President of the Senate, David Mark has cautioned the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that the current exercise of registering and issuing National Identity cards to Nigerians should not fail like the previous efforts.
Obviously disappointed with previous projects, he said ” we must emphasis efficiency this time. We do not want another white elephant project . All we want now is positive results and not the woes why it failed”.
Mark said when the management team of the NIMC briefed him on the launching of the new project billed for today (Wednesday) in Abuja that all the bottle necks that bedeviled the past exercise must be cleared to ensure the success of the new project.
From the briefing by the Director General of the commission, Mr. Chris Onyemeam, Senator Mark noted that there is no doubt about the importance of the project but “my worry is about its effective implementation and continuity”.
He therefore counseled the commission to employ the state of the art technology to get it right in a manner that it would be sustainable even for generations yet unborn.
The Senate president enjoined the commission to liaise with other agencies of government such as the National population Commission (NPC) and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in order to avoid duplications and ultimately save cost.
Mark assured that the National Assembly would give its full backing to the commission so that the project can succeed without hitches.
Earlier the Director General of NIMC Onyemenam explained that the New project is a product of painstaking research to eliminate the pitfalls of the previous exercise saying that it came with an improved technology.
He added that the new national identification number and card when issued has a ten years durability which would be multipurpose.
Onyemenam announced that deployment of enrollment centres in all the local government areas across the federation for the commencement of the exercise begins on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.
