WHO STOLE MY IDENTITY?

In the wake of brouhaha over Dino Melaye vs. Daniel Melaye, without wading into the crisis, the issue of identity comes to the fore.

Registering and submitting personal details is fast becoming a routine but stressful chore for Nigerians.  

Filling forms and submitting information starts innocuously from birth when your parents obtain a birth certificate for you.  As you proceed to nursery/primary school, another set of forms requesting personal details from your date of birth to information on parents will be submitted to the school authorities.  

Depending on your state of residence and education, you might be asked to submit your details once again when writing the Common Entrance Examination or Entrance Examination to State Secondary Schools in the State.  

If you escape this because you attended a private school, you have three more years before you are called upon to perform a  national service as you apply to write the Junior Secondary School common examination. This is a process you will repeat after three years when you want to sit for the SSCE.  

The travails of filling forms and submitting personal information does not end with completing your SSCE.  Your aspiration to further your education will make your path cross with other “personal information guzzling organisations” such as Joint Admission and Matriculation Board and various institutions across the country.  

As an undergraduate with the desire to communicate with your parents, a detailed registration requiring lots of personal information is required to obtain a SIM card.  Your parents request a bank account to send your monthly pocket money so you rush to fill another form in the bank.  

If for any reason, there is a need to travel out of the country, a visit to the Nigerian Immigration Services which requires another encounter with forms becomes necessary.  

Down the line, you would have to register for your National ID card and obtain a Driver’s license which requires submitting personal details to national agencies.  

With all these database containing housing, personal details and information about Nigerians, you will think getting information about Nigerians will be easy.  No, it is not easy. 

Many Nigerians still lie on forms, wrong age, wrong address, incorrect phone number and the list goes on. 

If the information we have are true and verified, why do we need another census in this country? Are foreigners accounted for or is it still difficult to differentiate foreigners within the country. Why is providing basic statistics about ourselves a recurrent challenge?

Filling forms and submitting personal information should not be a national service or involuntary hobby.  Running the gauntlet to navigate the process in certain organisation and the insensitivity of government personnel makes being a Nigerian depressing.

We need a database that contains information about citizens, no doubt about that. Do we need so many agencies obtaining same information from the same set of people? Do we need those presently doing registration in LGAs requesting BVN? My strong opinion is NO!  

Duplication of effort is a waste of national resources. I am not a database professional but this is my candid idea on the matter. 

At birth, every child should be registered and issued a social number. This will be done at the local government level and uploaded on a central server. 

From my little understanding of database, access can be restricted based on organisation and rank. All Federal and State Government related information about individuals should be domiciled in this database.  

For any application, the provision of the social security number to any Federal or State organisation should suffice. Our duty as citizen should not be filling forms like a permanent job but ensuring the integrity and security of the database.  

Many Nigerians are still wary of providing personal details due to identity theft. BVN is said to make it easier for fraudsters to steal life savings without a trace.

This government of change must assure the citizens that our identity is safe and secure to enable the people feel free about sharing this information without fear.

Samuel Ogunjo writes from Ondo State