Over 35 years after the first failed attempt by the federal government in 1979 to establish a national identification database for the country, the scheme was again revived last Thursday in Abuja with the high profile launch of the electronic identification (e-ID) card by President Goodluck Jonathan at Aso Villa. This new attempt is born in the context of failed past efforts; therefore, the Presidential fanfare notwithstanding, this is by no means a fait accompli, meaning all hands must still be on deck with regard to its execution. Shoddiness and inaction could set in and the lukewarm attitude which is characteristic of government bureaucracy may prove the undoing of the project, whose contract was awarded five years ago in 2009.
Immediately after the launch, the President ordered the integration of all the multiple databases by government agencies into the new e-ID card project under the supervision of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for proper administration. This may not be a problem as any adequate national identity card project ought to be integrative and reduce these sundry bureaucracies in the public sector. It therefore stands to reason, that the NIMC should use existing data bases from these other sources to cut cost and eliminate duplication and waste.
Declaring that some of the developmental challenges Nigeria faces stemmed from lack of a reliable database to identify the true people being engaged, he expressed the hope that the ID card project would help in this regard. In launching the project, Jonathan also decried the multiplicity of databases by government agencies and the attendant deployment of the country scarce resources into such projects and stated that the integration of the databases would go a long way in curtailing the growing trend of corruption, particularly in the administration of the subsidy and pension administration. He applauded the wisdom of the scheme’s originators like former President Olusegun Obasanjo and directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor to immediately overhaul the Nigerian Security and Printing Company by partnering with experts to upgrade it to international standards to begin printing all the country’s needed security documents so as to save foreign exchange. All of these are great rhetoric.
Beyond the euphoria, the President however failed to clarify controversial comments attributed to NIMC Director General, Chris Onyemenam that registration of Nigerians for the new identity card would only begin after next year’s general elections. Against a history of recurring electoral fraud and consequent credibility and legitimacy crisis in Nigeria, it is not surprising that concerns are being voiced over voter registration for the 2015 general election.
For sure, the need for the e-ID card is indubitable, we are however pessimistic about its success and hope that the new initiative will not reinforce the cesspool of corruption which has characterized previous implementations. The NIMC faces the challenge of multiple identification initiatives by extant institutions such as the Pension Commission, land registry, Federal Inland Revenue Service, SIM card registration, law enforcement agencies, Financial Institutions, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Immigrations, and Federal Road Safety Corps with separate registration processes.
It would be recalled that in the late 1970s, the Department of National Civil Registration (DNCR) with the responsibility to provide National Identify Card (NIC) for Nigerians was created and there was a re-launch in 2003 under a contract awarded to Sagem, a French company. However, the entire process was dogged by failed contracts and poor implementation and above all, scandalous bribery, which turned the latently laudable project into a drain pipe for scarce national resources. Beyond the scandal of the 2003 exercise, there were other challenges such as non-availability of National registry of birth certificates to establish Nigerian citizenship; registration of non-Nigerians, double registration, wrong documentation, underage applications and on top of these, was the inherent politics of perceiving the process as a basis for accessing national resources. The method of registration was made to look like a war for the national cake.
Originally, the NIC was meant to check the influx of illegal aliens as well as validate other civil documents such as travelling passports, beyond the inadequate census demographics. That was in the past. Today, a national identity card is required for sundry transactions, namely, the registration for voting, payment of taxes, credit transactions, access to health insurance, access to pension and social security, purchase of land and for the issuance of passports and the opening of bank accounts.
But contradictions in the national identity card project provided the justification for the establishment of NIMC by Act 23 of 2007. The Act provided for the introduction of a chip based technology aka General Multi-Purpose Card (GMPC), integrate a unique process of registration and enrolment of demographic and biometric data of eligible persons as basis for “the establishment of a national identity database, harmonization and integration of the existing identification databases in government agencies and issuance of unique personal identification numbers.” It has among its mandate, the provision of “unique set of principles, practices, policies, processes and procedures” and to put in place “an identity management system infrastructure” that can make verification practice possible.
Population figures have always been a subject of fierce controversy in Nigeria and the projection by the National Population Commission (NPC), that the population of young people is expected to reach 73,188,057, out of a total of 221,392,163 by 2020 was no less so. Doubtful, if not dubious, in a country where there is a dearth of vital statistics, where registration of births, deaths, migration, and others is still a mirage, the figure given by the NPC, therefore, offered no comfort. A projection based on faulty population database can only be misleading and makes national planning a joke. The 2006 NPC census put Nigeria’s population at 140 million people. The census said Kano was the most populated State with 9,383,682, followed by Lagos State with 9,013,534 people. But the parallel census conducted by Lagos State at the same time put the state’s population at 17,553,924 people. It was on this basis that the Lagos State Government went to the census tribunal to challenge the NPC figures.
Since 2006, various figures ranging from 160 to 200 million people are bandied as Nigeria’s population by politicians and other interest groups desirous of having a lion share in resource allocation since the country uses population figures to share resources. Many people are aware that Nigeria is operating largely on faulty population figures which largely account for the poor planning in the country. Not long ago, the former Chairman of the NPC, Festus Odimegwu, drew the ire of some sections of the country when he declared that the country has not had a credible census since 1816 following which Kano Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso fiercely debunked and called for Odimegwu’s sacking. His eventual sack, of course, has not solved the problem and the truth remains that there is no credible figure of how many people there are in the country. And until that problem is resolved, hopefully with the new e-ID project, Nigeria cannot get planning and development right.
