Renowned broadcaster, Blessed Godsbrain Smart, popularly known as Captain Smart, has stated that Interior Minister Ambrose Dery should be blamed for the current challenges with the SIM card re-registration exercise and not Communication and Digitalisation Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.
He alleged that Ursula Owusu-Ekuful is only implementing a cabinet decision that Ambrose Dery, who he described as the 'most useless interior minister', is spearheading.
Speaking on Onua TV's Maakye show monitored by GhanaWeb, Captain Smart added that the communications minister is being dictated to, but she, as the sector minister, does not want SIM cards of Ghanaians to be blocked.
"Let me place this on record; Ursula Owusu is not a cabinet minister anymore; she was a cabinet minister. For one or two reasons better known to this government, they have such a huge politically motivated policy, and the sector minister is not part of the cabinet. It tells you how sick the president, the vice president and the entire cabinet are.
"If you listen to the minister carefully (during the announcement of the extension), she said I am staying firmly in my lane. Even the speech she read was not written by her; it was written for her.
"If Ghanaians want someone to blame, they should blame Ambrose Dery. He is the worst non-performing interior minister in this country in the 4th Republic. Ambrose Dery is in the shadows, and no one is talking about him, but this Ghana Card has exposed him.
"Ghanaians should not be insulting Ursula Owusu. Ursula Owusu is only implementing a cabinet decision… Ursula was unhappy when she was coming to read the statement because she does not want SIM cards to be blocked," he said in Twi.
He added that Ghanaians should not be worried about Ursula Owusu's seemingly rude pronouncements because that is her character.
He further stated that there is no way every Ghanaian will have access to the Ghana Card to register their SIM card before the new deadline announced by the minister. According to the broadcaster, the number of Ghanaians with the Ghana Card is less than 10 million.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful announced that the deadline for the SIM card re-registration had been extended to September 30, 2022.
Addressing the media on Sunday, the government appointee said she "reluctantly" extended the exercise, which was scheduled to end on July 31, 2022.
The minister said the extension had become necessary owing to challenges such as delays in the rollout of a self-serving registration app and delays in the acquisition of Ghana Cards, which is the mandatory document for the registration.
