Pascal Arogorn Ibe
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has said that it takes five minutes for each Nigerian to complete the National Identification Number registration at any of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) offices nationwide.
He disclosed this on Friday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“Each person takes around three to five minutes to complete the registration and go as long as you have completed your form,” he said.
“You can complete the form virtually without visiting any office but there are things that require you (to be there) physically like your biometrics; you cannot submit your biometrics without you (being there) physically.”
Reacting to the crowds that throng NIMC offices nationwide, the Minister said 95 percent of applicants appear at the agency’s offices without being invited.
He said despite the government’s directives for Nigerians to observe the COVID-19 protocols while registering, Pantami lamented that the applicant shuns directives.
“Citizens will go there, their names are not part of those to be captured but they will go and stay at the gates, and if you ask them to leave they will not. Even the security agencies plead with them but they will not go.
“All the crowds you have been seeing in Abuja or Lagos, 90 percent or even 95 percent of them were not part of those invited to be captured. They only go there and stay outside the gates.”
On the industrial action embarked upon by the NIMC staff, Pantami said the workers did not inform the ministry of their demands and grievances before embarking on strike.
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