Prof Isa Pantami who is the Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has made some fresh revelations that he had also received several threats from some Nigerian citizens following his proposed introduction of the National Identity Policy Implementation.
Also, Pantami had also made a disclosure that the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari administration has increased the National Identity Database by 150% in three years.
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Pantami had also made this disclosure in his remarks during this year’s National Identity Day commemoration titled, ‘Institutions as Critical Stakeholders for Citizens’ Mobilisation’, in Abuja on Friday. He had also lauded the success story of the policy despite stiff opposition.
“We can only get our digital economy right when we continue to improve and encourage our citizens to enroll in our national database. By the time I took supervision of NIMC, the total number of registration centres were not up to 1,000 but today, we have over 5,000.
“Today our national database is on auto drive. We have established over 19 national policies and all of them are being implemented. This has never happened in the history of Nigeria.
“When we commenced the process, many people turned against me.
“My life was threatened because of the introduction of NIN and sim registration on BBC radio and many more and I resisted believing that nobody can control my life in this world, only Almighty God. They have been defeated.”
Earlier, the Director General/CEO, NIMC reiterated commitment to partner traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders to ensure that majority in rural communities are captured.
He further added that the commission has achieved tremendously infrastructural development resulting in increased NIN enrolment across the country in the last three years.
“NIMC has made great strides on so many fronts in the last three years. From just over 1,000 enrolment centres and 2,000 enrolment devices across the country, NIMC in partnership with its licensed enrolment partners now has over 15,000 enrolment centres and over 29,000 enrolment devices deployed nationwide. This is one of the reasons enrolments have increased tremendously with over 89 million NINs generated successfully.
“On the international level, NIMC today has diaspora enrolment centres in over 40 countries, with more centres and countries scheduled to be added in the coming months. This gives Nigerians in the Diaspora opportunities to enrol and have their national identity even while outside the shores of Nigeria”, he stated.
Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Kwarra, Executive Chairman of the ID4Africa, Dr. Joseph Atick, Representatives of National Information Technology Development Agency, Director IT Infrastructure Solutions, Dr Usman Abdullahi, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other agencies were present.