No Registration No Food = No
Registration No Development!
By Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath
 |
| Registration |
Have you ever heard this popular
but very sad saying that: “ The best way to hide something from Black people is
to put it in a book?”
To be brutally frank, the first
time I read this statement on the Internet, I exclaimed, ‘HOW!’ I felt it was a
racial view and an insult to the black race. However, upon sober reflection,
participant observation and critical analysis, I came to the conclusion that
there is some iota of truth in the statement. Why? Reading is not our cup
of tea period!
On Saturday, March 5, 2016, I
watched CNN late news on Metro TV. Then I saw teaming refugees in a certain
country, not in Africa, though. These groups of refugees were referred to as
‘illegal migrants’. They formed long queues and were receiving some miserable
food to eat. The CNN lady reporter was telling viewers that the people on her
right hand side were those who have registered; adding that they were being
given some cold sandwiches and “not hot meals to eat.”
Then the reporter turned to other
long queues on her left side narrating that those migrants were now compelled
to re-register because their first registration was found to be “fake” or
illegal or so. The reporter added that if they did not register they might not
even get the cold sandwiches to eat at all. That was the day
I felt so sad for humanity.
Respected reader, can you imagine
that most of these so-called ‘illegal migrants’ were men and women of substance
feeding themselves and their families in their own home countries a while
ago? But man-made tragedy has compelled them to be begging for cold
sandwiches in refugee camps in foreign lands. The civilised advanced nations
are using their scientific and technological knowledge to manufacture weapons
of mass destruction to devastate homes, hospitals, and factories driving
millions of innocent women and children into misery in the name of political
power or what? And world leaders are ravishing this human catastrophe in
silence?
The object of this article
is not only to empathise with suffering fellow human beings who were forced by
circumstances to abandon the comfort of their home country but also to point
out the significance of registration in the scheme of human endeavour. To the
extent that even when people find themselves in very, very critical situations,
they are obliged to register in order to survive.
As a student of Development
Studies, I have observed that registration is key to development. It seems to
me that any country that cannot properly register its citizens or does not know
the exact numbers of its population can hardly progress economically. In the
midst of abundant natural resources, Ghana is struggling for economic survival
because the country does not know exactly how many mouths the
nation has to feed. As a layman in economic matters,
what I have just said has no scientific or statistical proof. But I am using my
common sense and applying participant observation research method to draw my
conclusion.
For the purpose of this article, Participant
observation is simply the process that enables researchers to learn
about activities of the people under study in the natural setting through
observing and participating in those activities. The observations enable the
researcher to describe existing situations using the five senses, providing a
“written photograph” of the situation under study.
Thus I have observed that from
the dawn of civilisation, registration or data collection or provision of basic
information about people in a particular geographical location at a given time
is critical for development and prosperity. For example, in the bible it was
recorded that a Roman King by the name Caesar Augustus was the first to issue a
decree that a census must be taken of the entire Roman world. Based on that
decree, everyone had to go to his or her hometown to register. That was how
Joseph and Mary too, went to Nazareth to Bethlehem to register, where Jesus was
eventually born (Luke2: 1-20).
If we use the CNN news item cited
above as a case study, we Ghanaians must realise the importance of registration
of people in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. It would be recall that
the unfortunate incident of June 3 2015 floods and fire disaster that occurred
in Accra, National Disaster Management Orgnisation (NADMO) went round to
register the affected victims to provide them with the relief items. But some
of the people pick quarrels with NADMO officials. This is a national problem
that ought to be addressed through public education.
If we want to advance as a nation
and prosper as a people, we must take data collection or registration exercises
very, very seriously. We must bear in mind that registration is part of
individual development from birth to death. That is why when a child is born
the child must be registered. In some countries like Singapore and other
advanced societies, the first registration number that is allocated to a child
when he or she is born that is the number he or she will use for his education,
working life until his or her death. Even dead people must be registered before
they are allocated graves for burial. Not so? How much more the living?
Ghana as a nation must take
national identification policy very seriously. This may minimise if not
eliminate the perennial political jabbing over new Voters register each
election year. We must inform and educate our rural compatriots that
whenever institutions like the Ministry of Gender, Children and
Social Protection (MoGCSP) embark on some registration exercises for any social
interventions to improve on their socio-economic status, they must register
with alacrity and go for it. For “NO REGISTRATION NO FOOD and NO REGISTRATION
NO DEVELOPMENT!”
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