General News of Monday, 12 June 2023

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Bawumia has no respect for Ghanaians – Edudzi slams VP over promise to issue Ghana Card at birth

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia (left), Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe (right) Dr Mahamudu Bawumia (left), Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe (right)

Lawyer Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, a member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has slammed Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for his ‘vague’ promises to Ghanaians in spite of the current challenges in the country.

Speaking in an interview on TV3’s ‘The Big Issue’ on Monday, June 12, 2023, the lawyer accused the vice president of disrespecting Ghanaians with his behaviour.

He said that while Ghanaian public schools are facing a problem of shortage of textbooks, the vice president comes to promise that he would replace textbooks with laptops which are even more expensive.

He added that, even though thousands of Ghanaians who have applied for the National Identification Cards (Ghana Cards) have not gotten theirs, Bawumia is promising that the card would be issued to children at birth.

“Dr Bawumia has no respect for Ghanaians... The time has come that we need to ask him to take us seriously. This government for three years or more struggled to even print textbooks after they started the new curriculum. At the time when we do not have adequate textbooks from nowhere he jumps into the fray again in a very comical manner that I am going to give laptops to every student.

“When you ask him what will be the source of funding for the laptop, he can’t tell you… even when we are yet to resolve this problem, from nowhere he comes with another jocular claim that he is going to do what?

“In Ghana today, a person from one-year-old to almost 14 years you can’t get Ghana. So, if you have a vice president who is thinking right, what should be your priority?” he asked.

“At the point of giving birth do children have names… so on the Ghana Card, you will put Bawumia’s children there. Ehi!” he exclaimed.

What Vice President said:

Dr Bawumia announced that babies would be issued Ghana Cards numbers at birth starting from July 2023 at various hospitals.

“We have taken off the problem of fake birth certificates, bureaucracy, and corruption at the Birth and Deaths Registry. What we have done is to digitalise the processes at the Birth and Death Registry and linked their system with the Ghana Health Service and the NIA.

“I have not yet announced in Ghana, I’m happy to announce that the integration of the database of the NIA, GHS, and the Birth and Deaths Registry is complete. So from next month, when a child is born in Ghana, we will issue the Ghana Card number right from birth,” he said at the New Patriotic Party's International Women’s Conference in the United Kingdom on Saturday, June 10, 2023.

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