Director-general/chief executive officer (DG/CEO) of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz Abubakar has disclosed that over 88 million Nigerians have been registered.
Abubakar through the commission’s Head of the delegation to the Olubadan of Ibadan palace, Mr Akinola Abolaji, told the monarch that “so far, NIMC has registered and issued over 88 Million NIN to Nigerian citizens and other legal residents”.
Speaking, during the visit to commemorate the 2022 ID Day with the theme, “Traditional Institutions, Critical Stakeholders for Citizen Mobilization”, he said the campaign was a call for government authorities in all countries around the world to officially recognize 16 September as Identity Day.
According to him, the choice of the date was with reference to sustainable development goals that calls for legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030.
Elaborating on the identity day (2022 ID Day), the DG/CEO said, “the Identity Day (ID Day), he said, “The ID-Day campaign was initiated by ID4Africa at the 4th Annual Meeting of the ID4Africa Movement on 24 April 2018, in Abuja, Nigeria, the initiative was met with strong support whereby over 1,500 individual signatures across the globe endorsed the proposition.
“The federal government approved the recognition of the date in 2020 as National Identity Day in Nigeria otherwise called ID-Day to raise awareness about the role identity plays in empowering individuals to exercise their right and responsibility fairly and equitable in a modern society”, he explained further.
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun who applauded the commission, charged the Federal Government not to look back in its determination to ensure that Nigeria ranks well among the comity of nations with accurate databases across the globe.
He said the commission had proved its ability and capability as far as its core mandates are concerned and deserves all the necessary encouragement so as to do more, noting that “we still have a long way to go, looking at our over 200 million population.”
