The Social Democratic Front, SDF, party has chided the CPDM government for being unable to resolve the common problems of birth certificates and national identity cards acquisition in the country.
The one-time main opposition party says these problems, which have complicated life for Cameroonians, are the result of 41 years of “bad government” by President Paul Biya.
The observation was made during the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in Yaounde on May 4, 2024, chaired by the SDF National Chairman, Osih Joshua Nambangi.
“The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the SDF, meeting on May 4th, 2024, in Yaoundé, notes with grave concern, the long standing issue of poor access to the civil status and a paucity of obtaining national ID cards by a very large number of fellow compatriots across the national territory,” a press release issued at the close of the meeting reads.
The sluggishness of the regime to provide answers to the lingering problems has caused untold hardship to ordinary Cameroonians.
“The regime in place has been unable to find a solution to this issue for several decades, making life unbearable for a majority of compatriots, who cannot travel freely, take part in competitive and official exams, training, employment, health care, financial inclusion and socio- professional integration or even more, secure their land assets as a result,” the SDF furthered.
Those who have achieved the feat of obtaining an ID receipt, “are obliged to renew up to 27 times over a period of 7 years if they must survive harassment of all kinds that mark their daily existence.”
According to the SDF, the situation is a direct consequence of 42 years of bad governance.
Terming it a national security issue, the opposition party wondered that, “It is unacceptable that in the 21st century, access to citizenship remains out of reach for more than a third of the Cameroonian population.”
It added that the process of acquiring identification documents in the country is disjointed and expensive, calling on the government “to end the dehumanising mistreatment of fellow citizens.”
The SDF’s call came amid plans by the government to fast track ID cards production within 48 hours, a process that has previously taken at least three months.
The production contract was signed Monday, May 13, by the Delegate for National Security and German company, Augentic, which will construct, and manage the automated ID Card production system before handing it over to the government after 15 years.
The SDF finds it ridiculous that the government is giving a foreign company the responsibility to produce national ID Cards, which contains vital information about the country’s population.
The SDF called on the regime to cancel “all accorded contracts for the production of secure documents to foreign private interests, while the national printing press, which was created by the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo for this purpose still exists.”
Amongst others, the SDF also called for the increase in time limit for issuing birth certificates by Mayors.
Birth certificates, which are used in making ID Cards, remain a hard-to-get document for millions of Cameroonians.
More than 3.3 million children lack birth certificates in the country, and over 2 million among them are of school going age.
Last month, Mayors from over 300 municipalities in the country congregated in Yaounde for a meeting whose main focus was on enabling quick access to birth certificates for the population.
They pledged to fast track the process but did not agree on a specific time frame within which birth certificates would be issued.
