By Adedapo Adesanya
The House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, over the delay in the release of National Identity Cards from 2012 to date.
Also summoned is the Director-General of the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC), Mrs Abisoye Coker-Odusote, whose agency is tasked with executing the project.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion titled Need to Investigate the National Identity Cards released from 2012 to date was put forward by Mr Muhammed Shehu at the plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.
The lawmakers said the mission was to find out the reason behind the delay in issuing the national identity card, which was rolled out under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The house urged the committees on Population and Anti-Corruption to report their findings back to the house within four weeks, for further legislative action.
Mr Shehu said that despite the availability of resources for rapid production and electoral transparency; Nigerians have continued to encounter obstacles to updating their information with the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) database.
He said this was due to a lack of attention from the government and ineffective service delivery.
He said despite receiving annual budgetary allocations in 2017, 2018 and 2019 to fulfil its mandate, efforts to produce and release national identity cards had been unsuccessful.
This, according to him, required urgent intervention, and attention of the federal government.
He said that government intervention in restructuring the commission was necessary for effective service delivery, and to revitalise the commission’s operations as well as re-affirm its goal.
This, he said, was to provide accurate data and identification documents to the citizens, thus restoring the confidence of the Nigerian populace.
