Ghana’s Births and Deaths Registry has banned citizens from registering local names deemed as titles as part of their names on birth certificates.
Local media Daily Heritage Newspaper reported that the registrar at the Births and Deaths agency in Accra, John Agbeko said local names like “Nana, Nii and Togbe” are titles for leaders in the traditional setup and cannot be official.
He is quoted as saying “if we allow ourselves as a nation to give names the way we want because it is us who have got the child and we will want to name the child the way we want, there will come a time that we will have wonderful names in Ghana. So it is just a control measure to make sure that there are moderating factor on us citizens to direct how our naming should go.”
There is huge public outcry in Ghana over the latest policy when the same institution allows for English names such as Prince, Princess and King to be registered.
Such English names are also considered as titles attached to people’s names.
John Agbeko however said “Nobody is against a local name” stating that his outfit is not imposing names on people but just upholding the rules governing its work.
The Daily Heritage newspaper also quoted one parent as saying “the registry did not register my son’s name as Nyhiraba because according to them, it is not recognised and that it is just a prefix. When we are being advised to accept local names and use them, the registry is rather preventing us from using them.”
There have been reactions on social media from Ghanaians.
? births & deaths registry, wow!
So all the Naa and Nana names are cancelled.Photo credit; @IsaacKaledzi pic.twitter.com/dFcCvMuiuI
— Aaron. (@Aaron_Gametym) January 25, 2018
What kind of thinking is this? We should be thinking of new ways to improve the state of Ghana and not how people choose to be called. What is the business of state in the names citizens want to be called by? @KafuiDey @estherarmah @IAMHENRYASANTE @RNiiArdayClegg @thenanaaba pic.twitter.com/53gajapfp7
— Isaac Kaledzi (@IsaacKaledzi) January 25, 2018
the hell i went through at the B&D, Tema , even after that they did not allow me use “maame” for my daughter
— stephen otoo (@stephenotu7) January 25, 2018
It is the business of the state to preserve our culture and heritage… All be it but in an intelligent way. If we should be banning certain names, it should be Western names!
— Paakofi Sinatra (@PaakofiSinatra) January 25, 2018
Source: Africafeeds.com
