{"id":18833,"date":"2011-01-27T18:50:56","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T23:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=18833"},"modified":"2011-01-27T18:50:56","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T23:50:56","slug":"national-id-dilema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=18833","title":{"rendered":"National ID Dilema"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I was reading an article about complaints against the Sierra Leone National ID Card.\u00a0 It was stated that the cards do not have addresses on them.\u00a0 There is a certain reality about the problem of addresses in Sierra Leone and, possibly, most of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0 My travels have taken me to about seven African countries, all along the West Coast.\u00a0 If there is one glowing problem it is the lack of addressing.\u00a0 Look at business addresses on letterheads or complimentary cards and you will see phrases \u201clike opposite the Pharmacy\u201d, or \u201cacross from the bank\u201d.\u00a0 In most of these countries there are hardly any street legal addresses and so for someone to describe where they live can almost mean taking you there physically.\u00a0 There has been very little effort at planning and as such most big cities have been overrun by shanty towns and helter-skelter, non-permitted or inspected buildings or streets that do not show up on a cadastral map.\u00a0 That is just a fact.\u00a0 Added to the above problems there is increasing homelessness which is not been addressed.\u00a0 (Photo:\u00a0\u00a0Sewanu Kponou,\u00a0 –\u00a0 author)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cKahch\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0The problem of accommodation is so acute that in many cities there is a massive level of \u201ckahching\u201d.\u00a0 This is when people stay with friends or relatives, for varying lengths of time, while trying to look for accommodation. That is when you see overcrowding at its best, or worst.\u00a0 \u00a0These people essentially do not have addresses, especially if they can move at any time.\u00a0 When standing in the city center of Freetown and one has cause to look at the outlying hills, you see nothing but structures that have been carved into the hillsides, without any access roads.\u00a0 I am not sure of how these people can have addresses.<\/p>\n

Homelessness:<\/span><\/strong> \u00a0There are certain things in Africa that are not usually put in any proper perspective, to the point of been taboo. Two of these are homelessness and mental illness.\u00a0 There is a level of relevance to this topic because there are a good percentage of people in some of these cities, especially terribly overcrowded cities like Freetown and Lagos, which are homeless.\u00a0 They sleep in parked vehicles, market stalls and the like.\u00a0 How are these people supposed to have addresses?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cArea\u201d Address:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 This is not necessarily Sierra Leone’s first stab at issuing National ID Cards, but it may be the best attempt so far.\u00a0 I will use the example of Gambia to make some comparison.\u00a0 In Gambia, to get any ID, National, Drivers License, Work Permit etc., the first step is to get a Tax ID Number (TIN).\u00a0 That becomes your tracking number just like a social security number is in the US.\u00a0 On the forms to be filled your address will be a street and town address or just the name of the locale that you live in (area address).\u00a0 Applicants input whichever applies.\u00a0 An \u201carea\u201d address in Freetown could be Babadoree.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

GPS Addresses:<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>With the advancement in technology, we may be able to create GPS based addresses, in the event that we do not have street names for the structures\/dwellings.\u00a0 The highest level of usefulness of this system will be achieved when this database becomes tied in with the police to get criminals off the streets, if there is the political, and bribery free, will to do so.\u00a0 This system will also help during elections as registrations are tied in with your ID number.\u00a0 Medical and educational records can be coordinated if they now have the same national ID number, enabling statisticians to get a better look at trends in the nation.\u00a0 When the government is able to give street names and numbers to all structures, then we can expect to have addresses on every card issued.\u00a0 Till then we will have to deal with what we have, which I think is a step in the right direction.\u00a0 Just been able to create a database of all citizens is a big achievement in itself and probably should be applauded.\u00a0 This system will evolve with time.<\/p>\n

Sewanu Kponou,\u00a0 –\u00a0 Atlanta, Ga., USA<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I was reading an article about complaints against the Sierra Leone National ID Card.\u00a0 It was stated that the cards do not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,673,1],"tags":[6694,6695,6696,5492],"class_list":["post-18833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national-news","category-uncategorized","tag-addresses-in-sierra-leone","tag-national-id","tag-sierra-leone-national-id-card","tag-sierra-leone-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}