Tema residents angry with NIA officials

Residents in the Tema Metropolis have registered their vehement displeasure against the inhumane treatment meted out to them by officials of the National Identification Authority (NIA) in the on-going national registration exercise.

The exercise, which started Tuesday, November17, 2009 in Tema, is expected to span a ten-day period. And already tongues are wagging over the attitude put up so far by the NIA officers who are undertaking the exercise.

Although registration is to officially commence at 7 a.m., when TODAY got to some of the registration centres at 5:30 a.m., queues had already built up, waiting for the registration officials to give the green light to start the day’s registration.

The situation was the same at all of the registration centres the paper visited, and though officials in some of the registration centres arrived on time to discharge their duties within the stipulated time, others arrived too late.

In Tema New Town, for instance, at the registration exercise at the Manhean Anglican School Park, people queued for hours in the sun only to return home without getting registered because registration officers did not arrive on time.

At the Anglican Primary ‘A’ School, people were enraged about the way registration officials had to spend almost 20 to 30 minutes on one person.

Had it not been for the intervention of some passers-by, some young men, obviously irritated by the slow movement of the queue, would have physically attacked the registration officials.

One fishmonger, who gave her name as Auntie Naa, complained bitterly about the attitude of the NIA registration officers saying, “Look at how I am sweating, there are no chairs to sit on and yet our time is being wasted.”

“I must be at the harbour by this time, but I am wasting all the time here. What will my family eat? I have been here since 5:30 a.m. and as I speak with you it is almost 12 noon and I am nowhere near getting registered.”

Mr Dadson, a teacher, agreed, “This is really bad, I wonder why this long queue, and why the people are too slow? They are just wasting our time and I think this attitude will not help anybody if mechanisms are not put in place to ensure an effective registration exercise.”

The situation was no different when TODAY visited the Datus School Complex Registration Centre at Community 7.

As of Monday, the sixth day of the registration, there was still a long queue and almost everyone was frustrated.

“I do not think it is fair for us to abandon our jobs and come and stand in this long queue where, at the end of the day, you lose your sales and daily gains because of the behaviour of these irresponsible registration officials,” expressed Mr Owusu-Mensah.