Digital Identity, Terror Arrests And The NIMC Act

Let me start with a confession. When I first heard Senate President Godswill Akpabio say that Nigeria’s reformed identity management system helped security agencies arrest suspected terrorist chiefs arriving from Saudi Arabia in Katsina, my first instinct was to raise an eyebrow. Not because I doubted him entirely, but because we have heard too many of these dramatic security claims from our leaders that quietly disappear into the Nigerian news cycle without verification or follow-up.

But let us give credit where it is due. President Bola Tinubu on Friday signed the repealed and re-enacted National Identity Management Commission Act into law, and by all accounts, this is a significant milestone. The old law had remained largely unchanged for 19 years.

Nineteen years. In technology terms, that is practically the Stone Age. The world has moved from Nokia 3310s to artificial intelligence in that period, while Nigeria was managing its digital identity framework with legislation that predates smartphones.

So yes, the reform was overdue. Long overdue. Akpabio told State House correspondents that the integration of NIMC’s identity database with the Ministry of Interior’s systems had already started yielding results, specifically the arrest of terrorist chiefs who arrived in Katsina from Saudi Arabia.

When they landed, he said, security agents simply entered their names into the computer, and it flagged them as criminals immediately.

This NIMC reform is genuine progress. It clearly is. But again, we must resist the temptation to oversell it.

Trust our politicians to always turn a legislative milestone into a campaign rally. The signing of a bill should be accompanied by sober reflection on implementation challenges, not triumphant declarations that make it seem as if Nigeria has suddenly become Singapore overnight.

Come to think of it, the real questions we should be asking are these. How many Nigerians are currently enrolled in the NIMC database? The last figures I recall suggested tens of millions of Nigerians still lack National Identification Numbers. How do you build an airtight security architecture on an incomplete database? How do you flag a terrorist at the border when half the population isn’t even captured in your system?

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, was characteristically careful, declining to share operational details of the security architecture.

Fair enough. You don’t advertise your security playbook. But the Senate President had no such restraint, narrating the Katsina airport arrest story with relish to State House correspondents.

I would have preferred a more measured communication. Announce the reform, explain its significance, and let the results speak quietly over time. Instead, we got what felt like a press conference designed more for optics than substance.

That said, let me be balanced about this. The NIMC DG, Bisoye Coker-Odusote, made perhaps the most sensible point of the day when she described the new law as bridging a 19-year gap in line with global technology best practices. She is right.

Digital identity is the foundation of modern governance. You cannot deliver targeted social intervention, accurate economic planning, credible elections, or effective border management without knowing who your citizens are.

The amended Act’s provisions on interoperability across government platforms and enhanced citizen authentication are exactly the kind of structural reforms Nigeria needs. On paper, this is genuinely good legislation.

But Nigeria’s problem has never been the absence of good legislation. Our past reform documents are gathering dust on office shelves right now. I won’t be surprised if some of our previous identity management policy papers are being used to wrap akara somewhere in Abuja. We are world champions at writing excellent policies and world champions at failing to implement them.

Do I support the NIMC reform? Absolutely. Do I think it will automatically solve Nigeria’s security challenges? I don’t think so.

Here is what I think needs to happen. First, accelerate enrollment. Every Nigerian must be captured in this database as a matter of urgency.

Second, fund the technology properly. A reformed law without adequate infrastructure funding is just paper. Third, establish independent oversight. We cannot leave the monitoring of this sensitive database entirely to the same agencies it is meant to empower. The potential for abuse is significant.

Also, let us not forget that Akpabio himself noted that Nigeria has been doing the same thing for 66 years, with continuous insecurity as a result. That is a sobering admission from a man who has been part of the Nigerian political establishment for decades.

At the end of the day, the NIMC Act is a step in the right direction. But a step is not a destination. Nigeria needs many more such steps, consistently implemented, transparently monitored, and honestly evaluated.

The proof of this pudding, as always, will be in the eating. Not in the press conference.