Features
Ghana card should not cause unnecessary chaos in electoral process
- /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
&description=Ghana card should not cause unnecessary chaos in electoral process', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
- Share
- Tweet /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
&description=Ghana card should not cause unnecessary chaos in electoral process', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
Knowledge, experience, forthrightness, frankness, outspoken, straightforward and above all intelligence, are skills that are acquired through constant perseverance and, therefore are not commodities that can be bought in shops, supermarkets or from the open markets.
They are acquired through patience, experience, fortitude and hard work among other good traits such as generosity, integrity, loyalty, devotion, kindness, sincerity and self- control.
IT PAYS TO LISTEN TO WISE COUNSELLING
This, therefore presupposes that, if persons who have over the years sacrificed their lives through toils, time, energy, experience, zealousness and intelligence to acquire these noble, enlightened and laudable skills, are not being selfish to themselves, but sharing, offering and giving pieces of practical advice and admonitions, aimed at unifying the citizens, ensuring absolute peace and moving this country forward in the right direction, all we need to do is to listen attentively with opened ears, weigh them, give them serious thoughts and apply them accordingly for the overall benefits and outcomes.
OPERATING WITHIN LAWS AND RULES
Ghana is a democratic country that operates strictly within a set of laws, rules, regulations, enshrined in our statute books and a Constitution crafted by eminent citizens in 1992 to direct and regulate our operations and our way of living.
Therefore, the 1992 Constitution document, serves as a Bible from which the country takes inspiration from and is governed. Our leaders are required to be guided by the provisions under the 1992 Constitution in all their undertakings for the overall benefit of our country. Going contrary to these provisions means you have violated the laws and, therefore ready to suffer the consequences, thereof.
There is this saying that, “Even in the animal kingdom, where stupidity is their main object, sense is applied.” This, therefore implies that, even in the animal kingdom, there are set of rules and regulations within which they operate.
In order to avoid or prevent potential chaos and other nasty incidents in our beautiful, peaceful and dear country we all cherish most which will eventually create a volatile and insecurity situation for ourselves in the future, we have to strictly conform and abide by the tenets of the 1992 Constitution which is our Holy Bible. Nothing should be done outside the laws we have set for ourselves, otherwise, posterity will never forgive us.
GHANA CARD AND RELATED CONTROVERSY
One particular issue that had for the past month been trending in the social media outlets and other traditional news sources in the country, is the ambition by the Electoral Commission (EC) to use the Ghana Card as the only source of document for the continuous voter registration in the country.
Last month, the EC placed before Parliament, a draft C.I. titled: Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations 2021, which is expected to regulate continuous voter registration.
Per the new C.I, which would become law after 21 sitting days of Parliament, the EC is seeking to make the Ghana Card the sole form of identification for eligible voters who want to get unto the electoral roll. That C.I. has been referred to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament of which by convention, it is chaired by a member of the Minority group.
The law requires that orders, rules or regulations made pursuant to provisions of the Constitution or Act of Parliament, must be laid before Parliament for 21 days before they come into force. Any such subsidiary legislation so laid are referred to the committee to determine whether it is in accordance with the general objectives of the Constitution or the Act pursuant to which it is being made.
PROTESTS FROM THE NDC AGAINST GHANA CARD
Even before the EC had laid the new C.I. before Parliament, the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, had accused the EC of planning to compile a new voters register for the 2024 general election, with the Ghana Card as the only source of document.
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, said any move by the EC to compile a new voters register with Ghana Card solely as the mode of identification would not augur well for the country, especially when the EC had already expended huge sums of money to compile a new register which was used for the 2020 general election.
The EC debunked the assertion by the NDC and said the new C.I. was only meant to regulate continuous registration, with the Ghana Card as the source document. “WE are not compiling a new voters register. The one we compiled in 2020 is a credible one, a very good register, so we are not dispensing it,” the Director of Electoral Services of the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, told the media.
MINORITY INVITES EC TO EXPLAIN
It appears that when the new C.I. was laid in parliament for the first time, there were heated debates, with the minority asking the EC to come and explain the rationale for the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of document.
In the midst of this heated controversy, the former Chairman of the Electoral Commission, DR Kwadwo Afari Gyan, a distinguished long serving EC boss with 22 years of service between 1992 and 2015, most experienced, knowledgeable, well vexed in electoral issues in the country and beyond, has waded into this sensitive and crucial issue, asking the EC and for that matter, the government to reconsider the use of the Ghana Card as the only source document for the continuous registration of new voters, otherwise it can disenfranchise millions of qualified electorate.
According to him, with many Ghanaians finding it difficult to get their Ghana Cards, making it the only form of identification for voter registration, was against electoral inclusivity, fairness and justice.
AFARI GYAN SPEAKS OUT ON GHANA CARD USAGE
Hear this intelligent, outspoken, eloquent, straightforward and frankly speaking former E.C. Chairman of highest international repute; “Ghanaian citizens don’t lose their citizenship if they are 18 years or older, but do not have the Ghana Card. So, the moot question is: why make the Ghana card the only means of identification for purposes of establishing eligibility to register to vote?”
He alluded that the fact that the number of people with Ghana Cards included those below the voting age of 18, and juxtaposing that, with the Ghana Statistical Service’s projection that people age 18 years and above would hit 19.5 million in 2023, the potential for many people to be disenfranchised as a result of the use of the Ghana Card as the only source document for voter registration was high.
Dr. Afari Gyan advised the EC to take a careful look at its insistence on the Ghana Card because in spite of its crucial role in elections, the EC was not the decider of elections, but rather the electorate. The electorate are the kingmakers.
So, a basic responsibility of any electoral commission is to facilitate the realisation of the people’s right to register as voters, and not to obstruct that right by demanding for registration purposes, documents that are not easily accessible to the people,” he cautioned.
So far, the National Identification Authority (NIA) had issued out 15.7 million Ghana Cards to applicants out of the 16,969,034 it has registered for the cards.
AVOIDANCE AND PREVENTION OF POTENTIAL CHAOS
Yes, the former EC Chairman, has hit the nail right on the head with profound pieces of advice to the Electoral Commission, the various political parties and the government on the way forward and they have to listen with clear conscience and opened ears.
Let us face the truth and the fact that if we are interested in ensuring clean, peaceful, fair and credible election in the country, come 2024, then we must adhere to these wise counselling from no other person than our own accomplished electoral think tank who had seen it all and stands tall among his peers when it comes to organising elections in Ghana, Africa and beyond.
His exemplary leadership in the past must be emulated and strictly followed by the current crops of those at the helms of electoral process in our dear country. To be forewarned, is to be forearmed, says Francis Hooke in 1685. A word to the wise is enough!
By Charles Neequaye
Writer’s email:ataani2000@yahoo.com
Contact: 0277753946/0248933366
“A woman who abandons her baby in a dustbin at Kasoa Lorry Station is not always a wicked woman. Sometimes, she is a wounded woman whose mind has broken, whose family has rejected her, and whose society has left her with only one terrible option: disappear or be disgraced.”
That is the hard truth Ghana must hear.
In the last 10 days alone, our nation has been confronted with the same painful headline, twice.
Case 1 – Kasoa Main Lorry Station, Central Region: A newborn baby girl was found abandoned inside a dustbin at the public toilet of the Kasoa Main Station. A woman who went to use the facility discovered the infant and raised an alarm. Commercial drivers and bystanders quickly retrieved the baby and rushed her to the Kasoa Polyclinic for emergency medical care.
Case 2 – Asante Bekwai, Ashanti Region: On Thursday morning, August 20, 2026, a two-week-old neonate was reportedly abandoned by an unknown nursing mother at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region. Residents who came across the child raised the alarm. The baby was admitted to the Bekwai Government Hospital as police commenced investigations.
Let me be clear from the start: Newborn abandonment is wrong. It is dangerous. It is criminal. And it can kill. This article does not excuse it. But if we only arrest and shame, we will never stop it. We must treat the root, not just punish the fruit.
What exactly is newborn abandonment? – The two definitions
The Legal Definition: Under Ghana’s Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), Section 96, and the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), abandonment of a child under 12 years is a criminal offence. It is classified as exposure and abandonment, punishable as a misdemeanor or felony. The law sees the mother as a perpetrator.
The Psychological definition: In clinical textbooks, newborn abandonment is defined as the intentional, permanent relinquishment of all parental rights, care, and responsibilities over an infant within the first 28 days of life without making formal, legal arrangements for care.
To understand this crisis properly, we must not confuse it with child abandonment. Newborn abandonment happens within 0-28 days of life, often driven by acute panic, denial of pregnancy, or postpartum psychosis where the attachment bond never formed. Child abandonment, on the other hand, involves toddlers to teenagers where a bond existed but collapsed over time due to chronic poverty, family breakdown, or parental burnout. One is an acute crisis of the first month; the other is a chronic breakdown over years. Both are harmful, but they need different interventions.
Psychologically, newborn abandonment is the ultimate rupture of the primary attachment bond. Think of a 19-year-old university student who secretly gives birth alone in her hostel room, wraps the crying baby in a polythene bag, and drops it at a refuse dump at midnight. That is not just a crime scene; it is a scene of extreme panic and psychological dissociation.
Why would a mother carry a baby for 9 months and then abandon it?
This is the question every Ghanaian asks. If you wanted to abandon it, why not abort? The answer is deeply psychological:
1. The psychodynamics of denial of pregnancy: This is a profound defense mechanism, not a lie. The mother’s subconscious mind completely rejects the reality of the pregnancy. She does not gain weight normally, feels no kicks, does not seek antenatal care, and genuinely convinces herself she is not pregnant until sudden, shocking labour pains take her by surprise in a toilet or bedroom.
2. Fantasy of a dissolving problem: This is called cognitive avoidance. She believes “my boyfriend will come back,” “my mother will forgive me,” or “something miraculous will happen before birth.” So she waits, paralyzed, until the baby is here.
3. Barriers to safe abortion: Deep religious guilt, moral anxiety, fear of dying from a back-alley abortion, lack of money for a safe procedure, and family laws force her to carry to term even when she feels incapable.
4. The shock of reality and acute panic: Upon delivery, the physical presence and crying of the newborn shatters all denial. Confronted with immediate exposure, shame, and reality, her brain enters a trauma response — “fight, flight, or freeze.” For many, it becomes “flight” — physically escape the threat of exposure to survive socially. That is why babies are left in places where others will find them -lorry stations, churches, hospitals.
Source:
Counselor Prince Offei, CPAC’s founder, is a leading Mental Health Professional, Marriage Counsellor, Author, ADR Expert/Arbitrator, and Spectator Newspaper Columnist. He writes on relationships, marriage, parenting, special needs support, and their connection to mental health. For therapy, counselling, or enquiries, contact Counselor Prince & Associates Consult (CPAC) in Accra on 0559850604 / 0551428486.
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
Features
Environmental stewardship is an act of worship: The Islamic response to climate change, environmental degradation (Part 4)
The environmental consequences of illegal mining have reached alarming levels in Ghana. Several major rivers, including the Pra, Ankobra, Offin, Birim and Tano, have experienced significant pollution from illegal mining activities, increasing the cost and complexity of water treatment while threatening the availability of potable water for millions of citizens (Water Resources Commission, 2024; Ghana Water Limited, 2024). These developments underscore the urgent need for stronger environmental governance and collective action.
Islam equally emphasises accountability in governance. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught that every leader is responsible for those under his or her authority (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7138; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829). This principle extends to public officials entrusted with environmental regulation, traditional authorities responsible for communal lands, mining companies, local assemblies, and community leaders. Environmental protection cannot succeed
where accountability is absent.
At the same time, addressing galamsey requires more than law enforcement. Sustainable solutions must tackle the underlying socio-economic realities that drive individuals into illegal mining. Many young people are motivated by unemployment, poverty, and limited economic opportunities. Islamic principles of social justice therefore call for the creation of alternative livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, vocational training, responsible small-scale mining under strict environmental standards, entrepreneurship, and skills development. Environmental protection and economic empowerment should not be viewed as competing priorities but as complementary goals that promote human dignity and national development.
Faith communities also have an indispensable role to play. Mosques, churches, schools, traditional councils, and civil society organisations possess significant influence in shaping public attitudes and behaviours. Imams, in particular, should consistently remind congregations that wealth acquired through actions that destroy communities and Allah’s creation cannot be regarded as a blessing. Religious education should cultivate environmental ethics alongside spiritual devotion, reinforcing the understanding that protecting rivers, forests, and farmlands is an expression of gratitude to Allah and a fulfilment of the trust of Khalifah.
Ultimately, the struggle against galamsey is more than a campaign to protect natural resources; it is a struggle to uphold justice, preserve human dignity, and honour the trust that Allah has placed upon humanity. Lasting solutions will require strong governance, responsible citizenship, sustainable economic opportunities, and renewed moral leadership. Only when these elements
work together can Ghana safeguard its natural heritage for present and future generations.
Water conservation, waste management and sustainable development: Practical expressions of Islamic stewardship
Religious education should cultivate environmental ethics alongside spiritual devotion, reinforcing the understanding that protecting rivers, forests, and farmlands is an expression of gratitude to Allah and a fulfilment of the trust of Khalifah.
Ultimately, the struggle against galamsey is more than a campaign to protect natural resources; it is a struggle to uphold justice, preserve human dignity, and honour the trust that Allah has placed upon humanity. Lasting solutions will require strong governance, responsible citizenship, sustainable economic opportunities, and renewed moral leadership. Only when these elements
work together can Ghana safeguard its natural heritage for present and future generations.
Islam is not merely a religion that condemns environmental destruction; it also provides practical guidance for preserving and sustaining the natural world. Through its teachings on moderation, cleanliness, conservation, and responsible consumption, Islam cultivates an environmental ethic that remains remarkably relevant to contemporary challenges such as water scarcity, pollution, waste management, and climate change. These teachings encourage Muslims to become
responsible custodians of Allah’s creation in both private and public life.
Water conservation: A sacred responsibility
Water occupies a unique position in Islam as the source of life and an essential element of worship. Allah says, “And We made from water every living thing. Then will they not believe?” (Qur’an 21:30, Sahih International). This verse reminds believers that water is not merely an economic resource but a divine blessing upon which all living creatures depend. The importance of water is further reflected in Islamic acts of worship. Muslims perform ablution (wudu) before the five daily prayers and ritual bathing (ghusl) under prescribed circumstances.
Yet, despite its central role in purification, Islam strongly discourages wastefulness. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once advised one of his companions not to waste water while performing ablution, even when using water from a flowing river (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 425). This timeless guidance establishes the principle that abundance does not justify extravagance.
Conservation remains a religious obligation regardless of the apparent availability of natural resources.
This Prophetic teaching carries profound implications for contemporary Ghana. Illegal mining has severely polluted many rivers, increasing the cost of water treatment and limiting access to safe drinking water for numerous communities. Climate change has also intensified seasonal variability in rainfall, placing additional pressure on freshwater resources (IPCC, 2023). Against this
backdrop, conserving water is no longer simply an environmental preference—it is a moral imperative grounded in Islamic teaching.
Water conservation should therefore become a shared responsibility among households, educational institutions, industries, and places of worship. Simple practices such as repairing leaking pipes, harvesting rainwater, protecting riverbanks, avoiding contamination of water bodies, and promoting efficient irrigation contribute to safeguarding one of Allah’s greatest blessings. Every effort to preserve water is an investment in public health, food security, and the
wellbeing of future generations.
Unfortunately, indiscriminate disposal of refuse remains a significant challenge in many communities. Plastic waste clogs drainage systems, contributes to flooding during the rainy season, pollutes rivers and beaches, and threatens marine ecosystems. Open burning of waste further degrades air quality and poses serious health risks, particularly for children and the elderly (UNEP,2024).
The author is Chief Imam of Katamanso Municipal and Certified Counsellor and Governnace Expert.
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
