Buhari: National ID To Complement Voter’s Card

President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday that the continued registration process by the National Identity Management Commission of the national identity registration would be used to complement the nation’s permanent voter card.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari

He therefore has urged Nigerians that for their votes to count, they must ensure that they are absorbed under the scheme.

Buhari speaking briefly with State House correspondents shortly after his own registration at lobby of the Presidential Villa’s Council Chambers said: “I think this exercise is very important to confirm our population and those who are entitled to vote, that is those who are 18 years and above. It will complement the exercise of the permanent voter card. So, for those who want their votes to count from whichever party or constituency, they should ensure that they and their families are properly captured,” after being given his temporary identity card by Mr. Chris Onyemenam, the Director-General of NIMC.

The Punch reported that Onyemenam while speaking with journalists confirmed seven million Nigerians to have been captured under the scheme.

He believes a rise in the figure following the synergy currently going on between the commission and Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

In his words: “On our data base, we have a record of seven million Nigerians. In collaboration with other agencies, in the next three months or so, we hope to quadruple that number. In the past, the private sector was expected to perform that role, so government did not focus on that. The close to seven million that we have in our database is the product of the pilot scheme that we embarked upon to demonstrate the value of the scheme. Now that the MDAs are going to step up the harmonisation, the database will be populated in a matter of weeks. As a matter of fact, we are at the stage of migrating the data from the Bank Verification Number and that is about 20million. We are truly on course and appreciate Mr. President for that recent directive that biometrics databases in government agencies should be expeditiously harmonised.”

Onyemenam made known that the registration was a continuous exercise, while making sure that enrolment centres were opened in each local government area across the country.