliated Ghanaian ethnic groups do not want to hear any issue of harassment, abuse or intimidation by any state official against a Muslim on issue of nationality. Inasmuch as we do not stop any official from performing their duties of ascertaining a nationality of any Muslim in a diplomatic and humble manner.
Signed:
Adnan Adams MohammedExecutive Director, MUYAD Social Services
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.
