Parliament summons local Government Minister over names ban

Parliament has summoned the Local Government Minister Hajia Alima Mahama over the controversial decision by the Births and Deaths Registry to ban the registration of some local names.

According to the Births and Deaths Registry names such as “Maame,” “Pappa,” “Nana,” “Naa,” “Junior,” “Nene,” “Nii” and “Ohemaa” are not accepted under the new policy.

Mr John Agbeko, Registrar at the Births and Deaths outfit, explained to Daily Heritage that local names like “Nana, Nii and Togbe” are most used as stool names and title for leaders in the traditional setup.

Some MPs who fumed at the move Friday described it as an illegality.

“Mr. Speaker I call my son ‘Paapa’, so if I name my son after my father, I can’t call him by his raw name, it is a reverence to my father. You can’t decide that you have refused to recognise the name I have given him.

“It is time public and civil servants understood that the powers given to them are all written in codes and they are not entitled to exercise any powers that parliament has not given to them. They are not given any discretion in this matter, if they think that there is the need to amend the law, the appropriate thing is to go through the respective instrument and raise the bill before the house for the appropriate thing to be done…. they are generating needless tension in the country,” the first deputy Speaker of Parliament Joe Osei Owusu fumed on the floor of parliament after the Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu had raised the matter in the House.

Already, pressure group OccupyGhana has threatened to sue government over the action after many Ghanaians greeted the report with anger.

“We believe that this stance is a gross violation of the rights of Ghanaians to choose names (particularly Ghanaian names) as they deem fit for their children, subject to the right to change one’s name at any time later in life.

We therefore write to put you on notice, in accordance with section 10 of the State Proceedings Act, 1998 (Act 555), that we intend to commence civil action against the Republic within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter if this illegality is not addressed forthwith,” OccupyGhana said in a statement.