Ningo Prampram lawmaker, Samuel Nartey George, is unhappy with recet comments by Communication and Digitalisation Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, that the National Democratic Congress, NDC, was partly blamable for challenges with Ghana Card registration.
Ursula, speaking at a July 31 press conference, stated that the boycott order issued by the NDC, sometime last month, had contributed to people refusing to obtain their cards.
The Ghana Card is the sole identification document for ongoing SIM card re-registration which is under the auspices of her ministry.
“The NDC vociferously opposed the Ghana Card registration and called on all their supporters to boycott the process.
"Those who heeded that anti-social call and refused to register are now feeling the effect of it. You listen to the NDC at your own peril,” the Minister said at a press conference.
Reacting to Ursula’s comments in an interview on Accra-based Metro TV, Sam George said his colleague lawmaker’s view smacked of irresponsibility and of a government official who feels more like a party appointee.
“Irresponsible comments coming from a Minister of State, extremely irresponsible and it is behaviour unbecoming a minister who represents all Ghanaians. The Minister has a penchant of thinking that she is a Minister for NPP
“She is a Minister of the Republic of Ghana, paid by the taxes of NDC, CPP, PPP members and all members of every political affiliation, so holding a national press conference on national TV and wrongfully accusing a political party is most regrettable and irresponsible,” he submitted.
He described the Minister’s views as ‘childish,’ citing her own statistics that pointed to the fact that majority of SIM card users had yet to register. “Is she saying that 62% of card holders are NDC? If so, then NDC should have won the last elections,” he added.
The Minister during the press conference announced an extension of the SIM re-registration deadline originally scheduled for July 31. The new deadline is September ending.
According to Sam George, the new deadline is also bound to fail because the systems needed to secure success are not in place and or are being wrongly implemented.
“September 30 deadline will fail again, I am not calling for doom, it is me being realistic. Technology is not a faith-based arena and hope is not a strategy when you are dealing with tech.
“You have an application which is now being launched, about 10 months since this (re-registration) was launched, you have been able to register only 32% of SIM cards.
“42 million cards remain unregistered and NIA has issued only 15.5 million since 2018 and you think in 2-months they will issue six million cards? She has set herself again up for ridicule,” he added.
SARA
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Communication and Digitization Minister and Sam George