Birth and Death CEO is 'mentally deranged' – Abronye DC

Brong Ahafo Regional Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe has descended heavily on officials of Ghana’s Birth and Death Registry, calling their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) a “mentally deranged” person.

Abronye DC, as he is popularly called, launched the verbal tirade on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem, in an interview with show host, Kofi Adoma Nwanwani over a decision taken by the Registry to ban the registration of some popular Ghanaian names.

The Registry recently issued a fatwa, banning popular local names such as “Maame,” “Pappa,” “Nana,” “Naa,” “Junior,” “Nene,” “Nii” and “Ohemaa” as not eligible for registration under its new policy.

Also, the Registry, under the policy, will determine the order in which names must be written, giving prominence to foreign names over indigenous Ghanaian names.

But Abronye DC has described the order as that which is “unconstitutional” and a recipe for lawsuits against the registry.

“When people take decisions sometimes, we need to take them to a mental hospital to find out if they are correct in their brain; that CEO [of the Registry] needs psychiatric examination because it is not everyone who goes about in a tie that is correct in the brain”, he added.

“The 1992 Constitution does not specify what names can be made a title and neither does it, in any regulation state that nor is there an Act of parliament that makes some names titles”, he fumed.

According to him, the decision by the CEO could result in the payment of judgment debts by government because in his estimation, anyone who goes to court upon being denied a birth certificate based on this decision would win without a hassle.

“This decision means that should Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo’s birth certificate get missing today, he will be forced to drop the ‘Nana’ in his name”, he reasoned.

According to him, names are fundamental rights and people should not be forced to drop their given names because that would amount to abusing their rights.

He alleged that a number of people have been denied their birth certificates already, based on the decision, adding “a sensitive place like the Birth and Death Registry should not be occupied by mad people; clearly the CEO needs psychiatric examination”.

In a related development, pressure group, OccupyGhana, has written to the Attorney-General, asking her to cause the Births and Deaths Registry to withdraw the implementation of a policy.

The have served notice that it intends to commence civil action against the Republic within thirty (30) days of the date of its letter if the “illegality” is not addressed forthwith.

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