You can tickle yourselves and laugh but we won’t allow you to plunge Ghana into chaos – Prof. Gyampo rubbishes NIA's 24-hour ultimatum

Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has fired back at the National Identification Authority (NIA) after the Authority dare him to provide evidence to his claim on the Ghana Card.

The NIA in a statement issued Prof. Ransford Gyampo a 24-hour ultimatum to publish details of his alleged research on registration equipment.

The ultimatum follows a Facebook post from the senior political science lecturer where he alleged that the distribution of equipment for the production of the Ghana Cards appears were skewed to favour the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and to the disadvantage of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Unhappy with the allegation, the NIA in its statement said, "NIA respectfully challenges Prof. Gyampo to take out of the realm of conjecture his allegations and so-called research findings and conclusions, by publishing the relevant details of his research within the next 24 hours. This will permit an objective assessment of the nature, purpose, scope, and method(s) of the research, as well as the facticity and soundness of his findings and conclusions."

Having cited the statement, Prof. Gyampo has fired back at the Authority.

According to him, the statement from the NIA is shrouded in half-truths.

He stresses that regardless of warnings and ultimatums the authority will give, he won't back down in ensuring that Ghana is not plunged into chaos by the NIA.

“You guys can tickle yourselves and laugh just in the quest to protect your jobs. But some of us won't allow you to plunge Ghana into chaos and flee the country with your Diplomatic or Serviced Passports,” Prof. Ransford Gyampo said in a statement on Facebook.

He added, “Kindly engage the leaders of the opposition parties again, and do not live in the past.”

Below is the statement from Prof. Ransford Gyampo:

Dear NIA,

I saw a very formal statement of response from your outfit to my banter with Prof Attafuah on Newsfile two weeks ago. I never thought I was this big or important to deserve such an attention from a whole institution that is supposed to be busy focusing on registering people it has been deficient in registering, culminating in long queues, payment of money, and near stampedes at the NIA headquarters.

NIA, your responses are shrouded in half-truths and this is what is referred to as propaganda. You guys can tickle yourselves and laugh just in the quest to protect your jobs. But some of us won't allow you to plunge Ghana into chaos and flee the country with your Diplomatic or Serviced Passports.

Kindly engage the leaders of the opposition parties again and do not live in the past. The comments of Jerry Rawlings and co, were given in the past and no one has qualms with the relevance of Ghana Card. Indeed, long before Prof Ken Attafuah got his appointment, some of us had argued for the need for all identity cards to be synchronized into one card. So, it's not a big deal if other eminent statesmen and women applauded the move to have Ghana card.

What is contentious, however, is the disagreement on the use of the Ghana Card as the sole source document for voter registration and the fact that the NIA has hugely imponderable challenges that it's top officials share only in the private. We need the Ghana Card but let's hasten slowly. There is no point for this inordinate haste which creates unnecessary feeling of suspicion that has the tendency to lead to implosion, given how the use of Ghana card alone, as the source document for voter registration, could impact hugely on the electoral fortunes of political parties.

Rather than citing what a dead founder of a political party said in support of the Ghana Card, let the NIA listen to the voices of the living about the dangers of intransigence and unwillingness to build consensus on the use of the Card as the sole document for voter registration. Let the NIA and Prof Attafuah not use eloquence and big English to be dismissive of challenges that stares at us in the face. Prof Attafuah was in parliament and he saw the reaction of the minority group. Using one side of the argument of Dominic Ayine on radio to support the counter view that, the NIA doesn't have trust deficit, is quite disingenuous. Professors must analyze things from a holistic view point. There are two sides to every coin and as we seek to build Ghana, our efforts must be aimed at protecting the national interest and not to tout one's supposed achievements that are highly contentious.

Yaw Gyampo

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