INEC partners national Identity management commission to strengthen electoral activities

By Lateef Ibrahim Abuja

In its determination to strengthen electoral activities in the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has resolved to partner with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as part of its commitment to synergise with every relevant national institution.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said this on Wednesday while playing host to the Director General of the NIMC, Engr. (Mrs) Abisoye Coker-Odusote and other senior officials of the commission in his office in Abuja.
Yakubu noted that while INEC holds the database of citizens for the purpose of elections, the NIMC has the record of citizens generally.
He reasoned that together, the two agencies hold the largest biometric databases of citizens in Nigeria.
According to him, “Since the ultimate goal is to enroll every citizen with NIMC, we look forward to the day when your database will serve as the single source of truth for citizenship identification in Nigeria.
“When the time comes, the national register of voters may simply draw from the citizenship register as is the case in many jurisdictions around the world. “This may also enable citizens to vote in future elections from their places of choice anywhere in the country rather than the places they register as voters as is the case at present”, he said.
Yakubu recalled that under the leadership of the current Director General of NIMC, “we have engaged at different times with the intention of solidifying our partnership in the area of identity management”.
Continuing, the INEC Chairman said, “To achieve this long-term goal, we will continue to deepen our collaboration with NIMC.
“It is in furtherance of this collaboration that NIMC is deploying its officials to some of our registration centres during the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). “