The bloated voters’ register & the national identification card (3)

“When the mind is freely exerted, its reasoning is sound; but passion, if it gains possession of it, becomes its tyrant, and reason is powerless”
— Julius Caesar

“Yesterday a monarch he,

Today, subject of the flees;

Why such boastings, oh man!”

— Anon

Some few months back, I had the opportunity to visit an industrial facility on the Spintex Road close to the Coca Cola factory. The facility which belongs to the Margins Group of Companies, a group with majority shares in the hands of a young adult Ghanaian, houses the Intelligent Card Production Systems Limited (ICPS). ICPS has proved its versatility when it comes to biometric registration of individuals and production of all forms of security cards including ATM cards, security identification cards, national health insurance cards, passports and bank instruments like cheque booklets, and examination questions.

You name them and ICPS is in position to provide you with an instant solution when it comes to security printing and issues dealing with biometric registration.

And yet because of political brinkmanship, ICPS must look outside the country and private organisations for contracts to keep its machines running and its labour force operational while the nation suffers from much rot which solution the company is in position to provide. Indeed, ICPS came out with an innovative system of registering foreign nationals and issuing them with ID cards which it successfully executed with profit to itself and the nation’s coffers.

This company based on its track record could have efficiently executed the entire national identification system without a whimper which currently has been bogged down by corruption, mismanagement and political interference which have always been associated with the corrupt and incompetent NDC administration.

ICPS has been internationally certified as a security printing organisation after the investment of huge amount of resources running into millions of US dollars in form of modern machines and well trained staff and installation of appropriate security mechanisms. Infact, ICPS is a one stop shop which can solve the myriad of problems which have been associated with the ills of this country when it comes to all forms of citizen identification

The rot which has been associated with the National Identification System is well known and documented by all discerning citizens.

By an Act of Parliament, Act 2006 enacted by the NPP administration, a National Identification Authority (NIA) was established as a body corporate with the object to “create, maintain, provide and promote the use of national identity cards in order to advance economic, political and social activities in the country”.

The Authority started off well with support from some European governments in form of vehicles and computers and other office equipment. Then the change of government came and a new political administration, the NDC, headed by a law professor.

Prof. Mills was sworn into office. Then the woes of this country started and the fortunes of the NIA nosedived like a plane shot down by a missile.

One of the first marauding acts Prof. Mills NDC administration embarked upon was the dissolution of all boards and councils of state institutions no matter the law establishing them. In the process almost all chief executives were dismissed with ignominy. The NIA was not left untouched. By the time Prof.

Mills NDC administration had done its worse, the NIA was left gasping for breath like a fish thrown out of water.

The Authority was stripped off almost all its assets and turned into a colony of NDC apparatchiks with large dose of tribal lining. Things had never been the same again. The rascality which was unleashed on the nation by the NDC administration affected the fortunes of many companies including the ICPS.

Even though the registration of foreign nationals entrusted to ICPS has been going on successfully, that of the registration of local nationals by the NIA is in an induced coma like an accident patient with blood clot on his brain.

Even though many Ghanaians were registered, they never received their ID cards. I am aware that arrangements were far afield to entrust the registration of local Ghanaians to ICPS.

However, the arrangement was hijacked and slaughtered on the high altar of political platform.

Today all the benefits associated with a uniform ID system which make systems work in the advanced countries have been denied the good people of this country because of personal selfish and myopic interest of some greedy bastards.

If the system had been allowed to work, ICPS could have resolved the issue of the bloated voters’ register with a seamless mechanism and this Poison Ivy Small Girl would not have had the audacity to be throwing her weight about like an often rejected maiden who has now found a lover.

This country has people with the qualities of leadership, entrepreneurship and management skills which can be harnessed to salvage this country. Yet our docile and sycophantic nature has reduced us to a level where intelligent people are being managed by idiots.

That is the lot of Africa. The former brutal dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada had plans to change the name of Uganda to Idi. If he had succeeded in doing that before he was overthrown, all Ugandans would have automatically be called Idiots and Idi Amin Dada would have been happy in his foolishness.

Recently, I was listening to one of the FM radio stations to a discussion on the Auditor-General’s report. One discussant made the point that despite the successes of Prince Kofi Amoabeng at UT Bank, if Ghana Commercial Bank had been given to him to manage, he would have destroyed it. I sent a text message to him about what I heard on the radio and he texted back as follows: “Hahaha…he is crazy. The fact is no Ghanaian leader will give me a state bank to manage”. In this country we kill our heroes instead of honouring them.

Notice the shabby treatment given to Prof. Frimpong Boateng, a man with so much patriotic spirit imbued in him, by Jerry John Rawlings and the disgraceful way he was dismissed from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital by the NDC administration. Notice that since Prof.

Frimpong Boateng was unceremoniously thrown away like a dead goat from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital as the Chief Executive, that institution has never known peace as a result of corrupt and incompetent management and undue political interference perpetrated and installed by the corrupt and incompetent NDC government.

It is for such reasons that private institutions like ICPS would be better off pursuing private contracts rather than looking for government contracts no matter the patriotic flavor the owners may have for the country.

Of course, at the end of the day the country is the loser since only the corrupt who is always willing to bend the rules wins state contracts, most of the time through single sourcing.

In this country, passion has captured and gained possession of the mind and thus passion has become the mind’s tyrant making it impossible for the mind to freely exert itself and as a result making any sound reasoning powerless and meaningless.

Notice the type of garbage spewed out every day in our print and electronic media by corrupt jackals in the driving seats as editors or hosts portraying themselves as journalists and often crocked and illiterate panel members assuming practically every knowledge which they do not possess.

In that type of suffocating atmosphere, terrorists and mercenaries capture the state institutions for their benefits and ensure that the democratic system is orphaned and put in the care of incompetent, immature Poison Ivy Small Girl.

A fool has indeed said in his heart there is no God forgetting that, today he or she is a monarch, tomorrow he or she will be the subject of the flees.