Experts from various relevant fields including security, health, population commission have emphasised the need for Nigerians to embrace electronic birth registration process as a veritable means of generating a strong database of the citizens of the country.
Aside from the fact that the new e-birth registration will give a child an identity and the opportunity to be a Nigerian citizen, experts said that the data that would be gotten from the digitalised registration would assist immensely in tackling security challenges in the country, combating rots in the system and enhancing effective planning and national development.
Reacting to plans by government to launch e-birth registration in five states with the target of capturing 928,523 birth registrations of under-five children in Southern Nigeria before the end of the year, a security expert, Akin Adeyi, called on Nigerians, especially government functionaries to show seriousness and ensure that a reliable data is gotten for the country through the electronic birth registration.
He said Nigeria has not been able to win war against insecurity, cyber-crimes, identity theft and systemic rots in public and civil service because the nation lacks data, stressing that Nigeria’s challenges could be traced to lack of strong data and correct statistics of citizens.
Expressing strong belief that with sincerity of purpose from stakeholders and citizenry, electronic birth registration is capable of providing database for the country, Adeyi, a former Director of the Department of State Services, said, “I have always been condemning the fact that we don’t have data and I have always been tracing our problem to this. How can a country as big as Nigeria exist without any data base? Look at it, it is over 30 years or so that we had a census, and we are just living. It is just like a person who is living and earning his money without any budget. They just wake up and get the money at the end of the month and spend it anyhow, living a rough life. So, as a country, our life has been very rough. The first thing any country should aspire to get is data.”
“Look at other countries; they have detailed data of their citizens. But, in Nigeria, we don’t even know who is a Nigerian and who is not a Nigerian because there is no data. Anybody comes in and does whatever they like to do and goes out. We should interrogate how our rulers have been ruling us and what is the data they are using. Somebody who has children doesn’t know how many of them are males and females, he doesn’t even know the addresses of his children, and he said he wants to plan for that family, how is he going to plan? So, data is very important and with this electronic birth registration, it can be achieved,” he added.
The security expert listed various rots and corrupt practices going on in public and civil service that the availability of reliable data could have prevented, saying, “I don’t know what stops them (government) from having this data. It is only that they don’t want to have it because a lot of secrets will be let out. It will expose some ministries that have been collecting money on the guise that we have so many people that they are catering for and at the end of the day if we embark on this exercise, it will expose a lot. It will reduce allocations of some states. We have bogus population claims in some states and it is one of the criteria they are using to give them money and some other things. So, it will expose a lot and that is why they are running away from having credible and reliable data.”
According to him, “It is not that we cannot do it, we can do it but we don’t want to do it. And whereas, the consequence of not doing it is higher. This is what we are facing now. Imagine, somebody will commit crime in Kano and come to Lagos to be living another life and no trace of him to have committed any offence in Kano, not even the fingerprint will expose him. That is why our policing system is even difficult and very crude. Somebody will join the Nigerian Police in Ibadan, they will dismiss him there, he will travel to Adamawa and he will still enlist into the police and nothing will expose him. They will not know that he has been in the police before and that he has been dismissed.
“Nigeria can do it but they are not doing it because they are benefiting from not doing it. If this electronic birth registration can be given the seriousness it deserves by all stakeholders, a reliable data will be gotten and the truth is that it will affect the budget of the country, the spending, it will affect a lot about the geographical spread, it will affect a lot about all these bogus claim they spend as allocations and even in salary payment, it will expose a lot. A lot of people are dead now and they are still collecting money from the state civil service. As I speak with you, some people are in the security system, they are in the military, civil defence, DSS and what have you, and they are not in this country. They have gone abroad but their salaries still go to them every month, through the collaboration of their colleagues.
“So, if we have data, somebody who is a civil defender for instance will go to the airport and the system there will expose him that you are such a person, working at such a place, are you on leave? They will even contact his office from there but when there is nothing to show that he has records, he will leave the country and still be collecting salaries and those that are aware of it, their colleagues won’t talk because there is a percentage they agree upon. So, for those ones, if you talk about data, they will not like it. That is why I used to ask whenever they talk about recruiting security officers, and I will ask, how many do we have at hand? How many are in service but are not serving us here? How many are collecting salaries? Go to the police pay system, they struggle to go there to go and work and when they get there, they become millionaires suddenly because they are collecting other people’s salaries. So, those are the dangers, difficulties, problems and shame of not having data.”
He called for sincerity of purpose on the electronic birth registration whenever it starts, adding that “It requires a lot of awareness creation and sensitisation, otherwise it will fail like all other programmes that have failed. Sincerity of purpose from all stakeholders is what we need to make it work.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund in collaboration with the National Population Commission, has incorporated the National Identification Number into digital birth registration in Nigeria.
UNICEF child protection specialist, Denis Onoise, in an interview, disclosed that the e-birth registration certificate will automatically generate and secure NIN for such a child, urging parents to ensure that their children were registered digitally, as it would be useful during school enrollment or visa or international passport applications.
In the same vein, Chief of UNICEF Field Office for South West Nigeria, Celine Lafoucriere said e-birth registration for children in Nigeria would enhance effective planning and national development.
The director of NPC in Lagos, Bamidele Sadiku, said e-birth registration would promote efficient government planning and effective use of resources, noting that a well-developed and functioning civil registration system entailed the registration of all vital events, including births and deaths.