A few days ago, the media was awash with news and images of the launch of the new National eID card by the President in Abuja. Expectedly, this has been generating some reactions within the populace, not only by virtue of the many unresolved controversies trailing previous similar projects, but also by the bold dimensions of the present exercise and its various implications to virtually every aspect of our lives individually, and how long it would go in assisting government and government agencies in planning, policing and providing other basic social amenities for the citizenry.
There are, however, some fears being expressed in the light of the present dimension of a single identity card that also integrates the functions and convenience of an ATM card as is being introduced in the novel dimension of this National eID card. The fears range from the simple logistic detail of ease of replacement in the eventuality of loss considering the usual cumbersome nature of the bureaucracies surrounding such government services and programmes, to its implications of relating it to the paranoia of the Armageddon by some religious devotees. While some of these opinions bother on lack of awareness, many of the fears are real. One of my guests at last week’s radio show specifically pointed to the new eID card as a potential risk — Continue Reading
