Recently, I took up a board member friend of mine with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on why it is difficult to share data on biometrics while dealing with those seeking driver’s licence from other government institutions.
We were sharing ideas on the rationale behind the FRSC subjecting holders of driver’s licence who want to renew it to fresh biometrics exercise.
But his response suggested that some people in the institutions where biometrics has become an issue are taking advantage of desperate countrymen for their selfish ends using the data.
It then becomes instructive that certain feelers from Aso Rock last week about several critical matters affecting all of us seemed impressive and soothing.
They give ordinary Nigerians the hope that tomorrow could be better even though many are groaning under hardship because of uncertainty in President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policy.
Suddenly, certain things hitherto not in order are beginning to take shape.
Is the report that refineries are now ready to work not as hilarious as the one on the rise in the megawatts of electricity generated which has made supply to be relatively stable not surprising?
Offices where impunity and disregard for norms are beginning to see the need to do the right thing.
I will be shocked to hear that in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) public servants are still asking for kickback before moving files.
Many Nigerians are being made to believe that not much is happening under the Buhari regime. But that depends on the angle from where one is assessing the administration.
Some draw their inference from suffering Nigerians due to the continuing fall in the price of crude oil, the main source of federal revenue that has caused workers to go without salary.
They also argue from the declining strength of the naira against skyrocketing dollar and the impact foreign exchange (forex) restriction has on commerce in particular and the economy in general.
While it is important that Nigerians feel the tangible impact of the Buhari administration, we should appreciate the intangible things it is also doing to fix the country, which we often gloss over as unnecessary, but with huge implications for socioeconomic and political life.
From what we heard last week about the readiness of this administration to bring to account those who stole from the treasury in the last government or even before, and the possibility that certain government institutions misapplying biometrics data must harmonise the system, it is not in doubt that light at the end of the tunnel is plausible.
When Buhari charged government agencies on Monday, August 10 to harmonise the collection and usage of biometrics data instead of replicating efforts, I was excited.
My mind told me that we are gradually getting to the point when government institutions must see themselves as working for the common good of the society instead of the stupid competition for pecuniary reasons.
While Buhari was being briefed in Abuja by National Population Commission (NPC) Chairman, Eze Duruiheoma, he charged agencies that have relied on separate biometrics data to harmonise infrastructure because of the gains in doing so.
He wondered why each agency would assemble its own biometrics data when such facility could easily be shared. The same point I raised with my FRCS friend.
“It will be more cost effective if you work together. It helps even the credibility of the election process, as Nigerians of voting age can be identified easily,’’ Buhari said.
Government organisations that insist on biometric data before issuing documents to Nigerians include the NPC, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), FRSC, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and telecommunication operators providers.
Buhari stressed that all the agencies should collaborate, instead of going in different directions since adequate data is necessary for planning and development.
The idea of biometrics is very laudable to the extent that it helps to check criminal activities. Its potential in information sharing is also huge.
That is why in countries where biometrics has been adopted, sundry crimes are easy to burst by agencies.
It remains to be seen if the institutions which use biometrics data where they have mastered warehousing their information for the good of the society can today do without such. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case because ours is subjected to different uses.
A few years ago when the NCC mooted registering all users of GSM lines, the impression most Nigerians got with the N6.1 billion budgeted for the project was that there would be room for the data to be shared among government institutions.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. No sooner was the exercise commenced than scandal trailed it.
Mobile operators also mandated by the NCC to register all phone users suddenly realised that the regulator had also awarded contracts to seven firms to embark on the same project.
To date, the controversy over the N6.1 billion is yet to peter out.
Part of the problem is that the institutions make money by retaining separate biometrics data, and this is where Buhari must monitor compliance strictly.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan had directed all MDAs engaging in biometric data capturing to align their activities, with a view to switching over to the NIMC infrastructure by December 31, 2014.
“Aside from being unwieldy, the cost of operating multiple discordant databases and infrastructure is unsustainable,” Jonathan said adding that the “government cannot afford the continued proliferation of data capture activities.”
But did the institutions heed Jonathan’s instruction?
Industry observers frown at the proliferation of biometrics infrastructure, and common sense tells us that Nigerians are being made to part with their resources to obtain identification from several institutions.
The NIMC Act of 2007 says its goal “is to foster the orderly development of an identity sector in Nigeria through the development of a modern and universally acceptable identity management infrastructure.”
But how has the NIMC defended its rights in Sections 1, 2, 5 and 6 of the Act, which says that “the primary legal, regulatory and institutional mechanism for implementing government’s reform initiative in the identity sector rests squarely with NIMC?”
What Nigeria really needs is a single database that will capture the data of every citizen, such that information about individuals and organisations could be sourced from a single database.
Considering that the federal government has spent enormous resources managing multiple discordant databases and that millions of dollars has been spent printing national identity cards, registering eligible voters, conducting population census and many other resource-depleting exercises, the time to do a detour is now; more so as the economy can no longer sustain such waste.