No fewer than 88 million Nigerians and other legal residents have been captured so far in the National identification registration exercise.
The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer DG/CEO, National Identity Management Commission, NIMC Aliyu Abubakar made the above statement on Thursday, at the residence of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, when he led the management team of NIMC on a courtesy call on the monarch.
Speaking through the Commission’s Head of Finance and Investment, Mr Akinola Abolaji, who led the delegation to the palace, the NIMC boss said the visit was in commemoration of the 2022 ID Day with the theme, “Traditional Institutions, Critical Stakeholders for Citizen Mobilisation.”
The DG/CEO stated, “The Identity Day (ID Day) Campaign is the ongoing call for government authorities in all countries around the world to officially recognise 16 September as Identity Day. The choice of the date was concerning sustainable development goals that call for a legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030.
He explained that the ID-Day campaign was initiated by ID4Africa at the 4th Annual Meeting of the ID4Africa Movement on 24 April 2018, in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said the initiative was met with strong support where over 1500 individual signatures across the globe endorsed the proposition.
Abubakar disclosed that the Nigerian Government approved the recognition of the date in 2020 as National Identity Day in Nigeria, otherwise called ID-Day, to raise awareness about the role identity plays in empowering individuals to exercise their rights and responsibility fairly and equitably in modern society.
He used the occasion to authenticate the activities of some private individuals’ involvement in the registration for NIN.
He noted that the Commission had issued licenses to private partners (Front End Partners, FEPs) to increase the number of enrolment and to ensure that all Nigerians are captured.
Abubakar stated that the licensed partners are representatives of NIMC, saddled with the responsibility of enrolling Nigerian citizens with a token and are funded by the Government.
He noted that their license allows them to provide Front End Services but not to do any modification to the existing data.
According to him, the Commission has been transferred to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
He said: “We all agreed that Nigeria needs an effective identity management system more than ever before to curb the menace of security challenges in the country and identity problem being faced daily by Nigerians living in Diaspora.
“It is imperative and important at this stage of the growth of our NIDB and recognition of ID-Day to move to the grassroots for the enrolment of individuals where the Traditional Institution has a key role to play in citizen mobilization for NIN issuance,” Abubakar added.
Welcoming the visitors, the Olubadan, Oba Lekan Balogun, commended the NIMC for the feat.
He said the Commission had proved its ability and capability as far as its core mandates were concerned and deserved all the necessary encouragement to do more as the country still has a long way to go, looking at its over 200 million population.
The Monarch described the activities of the NIMC as very crucial and strategic to the growth, progress and development of the country.
He stressed that the country might not have been so overwhelmed by the current challenges of insecurity if it had an up-to-date database.
While acknowledging the role of the traditional institutions in the mobilization of citizens for every masses-oriented programme of the government, the monarch charged the NIMC team to ensure that the expected awareness is created, especially at the grassroots, to make the mobilization of responsibility seamless.
He further charged the Nigerian Government not to look back in its determination to ensure that Nigeria ranks high among the comity of nations, with accurate dadatabase across the globe.
Confidence Okwuchi
