Old Wounds Hobble New National ID Project

Again, the renewed verve by the federal government to register Nigerians under the national identity card scheme may be a white elephant like the last attempt in 2003 to unify and identify her citizens, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
All the problems that led to the failure of the previous exercise are yet to be addressed including poor arrangement and numbering of street addresses in the cities, towns and villages.
This was responsible for the uncoordinated nature of the last project when it was difficult to produce and distribute the identity cards as planned.
Today, even postal and courier services find it difficult to locate and deliver mails to Nigerians and businesses in parts of the country.
Elsewhere, lack of computer information system/database in local government areas of the country and poor record keeping of birth and death may also work against the success of the project.
It is not also certain if the computerization of the production of the identity cards have been completed because in the past, the former management of the Directorate of National Civil Registration (DNCR), concentrated production at its Zone 5 headquarters in Abuja despite the huge amount released for computerization and access.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the current management of DNCR now National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) discovered that already produced identity cards of six states were locked up in a warehouse in Abuja a situation that made it impossible for those registered in some states to have their identity cards.
Established by the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007, it has the mandate to establish, own, operate, maintain and manage the National Identity Database in Nigeria, register persons covered by the Act, assign a Unique National Identification Number and issue General Multi-Purpose Cards (GMPC) to those registered individuals, and to harmonize and integrate existing identification databases in Nigeria.
Determined to rejig the project, the federal government in April set a target of registering 100 million Nigerians in 30 months under the national identity card project.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that to meet that target coverage, government said that it will engage the private investors to participate in the management of the project.
The latest effort has the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which states that very soon those without the national identity card may not be able to access bank loans.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, CBN governor said “the CBN will liaison with the NIMC with a view to enhancing the National Identity Card project”, and that “whenever the National Identity scheme takes off we will ensure that no new credit is extended to anybody unless the person has a national identity card”.
As at now, only about 40 million Nigerians have so far been issued with the national identity card despite the huge investment on the project. No fewer than 70 million out of an estimated 140 million Nigerians were supposed to have the identity cards.
Identity card system is needed because many people in Nigeria operate with fictitious identities and this has hindered government programmes in many sectors.
For example, the tax system, criminal justice system, banking and financial system does not operate on real identities thereby making the various systems less productive and efficient.
The idea of a national identity card was first mooted in 1978 by ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, who was then Nigeria's military ruler. Since then, the issue of a national identification system has been subject of fraud, controversy and resistance.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recalled that in 2003, the Sagem bribery scandal broke when the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission arrested some politicians, ministers and senior government officials for receiving huge bribes from Sagem for the National Identity Card Project.
Sagem was awarded a $214million dollar contract in 2001 to produce national ID cards that would be distributed across the nation.
There is also varied resentment of the national ID system, while others claim it would invade the privacy of the citizens, some sections believe that it would offend the religious sensibilities of Muslims.
The success of the latest project does not mainly depend on the huge investment on hardware and software. It will require political will and courage.