THE approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of N30.66 billion for the National Identity Card (NIC) project immediately gives an impression of yet another official attempt to fritter public funds away, for motives that are less than altruistic. For one thing, the amount is huge for a country battling on many developmental fronts; and for another, this is one project that has consumed so much of the nation's scarce resources with very little to show for it.Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry that no less than $214 million was expended on the identification card project in 2001, through contracts awarded to French company, SAGEM, under President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, only for the project to be stalled by fraud of monumental proportion involving several high-ranking public officials. They included three former ministers some of who were actually charged to court. Curiously, but true to character, public expectations from the revelations were dashed as the case hangs in the balance.Like folklore, the ID card project continues to gulp public resources at intervals, leaving little substance. The FEC anchored its latest approval of fund (N30.66 billion) for it on production of a unified National Identity Management System. The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is saddled with the implementation of the project's new phase in conjunction with other government agencies such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHS) among others. The cost benefit of the new attempt lies in integration of all biometric data from different government agencies. This integration if achieved would reduce the cost of processing and storing data by different agencies. All Nigerians who have attained 18 years of age and above are to be captured in the project. This new remit appears to have addressed the concerns earlier raised by NIMC over multiple identification initiatives by existing institutions such as the Pension Commission, Land Registers, Federal Inland Revenue Service, SIM registrars, Law Enforcement Agencies, Financial Institutions, INEC, Immigrations, and FRSC, with varied registration processes.The latest impetus for this project that has failed several times is that it is expected to help deal with the security problems in the country in some measure. Originally, the NIC was meant to control the influx of illegal foreigners into the country and authenticate other civil documents such as travelling passports among others. All the same, past failures of this project cannot be wished away. Nor can the perception of government flaunting security concern to justify yet another misappropriation and misapplication of scarce national resources.In the last 12 months, INEC alone received about N85 billion to organise the last general elections. Substantial part of that money was expended on Identity Data Capture Machines for Biometric Registration of Nigerians of 18 years and above. The commission declared that it registered about 70 million Nigerians. This fact, as well as the statistics in possession of the other agencies, should ordinarily provide a solid base to consolidate the NIC project. But this advantage is scarcely reflected in the new scheme being proposed by the Minister of Information.Besides INEC, the National Communications Commission (NCC) is also currently collating biometric data from Nigerians with a budget of about N6.1 billion while sundry private telecommunication firms are taking the biometric data of Nigerians. These undertakings should form a reasonable pool of data, as the agencies involved have the requisite information. Moreover, this path will reduce cost. The data once pooled should be converted into smart cards with which to break the jinx of the NIC project.The idea of integrating biometric data of Nigerians collected by various agencies of government is sound. But public concern about the project being perpetually jinxed is again underlined by the questions raised by the Federal House of Representatives over this new effort. In a legislative scrutiny, the House called for the suspension of the project on the grounds that are both constitutional and normative. The money voted by the FEC for the new NIC project was not appropriated in the 2011 Appropriation Act and for that reason, the FEC's action becomes unconstitutional. Also, there is no information on the state of previous efforts on the project, a process that has been underlined by corruption. The House went further to mandate its committees on Interior, National Planning and Economic Development to investigate the state of the project and also requested the leadership of NIMC as well as the Minister of Interior to appear before it.To ensure the integrity of the project, there must be harmony of the relevant agencies' activities, and the statistics on ground, particularly with a view to drastically cutting cost. The federal lawmakers can achieve this through their oversight function. Government should spare the nation further embarrassment by first ascertaining the deficit in the ongoing exercise and declare what data it has collected to warrant a new exercise.The House intervention on the matter underscores the inherent contradiction of nation-building in the country ' that is planning without facts. How can the FEC approve such project without the full relevant facts, including source of fund' This omission speaks volume about the integrity of the governing elite, and challenges of governance besetting the country.Despite its many setbacks, the NIC project can be useful for the nation on sundry legal transactions such as payment of taxes, social security and voting, in addition to the immediate security concerns. Its value to national economic development cannot be overemphasised. By contrast, its continued embellishment in fraud constitutes an immense encumbrance to national development.
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