|
Nigeria Must Have A Biometric Citizen Database. - A Brief Suggestion By Ben Oghre
Nigeria is a complex society, socially, economically and politically. It is not difficult to note that nearly 50 years since independence the country has failed time and time again to make any sort of positive progress and many of its citizens continue to languish in poverty.
Lack of enthusiasm, failed leadership, corruption, mismanagement and a lack of dynamism, nationalism and patriotism continues to fail the largest black nation on earth; it is safe to say many black people the world over no longer see Nigeria as a beacon of hope for blacks but one of constant embarrassment and resentment.
Nigerians are not the easiest people to govern; passive and willing to allow mediocre leaders they may be, but the activities and conduct of its citizens cannot be easily kept within the law. Desperate citizens and an institutionalized corrupt arm of government means almost every policy fails before it even starts.
A new social engineering order must be established, one that works. Too many failed attempts are no excuse, we need to get it right and keep it that way!
Countless amounts of money spent on planning and consultation only for these plans to become useless and waste. The government pays civil and private organisations to plan the nation’s future but due to lack of simple priorities grasp and misappropriation of expertise means people are working aimlessly to achieve nothing.
It is no longer news that many western countries are working round the clock to ensure the largest black nation on earth fails, but why do we allow them the privilege?
The recent census where the Nigerian Government along with some foreign corrupt companies spent million of dollars (criminally) to count Nigerians with no success was one of such efforts. Nigeria is such a lucrative place to do business for many “white collar” criminal western based companies who continue to flaunt local and international laws to help Nigeria fail in all aspects of it activities.
A failed Nigeria is a large failed section of the black race, one that can be continuously exploited for its natural resources and its people used for cheap labour. Cut of the head of black people by tarnishing the reputation of the biggest nation among them and you have disunity, disorganisation and many opportunities for abuse.
To manage a nation one must first have an enabled society, a society with a road map and a plan that will lead to benefits for the citizens and the nation. It is fair to say despite government claims to have goals and objectives it is not hard to notice that stumbling blocks in the form of corruption, mismanagement, tribalism, religious extremism, ethnic wrangling, mediocre leadership and a failed unpatriotic citizenry continue to be Nigeria s biggest enemies.
What will it take for example to have a database of Nigerian citizens, a database that will help manage the population, one that can be used to assist terrorism prevention, illegal employment and immigration, prevent crime, enable growth, assist planning, collect statistics and help management?
What is a biometric database? In many developed societies birth and death records are recorded in a national database; such a database allows for control and monitoring of citizenship related data and services, immigration status, current employment state, age, social services and health information. A biometric form of database includes the use of things like fingerprint technology and retinal scan to prevent multiple identity and inaccurate records.
Why does Nigeria need one? I suppose the question asked by anyone afraid of privacy intrusion and data protection violations due to the use of biometrics are “Can we not record Nigerians without taking finger prints?” The answer is no we cannot, Nigeria is too complex and corrupt and as such requires the best system for accuracy.
The current state of crime in Nigeria means excesses and uncontrolled issuance of national documents by fraudsters and corrupt government officials requires us to have a system that will prevent double identities, multiple applications and abuse of the services.
Nigeria is badly in need of citizenship identification, recognition and accountability. Nigeria’s porous borders, corrupt police, customs and immigration officials mean we cannot control migration and crime effectively. A lack of credible census figures means revenue is not managed prudently and not dispersed according to demography. A near accurate count will mean better allocation and planning. A biometric database of citizen is automatically a census exercise and one that will be around for a long time.
How can the exercise be conducted? A meeting of all state governors, local government chairmen and councillors will ensure all sections within the Nigerian state are represented in a meeting where Government will mandate the collection of every citizen’s information. It is the responsibility of the ward councillors at primary level to ensure all citizens register themselves or they will not be allowed to conduct most known activities affecting their daily lives.
All government workers can be mandated to register at their ministries and parastatals. Private sector employers can be enforced via strict government guidelines and if not these individuals can be forced via other key day to day services. The average citizen cannot sell their cattle, take a bus, use the post office, apply for phone services, electricity, apply for jobs, or even visit the hospital without an ID card obtained from their nearest ward or local government offices where biometric information will have be taken to issue the cards.
The military and Para-military can of course do theirs easier by simply conducting the exercise on pay day. Ghost workers in all sections of public and private sections of Nigeria will be eradicated.
What benefit will accrue from the exercise?
Every individual born in the Nigerian state has a distinct accent and affiliation with a section of Nigeria, those with no common language understanding and tribal links to a part of Nigeria must provide people who will vouch for their nationality; this will ensure only Nigerians and future born Nigerians are registered and issued with ID cards. For identification purposes citizens must carry on their person the cards which of course they need to conduct daily activities, like many in the western world do. This will ensure citizen identification.
Social security: With the ID cards comes a unique number that can be used as the national security number for every individual, this number can be used to pay taxes, collect government grants and scholarships, obtain training and assistance and to avail of government infrastructure development programs.
Employment: Nigeria has a high rate of unemployment but the biggest obstacle is finding out what skills and education our unemployed possess, and of course creating ways to use these skills in government programs that require them. Suppose government now armed with a database stating the skills of registered Nigerians wants to build or maintain new roads in a local government but does not have enough budgetary allocation to do so, the project can be handled by the plethora of jobless graduates and other skilled individuals who can be given food stamps and some social security allowances in return for helping to develop their nations infrastructure, as supposed to sitting at home blaming leadership for their unplanned birth and current state of despair.
Healthcare: Not only can Government ensure adequate grassroots health centres are provided by demography but it can also use the many jobless trained nurses and doctor for cheaper social welfare programs that will ensure these professionals have a place to go daily, gain more experience for use locally or in Diaspora. The average citizen will also benefit from grassroots’ healthcare. Government can also use the systems to collect information on STD, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Education: Schools can be built by demography to accommodate the number of people in any given ward or local government; again jobless graduates used in schemes aimed at providing them jobs, pocket money and skills while education is provided to those who require it, in a well planned system.
Budget: Financial allocations will be done this time based on population and requirement for development, it will no longer be the case that local governments will be created simply for the sake of additional budgetary allocations to the detriment of other regions. A good headcount using biometrics reduces the trend of guessing just by peoples say so. No traditional ruler can influence government’s decision on budget and allocation because they have influence over leadership; it will be done simply using the evidence collected by a well organised system.
Crime: The most effective way to prevent and investigate crime is using biometrics, currently Nigeria does not have a system for doing this, with almost all committed crimes going unpunished because the wrong people are investigated and detained. In the UK drivers who get stopped by the police using a handheld device could have their fingerprints checked against a national database at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people's identities and control crimes, Nigeria can adopt this policy. The police can check a vehicle's number plates if they are registered against a person who is on the national database, if the car is subject to an offence, like being uninsured or stolen. If the driver does not convince police he is giving them a correct name, they will fingerprint him and verify his identity on the spot, instead of taking him to the police station. Biometric technology will speed up the time it takes for police to identify individuals anywhere, enabling them to spend more time on the frontline and reducing any inconvenience for innocent members of the public. Road blocks and unnecessary mobile police manhandling of innocent citizens must stop if you give them the tools to reduce their inhumane practices. The information on the database can be shared with some international organisations to prevent Nigerian criminals abroad from holding public office in the country or committing further crimes on Nigerian soil. It will also help identify fraudsters, drug dealers and child/immigration traffickers who continue to soil the image of Nigeria. It will also help identify those Africans (especially Ghanaians) who brandish Nigerian passports to commit crimes, thereby helping to debase the citizenship of Nigeria while saving their own countries from the same desecration. Population Control: There are too many people in Nigeria; the population of the country has increased due to a backward mentality and lack of proper education and parent responsibility coupled with retro tribal and cultural practices found in many 3rd world countries. People produce children for the fun of it, with full or part knowledge that these young ones may die of starvation or not have the means to have a sustainable future. Government must ensure the population is consumerate with the economic and social means of the country, currently there are no ways of enforcing a strict control of the population by reducing the birth rate. The practice has sometimes been voluntary; it has to be government-mandated. This generally must be conducted to improve quality of life for the society and as a solution to overpopulation. A biometric database will help collect, record and monitor the trend. The introduction of a system for biometric information I described above is only in a summary format of what government can do to change the fortunes of Nigeria in a long road beginning by providing basic services for its citizen while expecting some information and input from then, it is not too much to ask from both sides. Nigeria claims to have some of the best brains in the world, including a noble laureate, countless professionals home and abroad, writers, economists in the world bank and beyond, individuals educated to the hilt yet the country cannot come together to organize simple programs, not rocket science inventions but basic down to earth systems one will find in places like south America and eastern Europe. The Nigerian project has been started and stopped too many times to the detriment of all Nigeria. Government should engage all Nigerian to come up with suggestion for development and positive change, since the Government themselves are in limbo as to what development means. People live in places were these systems work and they can help Nigeria incorporate such practices into the nations modus operandi. Don’t always ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. Nigeria needs citizens and people who can sacrifice for its development, and not always those who continue to rob the nation blind in the mentality of “cut your own share of the national cake”.
Ben Oghre Aarhus, Denmark 13th September, 2007
|