The House of Representatives committee on Diaspora during an oversight visit to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) urged the commission to commence without delay the registration of Nigerians living in Diaspora so that they can be captured in their database for easy identification when the need arises.
Another aim of the oversight by members of the committee is to inspect the infrastructure in NIMC to know if they have the capacity to capture Nigerians within and outside the country.
According to the chairman, Rep. Rita Ojir representing Ajeromi/Felomi federal constituency of Lagos state, she said the exercise is very crucial owning to the fact that the national identity card is supposed to be the major source of identity for Nigerians home and abroad.
Speaking further, Orji said “the failure of government to exercise its responsibility has led us to the mess we are in, because a situation where Nigerians living in Ghana are been asked to pay as much as 120 dollar to obtain an identification card is unacceptable and unpatriotic”, she queried.
The Director General (DG) , Engr. Abubakar Aliyu during his presentation told the committee that they are willing to enroll all Nigerians within and abroad because they have all it takes but their major challenge is funding.
He also said inadequate finances has slowed their pace judging by the speed which they started.
Engr. Abubakar further said since commence of registration, it has enrolled 12.5million Nigerian with 1million cards already printed and been distributed across Nigeria.
He also explained that the short fall in printing of the identity card is also due to non availability of funds.
"If government can fund us, we have the capacity to produce 80 cards per hour. Also in a year we can produce 4 million cards with the 3 printers available.
If we get special funding we promise to capture and issue the cards instantly.
He further admitted that the registration of Nigerians in diaspora is key, adding that it would require a lot of funds and considering the recession, it might be a challenge, Abubakar stated.
The committee however advised the DG not to use any foreign firm as proposed but rather collaborate with Nigerians In Diaspora (NIDO), an existing organization that is well known abroad that can help with the registration.
A member of the committee, Rep. Jonathan Gaza representing Karu/Keffi/Kokona federal constituency of Nasarawa also speaking said he is please with the DG for stating the facts as regards inadequate funding but he is unhappy with the performance of NIMC.
"You have Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and 14 other agencies that you share fibre connections yet you are complaining of not having funds?", he question.
Gaza also blamed the commission for not carrying out enough awareness despite the importance of the national identity card.
"You need to cry out loud, every country is stronger by its database because it helps them in development and planning.
You have also not made Nigerians realise the importance of this organisation", he explained.
Rep. Gaza also assured NIMC that the committee would do its best to come up with a bill that will make it compulsory for Nigerians to have the NIMC card.
"Let's see how we can put up a bill that if you don't have NIMC card you can't access the banks, hospitals etc".
After the inspection of NIMC facilities, the chairman of the committee, Rita Orji advised the DG to harness the potentials and that NIMC should depart from the piloting scheme and move to the level of been a captain.
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