Students in Kano metropolis have thronged the National Identity Registration Centres in Kano metropolis for enrollment in their bid to beat the dateline for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board(JAMB) and West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) registration.
It could be recalled that the two external examination bodies have recently included the National Identification Number as part of requirements to be met by prospective candidates to be qualified to sit for the respective examinations.
When Chronicle visited some of the registration centres yesterday, it observed a massive turnout of prospective candidates for the two examinations seeking enrollment ahead of the examinations.
Our reporters also gathered that some of the candidates have been at the centres as early as 5 am to get enrolled but were left stranded due to poor network and faulty working tools.
At Hausawa Masalacin Murtala, Chronicle observed that the registration was halted for some hours due to lack of functional power generators to power the equipment as the public power supply from the national grid went out.
Chronicle reports that even the center at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office was overcrowded.
Some of the students and other prospective enrollees who spoke to Chronicle alleged preferential treatment by some officials of the commission who attend to enrollees on the basis of their personal relationships.
They also blamed the slow pace in the whole exercise to lack of adequate man-power and poor network coverage.
Asma’u Sani, an SS 3 student of one of the secondary schools in the state, said that it took her three good days before she got the identification enrollment form.
“I have been coming to the NIMC office since Friday but I couldn’t get the enrollment form until today. Even now that I have collected I am not so sure I can get enrolled today“
For Amina Abdulhamid who is also a student told Chronicle that she came to the office around 3:00 am and up to 1:00 pm she couldn’t get the form.
“As you can see me here I have been here since 3:00 am. And I am still on the queue to get the form. I am so tired and hungry “
Chronicle observed that even the students of Junior secondary school have started panicking as they were at the ID card centre to get their ID number earlier.
Ali Muhammad is a 12 year old and also a JS two student told our reporters that he was at the center to get the ID number early so that he would not have problem when the need of it arises later in the course of his educational pursuit.
“If you can see I did not go to school today, I made the sacrifice for me to have the ID number at hand, so that I will not have to face any problem when I get to SS3”
Though enough awareness had been created about the importance of the document, Chronicle observed that over ninety percent (90%) of those seeking enrollment were compelled to do it because of the examination.
Usseini Abdullahi, one of the students who spoke to our reporters at a registration centre located in Hausawa quarters, Masalacin Murtala said in the past he had no time to spare in order to get enrolled until the recent decision by JAMB ahead of the 2020 examination.
“I was fully aware that this registration was in process since 2014 but I didn’t bother to obtain the document because for me then it was not that very important to me as a person. But today I was compelled to do it because it has been incorporated as part of requirements for JAMB and WAEC” he said.
At Masalacin Muratla Chronicle observed that over 100 enrollees have been stranded for hours on queue due lack of alternative power source.
Aliyu Suleiman a post graduate student who was at the regional office of the NIMC alleged unfair treatment by the officials of the commission.
He said his aged mother sought the enrollment to facilitate her change of name at the bank but was sidelined by the officials of the commission for their personal acquaintances.
“The major problem I noticed here is that the officials are like treating the people on the basis of personal relationships. I mean there is preferential treatment ongoing because I have seen many people that came later after my aged mother had arrived but they had been attended to and have gone but my mother is still not certain if she could get it done today” he alleged.
Responding to some of the concerns, the Kano state coordinator, NIMC, Alhaji Mohammad Auwal Sanusi attributed some of the challenges being confronted by the commission to poor funding.
He however said that despite the challenges the commission was doing everything possible within its capacity to ensure that no child was left out in the process.
He said the commission had being in collaboration with the state government to facilitate speedy enrollment of students preparing for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in the state.
“Since the time the JAMB authority announced the use of NIN by every candidate seeking registration for 2020 exams, the commission has made adequate provisions to ensure that no single child is stranded from sitting for the examination over national identification number. But we believe we have to get so much cooperation of the state, the local governments and various other stakeholders for us to meet up with this need.
He said the commission had over 70 enrollment centres spread across 44 local government areas in the state, adding that as at Monday, it had enrolled about 1.7 million since inception.
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