The President, Nana Akufo-Addo has taken a swipe at the minority in parliament over their decision to boycott the ongoing National ID card registration.

He believes the NDC minority are deliberately slowing down the progress of the nation.

The NDC MPs led by Minority leader, Haruna Idrissu did not participate in the registration process when officials of the NIA came to register the lawmakers.

According to the Minority, failure by the NIA to use the Voters' ID card as proof of citizenship was discriminatory.

A new law passed by Parliament ensured that only persons with passports or birth certificates would be allowed to take part in the registrations.

Persons without the approved primary documents must be vouched for either by a relative who has registered or by two persons who have already registered before they can also be registered.

Even though the minority supported and unanimously approved the amendment of the law, they are kicking against its implementation.

In protest over the NIA’s insistence on following the law by disallowing the use of the Voters’ ID, the minority decided to boycott the entire registration process.

This the president believes is unacceptable.

Speaking at Ashesi University on Saturday, the president said the conduct by the minority is “surprising.”

He did not understand how the Minority will support and pass a law only to turn around and kick against its implementation. 

“I maintain it should be the greatest honour to be able to say I am a Ghanaian and we should have no difficulty in identifying a Ghanaian, not only as a legal entity but also through his or her behaviour.

‘I had hoped that the exercise to provide all citizens with a national identity card would receive the enthusiastic support of all us as the project finally gets off the ground after years of wilful stagnation and neglect.

“Unfortunately we seem to have become embroiled once again in another of those full scale manufactured storms, deliberately engineered to slow down progress in everything we try to do,” he stated.

He added if the country had conducted its affairs properly over the years, there would not have been any argument in determining who is a Ghanaian.

He contended the Voters’ ID is in possession of non-Ghanaians and could not have been used as a primary document for registration.