Political activist Bernard Oduro Takyi has urged Ghanaians to boycott the ongoing SIM card re-registration process entirely.
The 2020 independent candidate for the Sunyani West Constituency in the Bono Region observed that the process by the telecommunication companies to get Ghanaians to queue to re-register their SIM cards is “useless and a waste of time.”
The year 2022 has just commenced and we at The Chronicle cannot lose sight of the fact that most Ghanaians will put on their political caps and churn out political speeches to either discredit the ruling government or praise it.
The government-sanctioned re-registration process is to get all mobile phone users to register their SIM cards by the end of March this year to prevent them from losing their existing phone numbers.
The Chronicle has observed that the process has been characterised by long, winding queues, which subscribers complain about daily at the offices of mobile network operators.
Indeed, verified reports available to The Chronicle indicate that most of subscribers complained that the process has been slow, and they had to queue for long hours before leaving the centers to work.
Despite the above unpleasant situation, which has characterised the national exercise, The Chronicle does not find the call by Mr Oduro pleasant. And we condemn such unpatriotic acts from young Ghanaians.
Indeed, as a young man building his political career, we do not believe that he should be going on such a tangent.
Ghanaians have demonstrated their desire to support young upcoming politicians, but such negatively abrasive posture by young men and women who aspire to play leading roles in our democratic dispensation shall not wash.
It is against this background that The Chronicle would like to urge well-meaning Ghanaians to ignore the call by Mr Oduro and go out in their numbers to re-register their SIM cards.
We would, again, like to remind the good people of Ghana that, since creation, change has always been resisted, but, in the final analysis, beneficiaries have admitted the need for such changes.
We, therefore, are not surprised at all the opposition political players are rising against such a well-thought through national exercise.
The bottom line for the likes of Mr Oduro is to make the government unpopular and possibly gain some votes during elections.
To us, at The Chronicle, it is not the duty of the likes of Mr Oduro to remind Ghanaians that the National Identification Authority (NIA) has the data of most mobile phone subscribers and could merge the data with that of the telecommunication companies to save Ghanaians the frustrations.
The NIA and telecommunication companies are made up of competent men and women who have the required expertise and knowledge to execute their mandates in the interest of Ghanaians.
It is, therefore, sad and disrespectful for the young politician to say that, in his view, the Akufo-Addo government “has refused to think” on its feet to enable them to adopt a more conducive and efficient way to obtain the data of mobile phone users.
For anyone to suggest that the Vice President, who is spearheading the digitalisation drive in the country, should have known better and adopted a more efficient way of getting the process done without subjecting Ghanaians to this frustration, means the person does not understand the governance process or is simply playing mischief.
In our opinion, the best we could do, as political players, is to suggest better ways of solving national problems, and not inciting people to boycott such exercises.
We would remind those who may be contemplating boycotting the re-registration exercise that they will do so at their own risk; they have the choice, since the state does not lose anything.
But they must, however, remember that nations develop well when their citizens play their parts very well.
The Chronicle wishes all Ghanaians a happy New Year and pleads that we all contribute our quota to the total development of the country.
