By Owei Lakemfa
WHEN you go for a Nigerian passport, you are finger printed, photographed and your signature, taken. Then you provide your full names, height, date of birth, place of birth, permanent home address, state of origin, Local Government, home town, e-mail, phone number, occupation, marital status, maiden name, colour of eyes and hair, special features, next- of- kin, the kin’s contact number and address.

This comprehensive amount of information is electronically stored and kept away. It belongs to the passport office and perhaps, its supervising Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is a stand alone in a world of networking. It is practically useless to other agencies, who install their own data collection system and personnel, and take the Nigerian over similar field.

You go for a driver’s license, you are finger printed, photographed, your eyes tested and made to provide basically the same information  as in the passport form.  In the banks, you are made to provide similar information plus referees and, in some cases,  a physical inspection of your home. Periodically, the  banks make the customer undergo rounds of verification including the on-going Bank Verification Number (BVN) which an estimated 56 million Nigerians are forced to participate.

There is the National  Population Commission (NPC)  a permanent bureaucracy which like the god of the stomach, requires daily offerings. In its traditionally, controversial census exercises, the Commission obtains an enormous amount of data that basically, would have been sufficient for all our needs for a  decade. In the 2006 census, it claimed to have counted and taken full statics of 140,003,542 persons living in the country. With its statistics underutilised and its information in no centrally controlled information bank that would have made procurement of other biometric data, virtually unnecessary, the Commission is asking for N273 Billion with a N10 Billion down payment, to conduct census in 2016.

At the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) where Nigerians are expected to be issued National Identity (E-ID) card, Nigerians undergo the same process of documentation. The NIMC has been particularly, a notorious drain pipe through which  virtually every government that comes to power, siphons our national resources.  In 2002 and 2003, the Commission  seemed to have got its acts together as there was a massive identification of Nigerians. The process of registration and collection seemed quite straight forward and easy. Then the magic started; people were asked to begin registration all over and ‘update’  their old cards.

New contracts were awarded, and one registration move, cancelled another. Then there was a new $214 Million contract  awarded to the French company, Sagem, now rebranded as SAFRAN. For this, three serving and former Ministers of Internal Affairs and Labour were charged with seeking $2 Million bribes. France  also investigated the scandal, and the company was fined $500,000 for bribing Nigerian officials.

The circus show continues with periodic house cleaning exercises, including massive lay-offs,   a promise to  give cards to 70 Million Nigerians, and N121 Billion down the drainage.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is another centre where by acts of (the) commission or omission, the documentation of Nigerians are duplicated with attendant fund and time wastage and a chaos in the electoral system. In the 2015 elections, 68,833,476 voters were allegedly registered, then began the titanic battle to produce the Permanent Voters Card. The battle was almost lost with over 20 million voters unable to collect their cards and the elections itself, and by extension, the country’s very existence, threatened. This was one of two main  reasons (the then opposition will call it excuses) given for the postponement of the elections.

The fact is that, but for the bungling of projects like the National identity scheme, INEC, which had a chunky budget of N92.904 Billion for the elections,  should have no basis being burdened either with  voters registration or updating such register. Such fatty substances which makes bodies like INEC, over bloated, could, and can be removed by a simple National Identity card.

With the identity card which should carry basic information of the bearer including photograph, thumb print and age, all the  voter need do, is present it to the electoral officer. With a National Identity Card which authenticates the bearer as a Nigerian, and can be read by card readers, we would eliminate any need for voters registration or updating the voters list, and consign the challenges of foreigners, ghost and underage voting to the dustbin of history.

We have the problem of multiple registration of Nigerians by all sorts of agencies, partly because of a mentality of  creating autonomous fiefdoms in government. What really is the difference between  the NIMC and NPC? Governance is not all about budgets, appointments, promises, declarations and threats. It includes running the country in the most efficient and result-oriented manner, and the prudent and innovative management of  resources, including human resource, for sustainable development.

With such over documentation, and various federal bodies having and managing individual data, why are we said to be a federation or have a central government in place?

Then President Goodluck Jonathan seemed to understand the issues when in August, 2014, he ordered the SGF, the Attorney General and the Central Bank Governor to harmonize not just the various biometric projects, but also other projects in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, with the E-Identity card scheme.  On that occasion, he had declared “ The regime of duplication of biometric data bases, must now  give way to harmonization and unification with the e-ID scheme, which shall be the primary base”

But like many laudable pronouncements of Dr.  Jonathan, it is not certain to what extent  his directive was carried out or if this is contained in his handover note.

Now, President Muhammadu Buhari has made his own  declaration. Speaking at a meeting with the  NPC  Chairman, Mr. Eze Duruiheoma,  he ordered Government Agencies to harmonize the collection  and usage of biometric data rather than replicating efforts.  Whether this will be implemented and by whom, remains to be seen.  But what I know is that Nigerians are subjected to many biometric  registration with little governance.