Time To Stop The National Social Register Scam

The National Social Register has become a monumental fraud and scam against the Nigerian people since its birth in 2016 by the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari. The National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO) was established in 2016 by the Government to strengthen social safety nets and social protection system as a core strategy to help end extreme poverty and to promote shared prosperity. The core mandate of NASSCOtherefore is to build a National Social Register (NSR), as well as coordinate, refine and integrate the social safety-net programs into social protection systems.

According to the website of NASSCO, read on the 22nd of July, 2023, the National Social Register contains 15,374,523 Poor & VulnerableHouseholds (PVHHs) made up of 61,594,500 Individuals in the PVHH. On the other hand, the World Bank gave the statistic of 48 million individuals covering 752 LGs in 2022 when commending Nigeria on the NSR. Similarly, at the National Social Safety Nets Project (NASSP) engagement meeting with State Permanent Secretaries in March 2021 in Abuja, Alhaji Bashir Alkali, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development stated that 30 millionNigerians are in the National Social Register. Also, Ahmad Lawan, former President of the Senate claimed on March 22, 2023 that the federal government has enrolled 9.8 million poor, vulnerable households in the National Social Register. The list of the accurate statistic of the National Social Register goes on and on, but what is obvious in all the statistic being brandied around – no one knows the actual statistic of the National Social Register. So, it is either the National Social Register does not exist, or if it does, then the data in the register is dirty, incomplete and inaccurate.

The questions that are on the lips of most Nigerians are: who are the real beneficiaries of this omnibus social safety nets and social protection system? How is the data in the National Social Registercreated and updated? According to the International Centre for Investigative Journalism (ICIR) in June 27, 2018, it reveals that living in extreme poverty does not entitle a household to N5, 000 monthly handouts, but it is rather a game of chance, determined by residence and individual’s luck. It is indeed sad that a country – the giant of Africa, cannot or does not have the demography of its population and a simple statistic such as the poor and vulnerable in the society has to be a matter of conjecture and primitive postulationin this 21st century which ordinarily could be obtained by a simple touch of a button. So, what is the role of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in all of these and what kind and quality of data do they collect? How do NIMC manage its data and of what use is this database if it cannot be interrogated to display common demographic information such as poor and vulnerable? In other words, the NIMC database – is it dynamic and real-time or just a static database? According to the NIMC Act, 2007, Part II subsection 5, it is stated that “The Commission shall create, manage, maintain and operate the National Identity Database established under section 14 of this Act”.

Now, in order to get some clarity on the subject matter, let us technically explain the key words – “register” or modern term – “database” and “data”. First, let us begin with data. Data is a collection of facts, information, or statistics that represent various aspects of the real world. It can be in the form of numbers, text, images, audio, video, or any other format that can be processed and interpreted by humans or machines. While a database is a structured collection of data that is organized, stored, and managed in a way that allows for efficient retrieval, modification, and analysis of information. On the other hand, according to the oxford dictionary, a register is an official list or record of names or items. So, a register is a system designed to identify and maintain information or data on things or objects. Hence, the National Social Register (NSR) is a government-administered database or system designed to identify and maintain information on vulnerable and marginalized populations within the country. A database can be classified based on various criteria such as data availability which includes static and dynamic database. A static database is a type of database that remains unchanged or unaltered once it is created. In other words, it lacks the ability to be modified or updated after its initial design and data population. While a dynamic database is a real-time database system that allows for on-the-fly modifications to its structure or schema without requiring a predefined schema or rigid structure.

Based on the above technical explanations of database/register, it can be concluded that the NIMC database is a static database which negates the spirit of the Act that sets it up, that includes the words – create, manage and maintain or we may as well infer that the administrators of the NIMC do not understand their mandate hence another government agency such as NASSCO can usurp their powersby adopting primitive collection of data in this 21st century. In any case, whether it is NIMC of today or the NASSCO, the data both have are static data, and there is no way around it – static data is a modern-day death sentence to the development of any nation. When we refer to dirty or bad data, we are referring to data that is out-of-date, incomplete, or incorrect in some capacity, because the data both NIMC and NASSCO have collected began to decay at an unprecedented pace over time – or how do you account for people who are already dead or even relocated after enumeration or registration? In order to realise the benefits of data, we must shift to a more dynamic mindset, data must undergo a transformation overtime. Static data might be hurting the country more than we think, no wonder the National Social Register has become a SCAM, or how could the Minister of the Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq claimed that her ministry spent over N500 million on feeding schoolchildren in two states and Abuja during COVID-19 lockdown between May 14, and July 6, 2020. Just last week, the governors in the recent National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held at the Council Chambers of the State House in Abuja on Thursday, 20th, July 2023, called for the scraping of the NSR and that it LACKS INTEGRITY. Please, the state government should not be allowed to produce their own NSR, because it will amount to domestication of the SCAM.