“I want to say that our failure as a nation to collect data is not the doing of the citizenry. It is the ineptitude of the agencies that are charged to do so and their masters are not calling them to order,” Mr Bentil stated.
Mr Bentil was speaking at a panel discussion on the National Communications Authority, NCA’s decision not to extend the date for the registration of SIM cards. The programme was on the topic: Possible Relation of Threat to Deactivate Mobile Phones – Legal, Institutional & Developmental Implications Of Extending SIM Registration Exercise.
The NCA has refused to extend the date for the SIM Card registration, warning that those who fail to register by July 1st will lose their SIM cards entirely.
This is in spite of the information that over five million registered mobile phone users have invalid registrations either due to fake identification documents or other human errors in the process of registration.
But Mr Bentil believes, people should not suffer for the inability of certain state institutions to do their work.
“The government should not saddle the rest of us with the effect of its ineptitude in data collection. If you want to collect data, collect data; if you want the telcos to register, let them register but don’t make it a stress that is not a reasonable one,” he said.
According to him, consumers are going to be unnecessarily punished for problems that may not be of their doing but the result of the poor identification systems in the country or incompetence of the company that is carrying out the registration process.
Mr Bentil stressed that the mobile phone “has social and economic uses. I acquired that cell phone because of a contract I entered with a telecoms company and by our constitution, I am free to enter those contracts and no government should mess with that.”
To him the excuses given for the registration of SIM cards by authorities are untenable, insisting that it is not true that the lack of such a database will amount to any national security threat.
He accused government officials of scarmongering, saying, “somebody was creating a hypothetical security problem and on the wings of that, force all of us to register into a certain database which could be misused… and in many places, that has happened.”
He said checks from other countries who have registered SIM cards clearly show that losing one’s number for failure to register is not the best way to go as it will have dire consequences for both the individual and the state.
The way forward
Mr Bentil therefore proposed that the process must be strengthened if the needed impact will be made.
“We are not saying it should stop; we are saying it must be done better than what is currently [being] proposed.”
He said the telecoms companies should open up the database so that people who have registered their numbers can crosscheck the data and validate them. He further stated that the internet could have been used to make the process faster for people who have access to it.
Mr. Bentil wants a milder process to be used in prompting people to register.
“If on the deadline your line is not registered, your line could be cut one way. It is simply a way of prompting you to register and you know what, some people who think they have registered will find out they have not registered,” adding it should not call for the complete deactivation of the numbers.
“What we want is an extension of time and a redesign of the registration process, otherwise the extension will mean nothing,” he argued.
A legal practitioner, Robert Nii Arday Clegg who was also a discussant at the forum said the directive from the NCA flouts the fundamental human rights of citizens as it is enshrined in the Constitution.
He said it is true that the NCA has the power to make such policy directives but these are not absolute as the courts have the power to determine if such a decision should be carried out.
He asked if it is right for the state to force people to register their SIMs when other national Identification Cards are not mandatory, stressing “it amounts to a disrespect for the contractual obligations that we have with the telcos.”
“Can the NCA take a decision or make a policy directive? It can, to my mind. Having taken that decision, does it amount to an infringement on our rights? It does… I don’t think that anybody should be allowed to take those rights from us… The directive oversteps its boundary.”
Renowned economist Kwame Pianim who was at forum agreed with the key discussants that the holes in the registration process need to be blocked but stressed that the issue of national security must not be downplayed as the inability to register the SIMs will have serious national security consequences for the country.
Story by Derick Romeo Adogla/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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People shouldn’t suffer for the ineptitude of the state – IMANI