AS the process of the registration for national identification cards which is being undertaken by the National Identification Authority (NIDA) is going on, former prime minister has called on Tanzanians to show patriotism over the exercise in order to smoothen its operations. Edward Lowasa made the concern in a recent interview which was conducted by the Milimani TV owned by the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) during a special program prepared by the TV presenter Rose Mdhami. Lowasa stressed out his views and noted that, a joint concerted effort was urgently needed so as to defend national integrity as people who are non-citizens might take the opportunity and register themselves and pretends to be Tanzanians. Lowasa gave an example during the liberation struggle of Southern African states for which Tanzania was in frontline and decided to give its passports to freedom fighters and later misused them in some countries they visited like Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. However, he insisted that the issue of patriotism important among Tanzanians and should be put forward and reinforced as it is a sensitive idea that would defend the national integrity in the whole process. In view of this, he has therefore cautioned leaders starting from the village levels to work with care to ensure that the whole process of registration is being undertaken accordingly and in a proper way “Patriotism needs to be observed to defend the rights of Tanzanians in this exercise as this will help to get rid of perpetrators who would snatch Tanzanian citizenship without legal procedures” he said adding that, this is a fight of every Tanzanian regardless of their party’s affiliations Lowasa who is also a Member of Parliament for Monduli constituency has cautioned village leaders especially those bordering our country’s frontiers to be careful with people whom they suspect to be newcomers and tend to tamper with the registration process as their presence would deny the rights of Tanzanians. Earlier, the TV program was prepared to collect views from former Prime Ministers in the country over the newly introduced task of citizens’ registration as Dar es Salaam region being a pilot project.
Edward Ngoyai Lowasa, former Tanzania Prime Minister.
The ex-Prime ministers spoke on the matter in sporadic interviews early this week in Dar es Salaam. NIDA has started the registration of people for national identity cards over one month ago in the city of Dar es Salaam whose extended date to complete the exercise which comes to an end on Monday next week, before the authority embarks on other upcountry regions. According to the NIDA’s laid down procedures for registration and identification of persons Act of 1986 article 9 (2) which states that “where the applicant is illiterate or otherwise unable to write, he/she shall dictate the relevant particulars to a registration officer or any other person authorized by the registrar for the purpose. Upon completion the applicant shall acknowledge the correctness of the particulars by affixing signature or mark in the presence of registration officer or the other finger print or mark. The government of United Republic of Tanzania established the National Identification Authority (NIDA) on 1st July, 2008 in order to let Tanzanians known among the five East African countries and even to overseas countries. NIDA’s core functions include identification and registration of people’s issuance and management of identification cards, management and maintenance of permanent registration book. NIDA’s Executive Director, Dickson Maimu was recently quoted in Dar es Salaam as saying that, the process of engaging the company that would produce the IDs was in the final stages. The $176 million (about Sh200 billion) project has been delayed for decades now with documents, meetings and tendering moving from one office to the other.
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