Come for your Ghana Card in April - How NIA broke my heart

Let me tell you a story, it won’t be so long I promise…

I decided one Wednesday morning before work to visit the National Identification Authority Head Office at Shiashie in Accra for my Ghana Card approximately a year and 5 months after registration – Yes, we are talking about since September 2020.

At 8.33 am, the premises was full with hundreds of people. A long winding queue protruded into sides of the street, all of whom were waiting their turn to either register for their Ghana Card or pick up their cards which were expected to be ready.

I waited patiently for about 5 hours and at about 12 pm, I moved towards the front of our tent which had people who were there to identify and pick up their Ghana Cards.

In a white formal attire, a middle-aged man looked me in the face and asked how he could help me.

Relieved that I was finally getting my card after going through the thick crowd of people at the premises, I sat with a smile, handed over a sheet of paper with my particulars – the center code, name, and date of birth.

After entering the code and checking on his phone repeatedly, he asked,
“Are you sure you went to GRA for your card? Because it shows here that the card is at GRA”, the NIA official quizzed.

“Oh I did and I was asked to come after countless visits to the GRA office,” I retorted anxiously.

“Unless April o, because we are still sorting the cards out,” were his next words and this was when I went blank.

The statement pierced my heart differently and confusion could be seen all over my face.

I couldn’t believe it…. I woke up at dawn, spent all these hours moving from one plastic seat to the other, only to be told I was going to wait till the end of April to get a card I struggled to register for?

I picked up my bag without uttering a word and left the premises of NIA to work, which I was already late for.

My journey back to work:

At this point, sitting in the car, I was disappointed, angry and visibly irritated. Thoughts of the tassel I had gone through just to register in September 2020 all came back.

My struggle in 2020:

I remembered how I woke up at 3 am, without showering, brushed my teeth, and dashed out of home with my mother who’s in her early 50s (for Christ’s sake she should be sleeping by then, yikes!)

There was already a queue at the Full Gospel Church (Ashaiman-Christian Village branch).

I screamed when I saw people there at 4: am on arrival and this was after the first rollout of the registration in 2019 when my mom and I spent two days at the Celestial School Complex with the hope of registering for the Ghana Card. We were met with disappointment at the end of both days.

I remembered how I skipped church one Sunday just to register for this same card at the Full Gospel Church registration center. The long queues made my heart face different extremities. People became delicacies for mosquitoes as early as 3 am outside the church premises all in a bid to register for the Ghana Card.

I spent long hours in what looked like a stagnant queue outside the church, there was barely any progress, my worry was my mother, she was tired but still stayed till the end of the day when we finally managed to enter the church premises, with the ritual of moving from one plastic chair to the other.

"We’ve closed, write your names down and we will sort you out tomorrow," the official in charge said to us.

We wrote our names with high hopes of getting our cards the following morning, little did we know we were bracing up for our worst nightmare.

We woke up the following morning, this time around with my younger brother. We got to the registration centre as early as 4 am and waited till about 9 am when we were called inside the church premises to start the registration process.

My mom became the focus after she warned a seemingly outspoken drunk man who tried to cross her in the registration process. There was no way she was going to sacrifice her bed and have her chance stolen by a loud drunk.

My joy after the registration:

After the whole process, we were told our cards were going to be distributed at Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA) and that we were going to be informed of when to come for them.

I remember how glad I was that I was finally able to register after several failed attempts.

I kept following up, asking questions on when to go for our cards from one of the registration officials who took my contact. He kept assuring me of the distribution at ASHMA.

2021 card pick up wahala:

In 2021, we heard they were distributing the cards at GRA in Ashaiman. My mom and I found our feet there one early morning and after some hours, it was obvious we were not getting our cards. Luckily for my mother and brother, a friend who works there confirmed the availability of their cards and asked that they come for the cards.

My mom was elated she finally got her card but here I was with no option than to go to the NIA Head office after it was confirmed my card was not at GRA after a couple of visits.

The thought of this disoriented me. I was so angry at the system, at the officials, about the irresponsibility, about this country, about everything.

Seeing people who had to sit at the registration centres, risk being bitten by mosquitoes, and still walking away without their Ghana Cards was very disturbing.

Messed up system by all standards!

That was my motivation. I decided to rant and write all about it, to share my story with the world and hopefully, draw some attention that will yield results.
April? How can I come for my Ghana Card in April when I need this same card for my SIM registration before the close of March 2022?

And this is in the very country where we were counted even in our absence for the population census, we cannot get our Ghana Cards even when present.
How about the people who have no ideas where their cards are, they will keep going to district offices only to hear the same thing every single day, “your card is not here”.

The system is messed up and the ‘ordinary Ghanaian’ suffers the most. Welcome to Ghana.