By KEMI KASUMU
On Tuesday, The DEFENDER published an article exposing some of the factors militating against successful policy implementation in Nigeria with focus on National Identification Number (NIN) citing corruption and sabotage by officials in charge.
At the tail end of the article the writer appealed to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, for a three-week extension to enable SIM Card subscribers yet to register to get registered so as not to be blocked at the expiration of deadline.
What happened today (Tuesday) at the Lagos State Command of Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Command Headquarters, location of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) handling this registration was an improvement although, in our judgement, there is still room for further improvement. There are other outlets across the Local Government headquarters.
The DEFENDER was on ground, although unsuspected, and it monitored the activities at the centre which is located opposite Shoprite, in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State capital.
Our Correspondent arrived the NIN Registration centre at around 8am and as at that time, there were 506 people given number and out of that number, 200 had been called.
Negative thing that happened was keeping the people outside the gate inside sun but in the end, more than 400 people were attended to while over a hundred had to go back home to come another day.
Although there were little, little abnormal situation in the venue as some people, who were not on the line came either in car or by calling inside and gate opened for them to have advantage over those who had been standing in sun. The number of such cases was however not enough to reflect a sabotage as 80 percent of people on queue registered and even from among the remaining 20 percent that were unable to register for the day, we heard comment of satisfaction.
On Wednesday, we will be going to a Local Government office that we won’t reveal now for our monitoring.
Meantime, some members of the public who did not go to any centre said they could not go because money was being collected from people to get the NIN done.
One of them, who said his wife registered at a university in Ota, Ogun State, South West Nigeria two months ago after paying N3,000, said people still pay to do the all-important National Identification Number on the premises of the institution owned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The DEFENDER reports that the linking of SIM Cards to NINs is an approach by which President Muhammadu Buhari is using to solve security problem in the country, which was passed on from 1999 era of the former President.
We also report that Obasanjo has been at the forefront of condemnation of President Buhari for the security problem in the country, but respondents questioned the moral rights he has to criticise Buhari, such a leader, whose university premises allow officials to “swindle” citizens to the tune of N3,000 to get what is rightfully meant for them by government in NIN.
On way to improve the process to meet deadline, a respondent said:
“The truth is, one, let us agree that the process is meant to be meticulously based and so it takes a bit time per one person. If at one centre there are Ten Machines per centre and 100 persons line by one, 1,000 Nigerians will be registered per day at that centre. If for instance in Lagos of one NSCDC State Command Headquarters and 20 Local Government Outlets you have this arrangement, it means you have 10 Machines in 21 centres, it means you have 210 Machines in Lagos State. If 10 Machines register 1,000 persons in one centre per day, it means, in 21 centres, 210 Machines multiplied by 1,000 will register 21,000 per day in Lagos State alone.
“If you have 21,000 persons registered in one state per day, it means across 36 states of the Federation 756,000 and when you add same from FCT, using the number of Lagos (21) centres as template, Nigerians registered in 36 states 756,000 + 21,000 FCT = 777,000 Nigerians will possibly be registered in Nigeria one day for National Identification Number (NIN),” he suggested to government.
