The NIN registration ordeal

YESTERDAY, in defiance of Covid-19 protocols, large crowds of applicants stormed the offices of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Abuja and Lagos for the National Identification Number (NIN) registration. Unable to manage the huge number of NIN applicants that thronged its office in Lagos following the two-week ultimatum handed down to Nigerians to link their mobile phone lines with the NIN or get disconnected from mobile telephony, the commission had, on Monday, December 21, shut down the office, citing non-adherence to Covid-19 protocols. On the same day, realising the futility of its two-week ultimatum, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) had released a statement announcing an extension of the deadline for incorporating NIN with SIM cards.

According to it, “The National Task Force on National Identification Number (NIN) and SIM Registration met today, 21st December, 2020. The meeting was chaired by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) with major stakeholders in the sector including Chairman-NCC, EVC-NCC, DG-NITDA, DG-NIMC, ECTS/ECSM-NCC, Chairman ALTON, CEOs of MTN, Airtel, Ntel, Glo, Smile, and 9Moble in attendance. Based on the endorsement of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the following resolutions were made:  three weeks’ extension for subscribers with NIN from 30th December, 2020 to 19th January, 2021 and six weeks’ extension for subscribers without NIN from 30th December, 2020 to 9th February, 2021.” It added that the NIMC had provided strategies to enable citizens to attend the registration in full compliance with Covid-19 protocols.

To be sure, the current NIN registration ordeal being experienced by Nigerians amid the onslaught of a new strain of the coronavirus pandemic is yet another illustration of poor and defective governance practices in the country. If the directive by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy on NIN linkage illustrates anything, it is the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s accustomed failure to think out of the box. This is why the administration is subjecting the  long-suffering populace to another round of registration when the information it seeks to capture is, with a  few exceptions, already in its possession. When Nigerians were mandated to enrol for the Bank Verification Number (BVN), the Federal Government told Nigerians that it wanted to eliminate sharp practices and security breaches within the country’s banking system. Being fully apprised of the number of Nigerians in possession of the BVN, the government should never have asked these citizens to embark on yet another round of biometric registration. It should simply have directed 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 BVN but yet to register for the NIN. Had this been done, the ugly phenomenon of large throngs of desperate citizens thronging NIMC offices amid a raging pandemic would have been eliminated outright. In that case, only those Nigerians yet to be enrolled on the BVN platform, or those already enrolled but who  have undertaken a change of name, would have needed to visit NIMC offices. How sensible is it to force old people, pregnant women, physically challenged people, for instance, to queue up for hours under the sweltering hot sun in pursuit of NINs when they went through the same  process to obtain their BVNs?

Besides, the suggestion that Nigerians can undertake pre-enrolment online and then visit the nearest NIMC office for biometric data capturing is a farce. Reports abound of citizens taking NIMC slips issued after the supposed online registration to NIMC offices, only to be asked to begin the afresh by completing the NIN enrollment form, because “the server is down.” Thus, after expending considerable time, energy and finances on pre-enrolment, such Nigerians find out, to their utter chagrin, that it has all been a farce. Interestingly, NIMC  requests for the BVN and telephone numbers of applicants during biometric registration. In other words, the same government that captured people’s fingerprints during BVN and SIM registration is yet again undertaking yet another round of fingerprint capturing, asking people for information already available on the BVN platform.

As it is, millions of Nigerians have to do data capturing at the offices of Federal Road Safety Commission to obtain their driver’s licence, Independent National Electoral Commission for their voter card and the Nigerian Immigration Service for their international passport. This is, of course, quite apart from the data capturing they did while obtaining their GSM lines and the one they did to obtain BVN. It is a blind administration that requires citizens to submit the same pieces of information time and again. Besides, the current regime of NIN registration is exposing Nigerians to much more than Covid-19 risks. At the moment, it is a crime to get robbed or to lose your phone under any circumstances. If your phone gets stolen,  you are in trouble because no Nigerian would be allowed to do SIM recovery  or obtain a fresh SIM until the NIN linkage exercise is completed, a time line that no one has any certainty about.

On current evidence, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy isn’t acting digitally. This is a ministry that cannot access and obtain extant data from the FRSC, banks and other organisations that have Nigerians’ biometric details. It is supposed to be a technology-driven ministry. It should be able to fashion out a means whereby people can obtain their NIN from the comfort of their homes. Above all, the government should be able to synchronize data. Enough of this charade.

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