The federal government on Wednesday, September 13, moved the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to the Ministry of Interior.
The decision was reached in order to address the intractable problems associated with the National Identity Numbers (NIN) as one of the major conditions for seamless application and obtaining of International Passports and other travelling documents.
The NIMC was until now supervised by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.
Under the previous administration, the NIMC in conjunction with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) collaborated for the linkage of NIN with the Subscribers Identity Modules SIM, to fight incidences of kidnapping banditry, and terrorism. Over 100 million Nigerians linked their NIN with SIM within a period of three years.
The Nation gathered in Abuja on Wednesday that the process of moving out the NIMC to the Ministry of Interior is being accelerated in line with President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s directive to remove all impediments and bottlenecks from obtaining NIN, and Passports.
A source familiar with the operations of NIMC told The Nations in Abuja that the Ministry of Interior remains the traditional home of NIMC. The Source regretted that the problems associated with obtaining National Identity Numbers would have been addressed long ago with technological innovation, except for the mindset of Nigeria’s bureaucracy anchored on “awards of contracts”.
When contacted on the relocation of NIMC to the Ministry of Interior, an official of the ministry confirmed the development.
The official said: “Yes, we have been moved.”
Asked to explain the delays associated with issuance of NIN to Nigerians, especially those with change of birth date and arrangements of a sequence of names, he said the issues are being addressed.
He said NIMC would launch a mobile application by this weekend as part of several innovations to tackle the problems.
He said: “We are coming up with several innovations to address the problems. Nigerians will have opportunities to make online requests for changes of dates of birth, or any updates regarding their personal information. They will apply online and get responses in real-time.”
Asked whether NIMC is aware that some persons are using the problems to obtain money fraudulently from Nigerians, the official dismissed the insinuations, saying such persons are certainly not from NIMC.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Immigration Service has disclosed that more personnel are being deployed to all its frontline desks across the country to meet the two-week deadline set by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
Tunji-Ojo had a week ago asked the Service to clear the over 200,000 Passport application backlogs in the country. He announced on Tuesday that over 55,000 had been cleared within five days of his ultimatum.
The Service maintained that since the Minister handed down the ultimate, the personnel of the NIS worked even at weekends, including Saturdays and Sundays to ensure that the backlogs were cleared.
The Public Relations Officer of the Service, Dr Dotun Aridegbe said that the NIS Acting Comptroller General, Mrs Wura-Ola Adepoju has been proactive in responding to the deadline, while all facilities as well equipment are working optimally.
Dr Dotun said:” We have been working seriously to meet the deadline. And even before then, the Acting CG has been extremely proactive.
“Our personnel are working every weekend at all Passport offices around the country. And the frontline desks are working as well, including on Saturdays and Sundays.”
