Ghana Card: Product of poisonous fruits?

The primary requirement for obtaining a passport is a birth certificate.

The primary requirements for obtaining the Ghana Card are a passport, a birth certificate and the guarantor system.

So, if the birth certificates, passports and the guarantor system are not fit for obtaining a voter card, and the same are acceptable for obtaining a Ghana Card, which the Electoral Commission (EC) accepts as fit for voter registration, then there is an issue with value and integrity.

Citizenship

Citizenship is inherited or acquired.

You become a citizen if one or both of your parents is/are or was/were a Ghanaian or Ghanaians or if either of one’s grandparents is/are or was/were a Ghanaian.

You can also be a Ghanaian citizen through naturalisation.

Citizenship, therefore, is not acquired by simply having and holding a passport or a Ghana Card.

The process of getting a passport or a Ghana Card is a process of having an opportunity to have and hold an identity item, and not the fact of making you a Ghanaian citizen, because you are already a Ghanaian citizen and that is the basis for you to qualify to have and hold a passport or the Ghana Card.

Not holding a Ghana Card, therefore, does not take away your citizenship, and any attempt to deprive you of your rights and privileges as a Ghanaian becomes problematic.    

Fraudulent procurement

Without a doubt, the Ghana Card can be fraudulently procured.

The birth certificate can be obtained by providing dishonest identity details to the Birth and Death Registry.

And once the birth certificate can be fraudulently obtained, a passport can be fraudulently obtained, as a matter of course, simply because the birth certificate is a primary document for obtaining the passport.

Since the birth certificate and passport can be fraudulently obtained, it follows logically that the Ghana Card can also be fraudulently obtained, as it depends on the birth certificate and passport as primary requirements for its issuance.

The guarantor system for obtaining the Ghana Card is equally corruptible.

People can dishonestly swear affidavits to guarantee for people to obtain the Ghana Card.  

Ghana Card

Thus, the Ghana Card itself, which the EC believes to be the only means of ensuring the integrity of the voter roll, can also be fraudulently procured and, for that matter, cannot be the remedy to ensuring the sanctity of the voter roll in the country.

The birth certificates, passports and guarantor system processes that the EC is endeavoring to do away with are the same requirements and processes that are used to procure the Ghana Card.

Taking the Ghana Card to be the sole item for registration for a voter card and debarring any other forms of identity items of citizenship would not be the proper way to go.    

Primary

The Ghana Card could be taken as the primary item for registration for a voter card permitting those who are yet to get the Ghana Card have the advantage of the guarantor system or process since the guarantor system is permissible in procuring the Ghana Card, which proponents of the Ghana Card/Voter Card debate think should be the only item acceptable for getting a voter card.  

Thus, it is possible for the EC to simply bolster the guarantor system or process akin to the National Identification Authority’s guarantor system or process which the EC believes to be robust.  

This will bring opponents of the Ghana Card/Voter Card debate to a middle ground and make democracy smoother and better for the nation.  

The writer is with the Registrar’s Department, KNUST, Kumasi.