Minister commended for lifting ban on registration of local names

Accra, Jan. 31, - Some Ghanaians in Accra on Wednesday commended Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Local Government for ordering the Registrar of Births and Deaths to reverse the directive of banning the registration of some traditional titles as names.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), some public servants, traders and cross section of the public who expressed discontent when the issue came up last week, said “we are happy the ban has been lifted”.

The Registrar of Death and Birth last week explained that the entity does not endorse the registration of local titles such as;  Nii, Ohemaa, Nana, Junior, Papa as names and as such, these titles names cannot be registered.

    

Madam Grace Baah, a midwife said, all her children had local titles as names and so she did not know why the Registrar was introducing a ban on local names.

   

She stressed that “we are Ghanaians’ and for that matter we have to give local title names to our children’’, adding that, she was happy the Minister appeared before Parliament to instruct the Registrar to reverse the directive.

    

Mr Emmanuel Sowah, an Engineer Said, the ministry has done well by listening to the huge outcry of Ghanaians, “local title-names identifies our culture as Ghanaians,” he urged parents to give local titles-names to their children.

    

Mr Joseph Teye, an entrepreneur said, heads of some public Institutions were embarrassing the government, for not communicating their ideas to the appropriate leadership before issuing their orders”.

    

Madam Gertrude Boakye, a Nurse said, she was content with the Minister’s approach towards the ban and urged parents to give local title-names to their wards because it reflected Ghanaian identity and urged all heads of public institutions to deliberate on issues of public interest before coming out with such orders.     

GNA