Speaking as a Guest of Honour at a three day National Identity Management Conference tagged “Delivering Nigeria’s Identity Management System Infrastructure” at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Monday, Imoke averred that no government with the intention of impacting on the lives of its people can succeed without an accurate data to plan ahead.

According to Imoke, before his tenure was truncated on July 14, 2008, it was the intention of government to serve those that need government the most, not necessarily the elites but the extremely poor and  those most venerable in the society by implementing free medical services to pregnant women and children under five years as well as a cash transfer for the poor as a social welfare system that will affect the majority of Cross Riverians, but due to lack of data the programme can not take off.

Imoke explained that non- availability of data has affected the implementation of the laudable programme because government does not know the number of people to benefit adding that it is also not possible to establish those who are vulnerable, poor and HIV/AIDS victims as it has become difficult to provide any meaningful programmes without data.

The Governor reasoned that it is only when there is an available data that government can execute its programme and in order to achieve this, it has partnered the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) the organiser of the conference because it has the experience and the partnership has been of tremendous benefit to the state.

He said government has set targets to reduce infant mortality rate as well as affect the lives of the poor as it sees the partnership with the commission as a pivot for sustainable development of Cross Riverians.

Minister of National Planning and the Guest Speaker Senator Sanusi Daggash in a paper titled “Achieving Vision 2020 through an Improved Identity Management System” said the Conference was approp riate to discuss national identity programme management and its prospect for the future so that the mistakes of the past be corrected and chart a policy at the end of the day for the nation to make the right choice to put it on course.

Daggash stated that a lot of the nation’s potentials have been stifled because individuals can not be identified and as such, much has not been achieved, adding that currently, Nigeria is ranked as 48th Economies in the world, and if correct data are made available the position will drop by 2020, adding that by 2050 it will attain the 12th position with the availability of proper data on demography and natural endowment.

The minister blamed the nation’s slow economic growth on lack of technology, investment, education as well as no interconnectivity among various agencies as there is no available data base which incidentally has created avenue for fraud, explaining that the availability of national identity card for Nigerians will enhance effective credit system.

He noted that government’s view on Due Process and Rule of the Law will not succeed unless the populace is educated and enlightened and it must strategise and look into the future of building the country to know its population and plan ahead, adding that the National Planning Commission intends to use resource agencies for national planning as well as use the governors to get to the grass roots to create a data base.

Dagash posited that the introduction of a smart card  programme will enable government fast track its programme, security system, banking and  taxation system while National Identity Management will enhance revenue collection and service by 2020, assuring that ICT is equally intended to improve  quality of life.

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