Emmanuel Thomas
May 11, 2015 – Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola today received his Electronic National Identity Card(e-NIC) in his office emphasizing the importance of a credible identification platform for all citizens for the development of Nigeria.
In his short remarks at the Lagos House after going through the process of issuance and activation, Fashola emphasize the role a common and reliable identity management exercise could play in the quality of life of the people.
“One cannot really overemphasize the role a common and reliable identity management exercise will play in the quality of life that is ultimately deliverable when government, whether at the national or state level, is able to really identify all of the people it is responsible for”, he said.
Noting that a credible ID Card would help government to do many things in terms of planning, the Governor said if the first ID Card exercise had been done successfully, it would have eliminated or substantially reduced the pressure that we all put ourselves through in trying to get our Permanent Voters’ Cards”, adding that the card would have carried so many parameters of the features of an individual to enable the electoral body to know who was eligible to vote and who was not.
Fashola urged all those involved in the production to realise that if they did it well, they would be contributing substantially in building Nigeria, warning that doing otherwise would mean undermining the country.
Commending the commission for the completion of the process thus far that led to the production of the card, Fashola, who reemphasized the importance of the undertaking, pointed out that the nation was now paying for what went wrong in the previous exercise.
Earlier, the Director General of the Commission, Mr. Chris Onyemenam, said he took the opportunity of his visit to Lagos to present the card personally to the Governor since it was not possible to enroll him during the initial exercise .
The Director General, who expressed gratitude to the governor for his support to the commission, recalled that Lagos State was one of the two locations in the country selected for carrying out the pilot scheme adding that the commission has 23 locations in the state.
“The expectation is that we will cover the whole Local Council Development Areas from what was given us this year and we hope that those locations will form the basis for ensuring the smooth distribution of the cards because of the process that we take”.
He described the card as a multipurpose document with “unique identification and card issuance” saying that a unique identity card is issued based on unique database adding that unique identities are created or established when a set of standards are used “particularly when it is founded on a biometric”.
The Director General said the biometric would either be a fingerprint or a face or a combination of an individual’s features which, he said, would make the card a unique unambiguous identification of the individual adding that what the National Identification Management Commission was charged to do was to provide a foundation identity.
“So, it becomes possible for all functional identities, whether it is the state’s Resident Registration or Tax Registration or any other form of functional registration or identity, to take, as it were, a benchmark or a reference database for ensuring that at every point in time, it is the one and the same person you are dealing with or you can establish you want to deal with”, he said.
He said the Card is one of the valued propositions that flow from that system” adding, however, that it does not stop states from doing whatever they want to do but rather “provides a platform for the inter-operability and signage.
“The first reason we have adopted this system is that if the need arises in future, we may need the services of a third party to reach the owners of the identity cards. That was the problem that attended the first scheme and we thought this was the quick way to address it”, he said.
The Director General, who said the second reason was that there is a payment solution on the card, added that the card derived the title “multipurpose” from that fact , explaining that aside the fact that it is “a KYC card to know who you are dealing with”, it also provides a payment platform and, therefore, potentially enables the citizenry to deal in the formal financial system”.
“Because it is a prepaid card and the conditions under the electronic payment standards, as set by the Central Bank of Nigeria, are observed one of which is that, it must be filled and distributed in this form”, he said, adding that the third was “to preserve the card from when it leaves the bureau up until when it gets to the individual as part of the process of ensuring that there is privacy”.
Highlight of the occasion was the enrolment of the Governor which involved finger printing and entry of four digits Pin Number by the Governor followed by activation of the card. The Deputy Governor, Hon. (Mrs.) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, was also taken through the same process.
