On January 31, Nigerians received with surprise, the news that Nigeria had been added to US immigrant visa ban list, along with five other countries including Eritrea, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania. According to the White House, the temporary ban was necessary because of the national security and public safety risk posed to the US by foreign nationals from countries with inadequate identity-management practices. The US, with this action, is concerned that it will not be able to sufficiently vet potential migrants from these countries.
Observers and public commentators have rightly blamed the government and its relevant agencies for not foreseeing – much less – forestalling the unfortunate occurrence. More critical observers say that the Nigerian authorities had foreknowledge of the US’s intentions, but foot-dragged until the hammer eventually fell. Indeed, the US government confirmed that it notified the affected countries as far back as March 2019 when its review process started. But even if Nigerian officials foreknew, were they equipped to address the issues raised by the US in a timely manner? The issues are far-reaching and even foundational. It implies that Nigeria must revisit an uncomfortable issue that it has ignored for so long.
Quote:
“The Nigerian e-passport booklet is, for all intents and purposes, a tech product. According to Iris Smart technologies, the company behind the e-passport, the booklet production constitutes only 20% of the e-Passport project, and the security printing aspect constitutes only 13% of all the components of an e-Passport booklet.”
Citizens have heaped blame on the government as they look to rationalize this development. A House of Representatives member has gone as far as suggesting that government agencies that allowed this to happen ought to be punished. Several theories have been propounded to justify it. Some have said that Nigeria’s passport data is held by 3rd party actors, and as a result, seamless information sharing with the US has been hampered. Other more conspiratorial views suggest that this was the continuation of long running issues stemming from when President Buhari was a military head of state. These views are inaccurate.
The discomfiting reality is that the government has been for so long, derelict in its duty of proper record keeping. The minister of information, Rauf Aregbesola, acknowledged this much when he said last Friday that the federal government was working towards better surveillance and intelligence gathering, through digitizing the management and control of the nation’s land borders. In the light of the now rampant internal security challenges, this should have come a long time ago. Nigeria has had very limited knowledge of its own citizens, and this ought to change urgently. But there are glimmers of hope. Examples of stellar work that have been done in the area of digital identity management are Nigeria’s e-passport scheme, and the BVN by Nigeria’s banks.
A lot of Nigerians do not realise how robust these digital identity management platforms are. The Nigerian e-passport booklet is, for all intents and purposes, a tech product. According to Iris Smart technologies, the company behind the e-passport, the booklet production constitutes only 20% of the e-Passport project, and the security printing aspect constitutes only 13% of all the components of an e-Passport booklet. Nigeria’s e-Passport scheme is recognized by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as one of the most innovative globally. In 2009, this recognition was bestowed, and subsequently, Nigeria was appointed into ICAO Technical Committee for Public Key Directory/Public Key Infrastructure.
Lessons from these two areas should have been learned and deployed in critical areas of public administration like identity management – which has implications for administering social security and maintaining domestic security.
This is a long-term project that frankly should have started ages ago. And ignoring this task has resulted in poor outcomes such as the huge gap in our national database.
