Revisiting the ID Card Project

Revisiting the ID Card Project

The Nigerian National ID card project started about 20 years ago (by the then Gen Obasanjo administration) with the objective of having a verifiable source of development planning data, thereby enabling the government provide social amenities to Nigerians. With an effective National ID card system the government would have been able to build a comprehensive national database of all Nigerians of 18 years and above. Unfortunately for us, the government wasn't lucky with choice of consultants, contractors and partners for such an all important National assignment.

Over the years the Federal Government had to spend some billions of Naira as a result of this unfortunate situation. Despite all the problems the project faced however, the need for a very reliable national database and National ID card has never been as critical as they are today in Nigeria. In many countries the National ID card is being developed into a government multi purpose card (As I saw in Malaysia during my last sabbatical). This card contains all the necessary bio data of the holder in addition to such other applications as police information, drivers licence, health and social insurance details, immigration and passport details, plus any other application the government may wish to add in the future. One had thought that the public hearings on the project would also focus on what obtains in other parts of the world.

Many Nigerians followed the Senate committee hearings on the above subject with great interest, hope and expectations. A lot of us invested our time, energy and resources attending the proceedings of the committee, in the belief that at last Nigeria is about to get it right and enjoy all the associated benefits that accrue to an organised society via the implementation of 'a modern multi purpose national identity card.' The kind of dirty and startling revelations that came out of the hearings could only be matters for Justice Akanbi's Anti Corruption Tribunal to resolve. However, to our greatest surprise, the report came out clearly indicting only a few members of the 'Afro continental cabal'. This cabal is made up of the following:

(a) Afro continental Nig Ltd (b) Afropim Nig Ltd (c) Hydroma S A (d) Chams Nig Ltd (e) Sagem S A (f) Tekcom & Associates (g) Computronic Tech Ltd.

During the said public hearing for instance, representatives of SAGEM admitted the fact that it was wrong for the government to pay twice for the same project i.e. referring to fresh payments made to Afro continental, Chams and Sagem for the same items. Also during the hearings, the representative of Chams admitted the following facts under oath:

His company collected USD 200,000.00 as 'sign on fees'! There is nowhere in the world where any body collects something as colossal as that amount as sign on fees in a technology related business, when everybody knows that the government was not in the process of recruiting a football technical adviser. It is not unusual to collect advance payments after all necessary bonds are secured.
The man also admitted collecting 100% of his money without delivering an equivalent amount of equipment.
He also admitted collecting his full money before signing any contract with DNCR.
Finally the gentleman admitted the discrepancy in amounts (USD1, 400,000.00) paid to him on the one million cards @$1.25per card.
The chairman of the senate committee produced the actual prices of the Personalisation equipment and the cards, Chams was alleged to have quoted $750,000:00 for a unit of the personalisation equipment, whereas the price got from the manufacturers was $250,000.00 a unit! The cards were sold to the government at $1.25 as against less than 50 cents the actual price. With all these issues not fully explained satisfactorily in addition to the other issues of over invoicing on the card personalisation equipment, one cannot understand how such companies would escape indictment.

The case of the consultant is equally unfortunate, especially considering the fact that he was supposed to represent the interest of government. Knowing fully well that his area of competence is mechanical engineering, one wonders why he decided to venture into issues of system integration, which are clearly beyond his competence. Perhaps that explains why, despite the advancement by other countries of the world in the areas of modern smart card technology and centralised AFIS systems he is recommending the outdated barcode technology which is clearly too expensive and difficult to implement. Such technology Nigeria will certainly junk in the next two to three years, just like what South Africa, Malaysia and Australia did. The technology currently recommended by the consultant is limited to only one application, when others are adopting multi purpose cards that enable them to have applications like immigration, police, health insurance, NSITF, NHF, Drivers Licence etc, all in one card. By going this route the DNCR would have paid only a fraction of the N18billion that they are about to expend now.

Having regards to all the above issues, it really is tantamount to selective justice for some to have been spared indictment.

Given the amount of time taken and the attendant benefits of doing a proper job on the future National ID Card in Nigeria, one would have expected the senate committee to have made far reaching suggestions to government as to the way forward. In addition to the fact that a technologically high profile project like the National ID requires more than a professor of mechanical engineering as a consultant, The Federal Government should have exploited its membership of the G18 in order to tap from the experiences of other countries that have successfully executed similar projects and who have similar profile and antecedents as Nigeria.

The appointment of the consultants should be by international open tender, where the best and most competent candidate would emerge and the objectives of the government clearly defined. This would also enable the government to leverage on the support of other countries that have successfully implemented similar projects before. The clear definition of objectives in a manner that would enable the government harness the best technology available in the world today in the area of multi purpose ID card technology is a critical success factor. Also the government would be able to bring together more government departments that would harness the benefit of a national ID system, beyond INEC and NPC. Such departments should include the Immigrations, Police, SSS, NIA, Central Bank, FMBN, NSITF, FRSC, FOS plus members of the organised private sector and any other department of government that may have direct or indirect relevance to a National ID card. This way also the unit cost of producing a multi purpose National ID card would be minimal because all those government and non- governmental agencies would have shared the cost.

Also the various agencies would now have common database from where to cross check any information provided by any Nigerian at all times. For instance, it won't be easy for anybody to commit a crime in Aba and escape to Maiduguri without the police apprehending him, or one person have two Nigerian passports, since his or her finger print is in the National Central data base. Therefore the problem of multiple issuances of such passports would be completely eliminated. The police would now have a comprehensive criminal record. All the records of contributions made by individuals to the NSITF would be properly kept, so also the contributions made by Nigerians for the housing fund and other similar programmes. With a comprehensive and integrated government multipurpose card, the whole concept of governance would change in Nigeria. Due to the high security nature of projects like this, government agencies like the NSPMC should be invited to handle those aspects that have to do with the printing and personalisation of the cards.

In conclusion, every member of the Afro continental cabal must be made to properly account for all the crimes they perpetrated against the father land in line with the anti corruption stance of the current administration.

Prof. Adegbomire is a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Maiduguri.