NATIONAL IDENTITY CARD SCHEME PALAVER: FOR THEIR TODAY…WE GIVE UP OUR TOMORROW

By

Ritchie Ejiofor

I was totally perplexed at the recent remarks credited to retired general Buhari on the national identity program. This program has been stalled and still birthed so many times that had me wondering out loud rationale behind it. Not until I read the outburst of our ex-military head of state, urging the far north to oppose it’s implementation as predictably to be disastrous for the northern folks who in his words are largely illiterate and would be disenfranchised with the use of the program did I realize the truism in our double standard ideals of One nation…different destiny. I am further perplexed and thrown in a state of morbid tongue tying because of the caliber of General Buhari and the time bomb this view would cause for a nation trying to heal it’s wound and walking on a perilous terrain.

I hold in very high esteem the person of General Buhari even though he almost smeared whatever remains of such credibility by accepting to work for late Abacha whose human rights record could only compare with (his) Buhari’s iron fisted clad on Nigeria during his brief tenure. I am inclined to believe albeit erroneously now with these remarks, that when our serving leaders  say nation building and one Nigeria, it only approximates to lip service geared for public applauds without very strong conviction, since it is difficult to divorce religion and ethnic affinities from their roles as leaders even while in and out of office. So my understanding of the rationale for introducing and adopting a national identity card is for the country to able to truly unify and identify Nigerian citizen from the bunch of imported Nigerian courtesy of our loose borders on the northern and southern fringes. The use of an ID card scheme in the very long run, would save the embarrassment witnessed during the Shugaba and Alhaji Mandara deportation saga, which was laced with severe accusation of political undertone.

The advantages of having a national identity card are too numerous to desire further details, but it suffice here to say that, for any person to allege that, only the north would be affected by this program because of the overwhelming illiterate population is to insult the common sensibilities of other Nigerians who know better that illiterate communities are abundant across the country and it is not peculiar to the north alone. The bottom line of all these therefore is that the identity card scheme would block so many exploited loopholes attendant with its absence. One of the most notable has been the inability of the country to proper identify with any semblance of credibility the identity of a true Nigerian for the purposes of taxation, etc.

One obvious short coming with the present absence of any a creditable national identity in identifying a Nigerian has been the fact that during electioneering campaign our borders becomes so porous that the emergent influx of immigrants are used to the outcome of votes since there is no well known means of verifying the identity of eligible voters across the country. The fear of losing political control and the attendant resource allocation and distribution advantages such control confers, accounts for the recent sporadic distortion of Nigerian well-known pre-colonial history by a select group of writers.

This trend is becoming fashionable for this crop of writers to bamboozle into the sub-consciousness of "apes-obey" Nigerians; their intentions cannot be said to be apolitical in any ramification. It is intended to create chaos, unfounded agitation and a disruption of the intended SNC. I have read the articles by Dr Bala Usuman "Misrepresentation of Nigeria: The facts and the figure" as well as Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa ‘s "Disenfranchising the North through the National Identity card scheme", and more recently the summaries of Professor Jubril Aminu’s lead paper under the aegis of the Fourth Annual Champion newspaper lecture series in Lagos, and came to a very pathetic observation of the apodictic situation facing our dear country which I hope to share with my readers.

Although, there has been some rejoinders to Dr Bala Usuman and Professor Aminu’s articles by Rudolf Okonkwo and Dr. Peter Ekeh entitled "Miseducation of Professor Aminu" and "The Mischief of History: Bala Usman's unmaking of Nigeria's History" the brief of these rejoinders and my position here is to debunk those distortions of history by a section of Nigerian scholars and writers before it is erroneously accepted as aphorism by the uninformed. It is necessary to provide an unbiased analysis which would act as an aperitif to these falsehood being mildly reinforced through well known scholars like the Usumans. The position enunciated by these eminent scholars could have far reaching effects on the present clamor for restructuring the country. So therefore the apercus of their articles is to produce a new theory for sustaining northern domination of the country. In achieving this grand plan they recourse to willful philistinism and a tacit adaptation of Trevor Roper theory, which denies the existence of African history and substituted it for the history of the Europeans in Africa… and nothing more pretentious.

These Nigerian apostles of Trevor Roper School of thoughts opines will all seriousness of academic aphorism that the pre- history of West Africa and by extension pre –colonial Nigeria is nothing more than the "history of the stronger, well civilized Muslim Hausa/fulani states and those in the sahel region. "So therefore, the north are better placed to lead and rule Nigeria.

This is given credence by Ado-Kurawa’s opening preamble thus "Throughout the West Africa, it is the Sahel and Sudan Savannah areas, which have usually produced the greatest states of the region". In support of this assertion, Kurawa avers further that " The Sudan-Saharan peoples of West Africa produced sub-Saharan Africans greatest achievements in state craft all of the early states and great empires of West Africa were located in this region… The sokoto caliphate, which was one of the most prosperous in pre-colonial Africa was also in this Sudan Savannah…The impetus towards large states building " later in the forest region with the rise of the great Benin kingdom and Alafinate of Oyo " was probably brought from the north and east towards the end of this thousand year blank period of stateless history of the forest region."

This views and several others religiously relied by the likes of Ado-Kurawa is by no means the report of Muslim cleric who do not acknowledged the achievement of an unbeliever( infidel). In this stereotype; secondary school history books are inundated with ,the achievement of Mansa Musa a Muslim believer king of Mali Empire was eulogize, while downplaying the achievement of Sundiata who was believed to be a non Muslim hence he had negative or no report in those pre-history report. It does not support the conclusion that there were no other rulers prior to Mansa Musa in the then Mali empire. This is just an example to debunk the reliance of this one sided muslim cleric report by Ado-Karawas. Another example is the fact that Ancient Ghana empire history is so sketchy until Almoravids attacks which obviously was another muslim attack on a non- muslim empire. There is no denying the fact that ancient Ghana no doubt enjoyed several years of prosperous era before the Almoravid attack. The wealth of gold is a testament to that fact.

The point here is that the only highlighted pre-colonial history of West Africa is those written by Arabic cleric who concentrated on Muslim states and nothing more. Nor is there any iota of truth from the assertion that the area geographically known as the forest zone was uninhabited any group or as was a "stateless" society as Euro-centric scholars in the likes of Trevor chose to describe them. The Igbo states till date have had republican blend democracy that had all the trappings and semblance of the ancient Greek city states. The mere fact that they did not engage in reckless greed motivated wars shows their levels of civilization then and established clearly that they lived in harmony and was never conquered by the so called "stronger" sahel empires. The truth of the matter is discernible when there is recourse to oral tradition and archealogy and other accepted historical tools in the reconstruction of pre-African history which would help correct this lopsidedness in historical reports .

More subtly, Bala Usuman devised an analogy to show how the northern region by it’s residual deposit accounted for the present accumulation of the wealth of the Niger-Delta region he concluded that," therefore these states, covering 60% of the Nigerian area should be regarded as the primary oil producing sates (sic) and in line with this parochialism, it can be demanded, aggressively too that the basis of distribution of the revenue in the federation should be changed because all the raw material from which crude oil and natural gas are made in the Niger Delta, and it’s hinterland are derived from other states of Nigeria, upstream in the Niger-Benue basin…" how plausible and clever this argument is!. Why wasn’t this theory remembered when the groundnut and cocoa pyramid boom was in vogue in the then regional arrangement? Why was this sacred derivation formula changed when a northern military officer became the head of state coincidental with the sharp decline in cash crop earning? These are political incorrect questions to be answered in later day Nigeria. Although, this exhibition of aphasia does not deplete the brilliance and erudite nature of the academic prowess of Dr Usuman, I am only disturbed that he is on the verge of eclipsing himself as a patriot.

Back to the issues at hand, the salient points as expressed by these articles is reinforcing the theory that the north is destined to lead, and rule Nigeria as well as control it’s resources being the originator of such wealth. The only way to reverse this trend and ensure fairness and justice is for restructuring of the system hence there is vociferous dissemination of distorted history and campaign of mudslinging ever since the agitation for sovereign national conference gained momentum.

Another twist in the entire campaign is the call for a unitary government as the best option by no other than professor Jubril Aminu, a professor of medicine whose resume is filled with political appointment straight out from medical school. A man who has been in the corridors of power and a think tank of the Arewa school of thought. His views should be taken with all seriousness going by previous antecedents. The oldest and persistent argument against late general Ironsi’s attempt to introduce unitary government was that, it was viewed by the north as an attempt to "IBONIZE" the country hence the 1966 coup was justified QED. I am inclined to think that the introduction of the same system rejected by an over whelming majority in the north then, if adopted now would be denounced and rejected by the east as an overt attempt to continue the Northenization policy adopted in the late Tafawa Belewa era. It is too late now for the likes of professor Aminu to recourse to unitary system when there is a growing demand for a more conducive federalism clamor. Maybe there is a fear in the mind of the professor and those he represent that a proper federation would be detrimental to their aspiration as against a much more broader national cohesion and unity.

My position right now should be clear to my readers that I am not against the north, neither am I in support of the southern states. But as Shakespeare said, "I do not love Caesar less, but I do love Roman more" My views are for a better Nigeria and all means necessary towards achieving that noble goals. Having said this, I do support the clamor to restructure the country through the convocation of a sovereign national conference. But the truth of the matter is that this conference in itself is not the antidote to the problem. It would not usher in an automatic magic wand solution, but would hope to provide a platform and avenues toward identifying the problems and seeking practical solutions with authority enforcing its resolutions. The results to all intent and purposes may not be manifest immediately but it at least gives a framework and guidelines for solving these problems almost everyone is clamoring for, a problem which remains an aphanites unfortunately to the vast majority of our brothers in the north who appears to be of anti- restructuring of the country.

The elections are around the corner once more and the laudable intention of the national Identity card is been mingled with a given political configuration. Ado-Karawa and ex-general Buhari have quickly debunked it’s lofty intent with remarks that it is intended to disenfranchise the north consequently the north would opposed it’s introduction. Nobody cares to periscope it’s usefulness as being likely to mark the genesis of a more creditable means of identifying a true Nigerian from the pack marauding as Nigerian citizen via weak boarders which is let loose and open in electioneering years. This account for the discrepancies and inflationary figures in the various census exercises and therefore the conclusion becomes very political, volatile and contentious . It is unimaginable to discern any or, fathom any reason for the display of apoplexy to the ID card scheme by the likes of Ado-Karawa. I also fail to see how it would disenfranchise the north alone! Illiterates are not peculiar to the north but are abound in the southern states too. The issuance of this Identity card which is somewhat similar to the social security administration in the US would no doubt take a long time to fine tune it once operational, but should not be discarded at the drawing table simply because it would be fraught with problems or threatened with fraudulent procurement. No program of such nature worldwide is error- free. It must go through a trial and error process.

The reasons canvassed by Ado-Kurawa is at best biased and showed a nepotic display of prejudice and unfounded fears"

"The ID card project is the first strategy that will be used by the Yoruba tribalist to ensure that the north becomes depopulated on paper before the next census…the Yoruba tribalist are committed on they (sic) desire to use the ID card for future elections. This is because with their firm control of all organs of civic registration they hope to manipulate the exercise so that the north will have fewer voted thus permanently denying it’s peoples the chance of "winning" any future presidential election" Given this stream of thoughts expressed above, it is therefore no surprise why census is tied to political quest for control of power which enhances absolute control of resource allocation and distribution under this present structure in Nigeria. In reality Nigeria tops the list of countries where some sections are ignorant of taxation, and where those who steal public wealth are glorified, a nation where non taxpayers are expressly uninhibited to vote.

The intent of this ID scheme is to correct this aberration and to provide a tax base besides near accurately projecting the population. The population figures should only enhance representation but should not confer any resource allocation and distribution advantage to any states or city. The practice whereby the then old Kano states was allocated more federal revenue than the then Bendel states provides the background understanding to the opposition of the ID card scheme by some section of the country. Like I enumerated above, the issue of census would forever be contentious whether it is called ID card scheme or not. Any attempt aimed at counting the population at any material time would be view as political moves unless there is a de-emphasis linking population with resource allocation or control. The government should not be discouraged rather a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. An ID number would in subsequent years give the relevant authorities a veritable tax base. It is up to the various states to provide accurate figures through their various, local government areas so as identify eligible tax payers because this present system of resource distribution and allocation will definitely give way to a truly federalist derivation formula and by them taxes would provide the main stay of government revenue. So who therefore is afraid of taxes?

It is remarkable that general IBB years ago urged Nigerians through his famous "For their future we give up our today" speech urged Nigerians to sacrifice for the country, yet several Nigerians have not yet come to grasp with the fact that things don’t work unless it is implemented. It took America nearly 100 years to fine tune the social security card system, yet we are still concerned with seeing and experiencing a perfect system upon introduction. Some people are scared to leave their comfort zone and unwilling to sacrifice for future generation of Nigerian unborn. When the views of antagonist to restructuring is juxtapose vis-a-vis national interest, one does not need a rocket scientist to discover that every one of them tries to feather for their immediate needs and not for those unborn.

Adieu the count down for change has started.