By Prince Osuagwu

THE Director General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri has described the National Identity Management System,NIMS, as a revealing project that will provide a comprehensive National Database in Nigeria.

Omeri on a courtesy visit to the National Identity Management Commission,NIMC Headquarters in Abuja, gave his counterpart at NIMC Barrister Chris Onyemenam a path on the back, urging him to remain focused on the time table in delivering the project, saying that Nigeria’s road to a credible database was tied to the success of the project.

“What you are doing will no doubt eliminate bottlenecks and streamline the activities of all data collection agencies for the interest of the nation. Nigerians need to be fully aware of the National Identity Management System, its importance and benefits to the government and people of Nigeria. This help our people in demanding for their rights and other basic social needs from the Government”

He promised that the National Orientation Agency was ready to collaborate with the commission to explore avenues that will encourage Nigerians to embrace the project and come out to enrol and obtain their National Identification Number (NIN)

“The National Identity Management System (NIMS) is the best thing that will happen to Nigeria in these critical times of security challenges.  It will help the Federal Government to tackle insecurity and social vices in the Country.

“Time has come when all the agencies claiming to be gathering one data or the other would come to know and understand the NIMC roadmap because I see them collecting pieces of information while NIMC is collecting comprehensive data for the interest of the country”, he added.

Earlier, the Director General of NIMC, Barrister Onyemenam, had in his introductory remarks reminded NOA Director General that the Commission’s main reason for reaching out to NOA was based on the commission’s belief that the Agency has the core competence to reach out to Nigerians in a convincing manner to buy-into this all important NIMS project

Barrister Onyemenam added that Nigeria cannot remain focused on the issuance of Identity card instead of the new trend of Identity Management because without the database infrastructure, the project cannot succeed.