The new National ID Card registration process has been ongoing for a long time now. The registration has also been made mandatory. However, there are several problems that are currently hindering the smooth flow of the registration process.
One of such problems is the delay and unnecessary stress that individuals experience from everyday in their attempt to register for the new National ID Card.
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First, when a person arrives at the office of the National Identity Management Commission, located in his or her local government council secretariat, where the registration process is usually carried out, he would usually meet a crowd already gathered around the premises of the NIMC registration centre.
Then, if he manages to gain access to any of the NIMC’s officials and inquires about the requirements for registering for the new National ID Card, he is usually asked to go to a nearby business centre to get the registration form, or to visit a cybercafe to download and print the registration/enrolment form from the NIMC’s website, fill the form, and bring back to the registration centre, usually on a specified date.
Regarding this practice, some questions arise: Is the NIMC registration centre ordinarily not supposed to be responsible for issuing the hard-copy of the enrolment forms free-of-charge to those wishing to register for the new National ID Card? Must those wishing to register for the new National ID Card have to go to a business centre or a cyber cafe to get the enrolment form, at their own expense?
All these contribute to the unnecessary stress and expense encountered by those seeking to register for the new National ID Card.
Then, on returning to the registration centre with the completed forms and other necessary documentation, one is asked to queue up, usually among a crowd of other people who have come for the same registration process. And usually, not everyone who spends precious time waiting on the queue is attended to eventually! People, including the elderly, can spend several hours waiting for their turn, or can even spend the whole day at the NIMC registration centre.
Also, in this period of the coronavirus pandemic, many people are being exposed to unnecessary health risks, as they attempt to register for the new National ID Card, especially with the crowd that is almost always found around the registration centres.
There is usually difficulty maintaining social distancing in those circumstances because of the small space that the NIMC office and its surroundings usually occupy, compared to the crowd present at the registration centres.
In view of all the problems, challenges and frustrations currently being experienced during the process of registering for the new National ID Card, the concerned authorities should kindly look into these issues, and make necessary inputs/adjustments, such as increasing the number of registration centres; etc, in order to ease the stress and suffering currently being experienced by the masses.
Daniel Ighakpe writes from FESTAC Town, Lagos
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