The needless NIN frustration

RECENTLY, there have been reports  of Nigerians expressing disappointment with the fact that  the  National Identi­ty Number (NIN) registration has, in spite of the promises by the Federal Government, failed to curb insecurity. They are disturbed by the apparent failure of the security agencies to track down criminals in their locations. From a security point of view, the NIN policy is targeted at linking all GSM lines to the NIN and thus facilitating the process of bringing criminals to justice, but that objective has not been realised. As a matter of fact, there are citizens who see the entire exercise as a waste of the country’s resources and a means of corrupt enrichment by officialdom. Citizens visiting the various NIN offices have woeful tales to tell as they are continually subjected to anguish, almost without any exception. The allegation is that an otherwise simple procedure has been turned into an opportunity to extort money from hapless citizens. Surely, the practice of keeping a stash of documents in artificial dunghills portrays the National Identity Management Commission’s (NIMC) offices as veritable frustration centres for applicants.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we deplored the registration ordeal being experienced by Nigerians, characterising it as yet another illustration of the poor and defective governance practices in the country. We wondered why the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was subjecting the  long-suffering populace to another round of registration when the information it sought to capture was, with a  few exceptions, already in its custody. Being fully apprised of the number of Nigerians in possession of BVNs, we said, the government should simply have caused all Nigerians in possession of BVNs and NINs to submit their data to the telecoms operators for linkage with their SIMS, following which it would then assign NINs to those in possession of the BVN but yet to register for the NIN. If only those Nigerians yet to be enrolled on the BVN platform, or those already enrolled but who  had undertaken a change of name visited NIMC offices, the ugly phenomenon of large throngs of desperate citizens in NIMC offices amid a raging pandemic would have been eliminated outright.

Besides, we dismissed the suggestion that Nigerians could  undertake pre-enrolment online and then visit the nearest NIMC office, citing multiple reports of citizens taking NIMC slips issued after the supposed online registration to NIMC offices, only to be asked to begin the registration process afresh by completing the NIN enrollment form, because “the server is down.” We have not been persuaded to change our view that a system which causes millions of Nigerians to undergo data capturing at the offices of the  Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to obtain their driver’s licence, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for their voter card and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for their passport, quite apart from the data capturing they did while obtaining their GSM lines and the one they did to obtain the BVN, is not a neat one.

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Last year, we deplored the fact that the registration process had become a disingenuous way of fleecing hapless citizens struggling to beat the deadline for NIN and Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) linkage as directed by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. Then, the ‘price’, unofficial though it was, of the NIN registration allegedly ranged from N5,000 to N7,000 per applicant. Now, going by the tales told by applicants, the illegal system is reportedly still in place and NIN registration is only free in the way that bail is theoretically free in police stations across the country. The extortionate climate surrounding NIN registration must be changed and the  registration processes shorn of drama.  It is not a thing of joy that the process of registration remains cumbersome, with the NIMC offices always teeming with frustrated crowds.

The government must be concerned that in spite of the modest increases recorded in NIN registration and with the announcement that more Nigerians have been enrolled, it is still the case that many find the processes of enrollment very cumbersome and unwieldy. This ought not to be the case.  With improvements in technology everyday, getting Nigerians registered should be fairly easy. The government has to deliberately work to make the processes simpler and easier to deal with.  The optics of large crowds at all enrollment centres everyday reflects very poorly on Nigeria’s image.  This demands governmental action designed to make enrollment easier and less cumbersome. It should not be too difficult to have a process that would not impose frustration on Nigerians who want to enrol in the NIN. It is up to the management of the NIMC to change the current sordid narrative.