IT is surprising how some quarters in our society are politicising President Edgar Lungu’s directive for all members of Parliament (MPs) to return to their constituencies and lead awareness campaigns for people to obtain National Registration Cards (NRCs).
President Lungu recently said all MPs must ensure that they lead the mobilisation of all eligible persons to register for NRCs in order for them to be able to register as voters later this year.
For many years since Zambia reverted to plural politics, Non Governmental Organisations (NGO)s and other civil society groups have been carrying out campaigns to conscietise people on their right to vote.
How different is it when the call comes from the mouth of the President who as Head of State is helping these groupings in their voter registration campaign?
Why is almost every directive that comes from the Government now being politicised by some misguided people who like hearing their voices?
We say this in view of the hullabaloo that greeted the Government’s announcement of the Statutory Instrument number 65 of 2011, which made it mandatory for sellers of mobile phone SIM cards and the network operators to capture identity details of persons to whom a SIM card was sold and the number assigned, which came into force in June 2012.
Some quarters cried blue murder accusing the Government of using the details to track those it perceived to be against the Government. That has come to pass with no such fears being realised.
Now, here we are again politicising a simple matter like having a registration card in this era and age.
In countries like Britain, the system of identity checks applies for all and is regularly adjusted to make it serve its purposes, among them, curbing access for illegal migrants.
In these countries, identity cards, apart from being necessary for voting, are required essential immigration checks before anyone can open a new bank account, be issued with a driving licence or access routine health treatment.
Why then are they being politicised in Zambia when elections are only a few months away?
The critics of the campaign for citizens to obtain NRCs have greatly missed the point and are behaving as if the Government is trying to introduce fitupa – passes that the colonial masters imposed selectively.
The issue of identity cards when politicised can be segregative as was the case when the Belgian colonialists arrived in Rwanda in 1916, and introduced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity.
The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours.
Resentment among the Hutus gradually built up, culminating in a series of genocidal attacks on Tutsis and moderate Hutus who were killed, and many more forced to flee to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.
To the contrary, in Zambia, NRCs are for the good of everybody who is Zambian and help immigration officials to identify illegal aliens.
The President means well by calling for the awareness campaign since Zambia is not xenophobic and has legally seen that all foreigners living here have complete immigration documents.
Thus we join him not only in his call for MPs to jump-start the crusade, but by calling on other stakeholders like traditional leaders, the Church, the media and civic organisations for citizens to have their NRCs and exercise their right to vote in 2016. OPINION