A renewed schism between NIMC and staff raises concerns of another aborted national identity card project
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), saddled with providing biometric-linked identity database for the nation, was recently locked in heated rhetoric with some of its workers. About 400 of the inherited staff who were fired reportedly for falsifying their service records picketed some of NIMC’s offices across the nation while accusing the management of misappropriation of funds.
Comrade Aliyu AbdulHakeem, chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter said: “There are lots of ungodly and unruly labour practices going on in this premise. It is like a slave camp where the labour laws are not respected, where the chief executive treats the workers as if they are slaves.”
However, the NIMC Director General, Mr. Chris Onyemenam, has put a lie to their claims. “The issues at stake are fake appointment, promotion, conversion and advancement letters”, said Onyemenan who argued that when some anomalies were discovered among the staff of the now defunct Department of National Civic Registration, NIMC set up a disciplinary committee to determine the extent of the fraud and culpability in accordance with laid down procedures.
According to NIMC authorities, while some of the aggrieved workers shunned the committee and went to the National Industrial Court, they lost their case on grounds that the court would not interfere with an administrative and disciplinary process between an employee and an employer. Even though the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity has intervened by advising all parties to the dispute to ceasefire pending the outcome of a reconciliation process, this is a distraction that the NIMC can ill-afford, especially at this time.
Unfortunately, the dispute has only brought to fore the concerns of many Nigerians over the prospects of NIMC completing its assignments among which are the issuing of National Identification Numbers (NIN), National e-ID Card, deployment of an online-offline identity verification system and the harmonisation and integration of all existing identity databases in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The anxiety is not misplaced, judging by the dismal outcomes of similar projects in the past after huge amounts of money had been sunk. This is reinforced by the fact that NIMC seems to be lagging behind in the time-frames written into the project. Although NIMC has achieved four of the five basic components of the National Identity Management System (NIMS) project, the harmonisation and integration of existing biometric databases in the public sector – the main issue of scaling up to ensure adequate coverage – is yet to be accomplished.
Such harmonisation will ensure uniformity of data and enhance smooth and easy integration into a centralised and functional national identity database. Indeed, former President Goodluck Jonathan, while launching the NIN project October 2014, directed all government agencies requiring identification and authentication service to link up NIMC by December 2014. The essence is to save costs and unnecessary duplications. But that order is yet to be complied with. In the past few months, NIMC management has been criss-crossing the country to present the National e-ID card to some prominent Nigerians.
But there is much more for NIMC to do. What about the ordinary citizens across the country? When will they receive their eID cards? Even though NIMC claims to be on ground in some 400 local councils across the country, the distribution of the cards and other related services is limited.
The management said the supervising authority has paid their financial complaints little heed. Out of the N30 billion approved for the Commission in September 2011 for a period of three years, the NIMC authorities said only N17 billion has so far been released, creating problems that make the agency to be punching below its weight. Yet the national identity card is a worthwhile project. It is in our collective interest as a nation to see it through.
