That Edo State ID Card Project

Edo state government last week launched its citizen’s identification project, thus, becoming the first state in the country to initiate such a project.
Under the scheme, the state officials collect biometrics of indigenes and residents and issue them citizen’s identification card.
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, state governor said the initiative was to enable the state generate an effective data bank that will enable government know the actual member of people in specific segments of the state for purpose of planning.
“This project is designed to improve our capacity to plan for the welfare of our people and for the infrastructural and economic developments of our State. The old culture of throwing money at problems is neither desirable nor sustainable. We can do so much for the people if we can correctly determine their needs", he explained.
The governor expressed concern that before now, Edo State lacked accurate data pointing out that the vision was to fully automate the critical areas for effective governance.
According to Oshiomhole, personnel are being mobilised to commence the issuance of the citizens identification card, free of charge, as details of the exercise will be made available in the next few days.
There would have been no need for the Edo state project if the national identity card had not been hobbled by bureaucracy and meddlesomeness.
We agree that there is need for a very reliable database that contains all the necessary bio data of the holder in addition to such other applications as police information, drivers licence, health and social insurance details, immigration and passport details, plus any other application the government may wish to add in the future.
The Edo state project is a stepping stone and we hope that this will ginger operators of the national ID card project to harmonise the scheme so that it will become a universal access card.
Government of Edo state should also be careful not to oversell the benefits of identity cards in its "enthusiasm" for the scheme.
For one, the scheme is not a panacea for tackling kidnapping, ghost workers and other related vices.
It is important for the government to assure the citizens that the scheme will not eat deep into the state coffers and that it will not infringe on civil liberties.
The state government should also enact state specific laws that will govern the project bearing in mind that there is no personal data protection in Nigeria.