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That National ID Card Project
By Kayode
Garrick Newsdiaryonline
Fri Oct 14,2011
Now
that the elections are finally over, I have been able to settle
down and take a long hard look at my voter’s card. It does
appear to contain some interesting data. My voter’s card
contains my name, my address, date of birth, age, sex and a VIN
(I presume that means Voter Identification Number). It does not
indicate my place of birth or my LGA. If I remember correctly, I
was thumb-printed during the registration
exercise, but there is no thumb print on the voter’s card. I
believe it must be stored in some data base.
The
voter registration exercise both stressful and tiresome but it
was completed in approximately a month. We are told that about
70 million Nigerians were registered. This is quite a large
number and represents almost half of Nigeria’s estimated
population of150 million.
While the attention of Nigerians was focused on the elections,
another kind of registration was going on quietly and away from
media attention. Nigerians, who own mobile phones, have been
registering their SIM cards. Existing SIM cards must be
registered by June 2011 or else cease to be valid. Thereafter,
every new SIM card must be registered to its owner. This
exercise is likely to involve no less 40 million Nigerians, for
that is the number of mobile phones users we are told exist in
this country.
Like
many Nigerians, I have two mobile phone lines. One is MTN and
the other GLO. I registered both SIM cards at two different
locations during the past month. The required data were no
different from the ones I had given to INEC a few weeks earlier.
..name, address, date of birth, sex etc. I also had my
photograph and thumb print taken. The only difference was that
no card was issued to me.
Look
closely, and you will realize that there is another, constantly
on-going registration taking place in Nigeria. Every Nigerian
wishing to open a bank account is normally taken through a
rigorous registration and identification exercise. The
individual must provide among other data, name, date of birth,
address, next of kin, occupation, referee etc, etc. I do not
know how many bank accounts are being operated in Nigeria but my
guess is that they may be up to twenty million or more.
Taking the three forms of registration we have just looked at,
it becomes evident that Nigeria is capable of registering the
total number of people that make up its population. By June, we
would have had up to 130 million Nigerians registered in one
form or the other. 110 million of these would have been
registered within the space of six months!!!
But
I wonder if the mother of all Nigerian registrars is taking
notice. If you hadn’t guessed by now, the mother of all
registrars is the body charged with registering all Nigerians
and providing each with a national identity card. For as many
years as many of us could remember, Nigeria has been talking
about a national ID card scheme. Billions of Naira have been
poured into the project but with virtually no result.
Indeed, the project has produced more millionaires than
it has turned out
ID cards.
Of
course, there have been excuses as to why this project, so
important to our nation has not been implemented.
The daunting logistics have often been cited as have been
the necessity for even more money. But the fact is that INEC
registered close to 70 million people in all nooks and crannies
of Nigeria in roughly one month. The mobile phone companies are
on their way to registering almost 40 million within six months
without disrupting our day to day lives. The question therefore
is “Why can’t we implement the ID scheme within six months?” The
data required are no different from those used by the other
exercises. Even if they were, I
imagine
the software could be easily adapted to capture the additional
data. It appears to me, therefore,
that Nigeria could actually execute the National ID card scheme
if it had the will to do so. It could and should do so by using
or adapting the same methods that INEC and the mobile phone
companies have used to carry out voter registration and the
registration of SIM cards.
If
President Goodluck Jonathan intends to live up to his campaign
slogan “A Breath of Fresh Air”, he has a great opportunity to
dish Nigerians a first Breath of Fresh Air in his new
presidency. He needs to undertake urgently the National ID Card
scheme and have it completed before the end of 2011. He should
allow no one to intimidate or hoodwink him by claiming that the
project requires further billions of Naira to purchase new
equipment. The very equipment used by INEC for the voter’s
registration could very well be utilized to produce the ID
cards. The equipment is still functional and belongs to the same
Government. And why would the national ID card not serve a dual
purpose as a voter’s card as well…indeed, why not? The national
ID card project is a priority project. It is necessary for our
security as a nation. It is necessary for planning purposes and
we have allowed it to languish for far too long.
Imagine, Mr. President, that you got the national ID card scheme
functioning at last and that by December 2011 every Nigerian
above the age of 16 years possessed a national ID card. Imagine
that this was done at a very reasonable cost…and it could be.
Then Nigerians could indeed begin to believe in a new dawn.
Ambassador
Kayode Garrick
Lives in Abuja
Related
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Identity Card project: ending the nightmare By
Mohammed Haruna
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