A consideration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to phase out birth certificate as one of the requirements for acquiring a passport has generated a lot of reactions from Ghanaians.
According to Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Mohammad Habibu Tijani, the birth certificate has not been a valid document to prove a person’s true identity as a Ghanaian because there have been instances where some persons have presented fake ones.
This decision comes after a Supreme Court ruling that the birth certificate is not a form of identification because the document does not establish “the identity of the bearer”.
The decision written by Justice Ashie Kotey states that a birth certificate does not link its holder to the information it contains. It adds that it provides no evidence of citizenship.
The ruling of the Supreme Court and the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s consideration on the birth certificate has generated a lot of reactions from Ghanaians on social media.
A lot of them are not happy with the Supreme Court’s decision.
According to some people, instead of declaring the birth certificate as invalid for proving a person’s identity as a Ghanaian, the government can look at how other developed countries have made their birth certificates authentic enough to prove the identity of their citizens.
