Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, Minister for Communications and Digital Economy on Thursday said the registration for the National Identification Number (NIN) is a mandate by the law and not optional, he further said according to the constitution, anyone without it risks imprisonment.
“National identity is a law and it’s mandatory and for you to even conduct certain activities in this country without the number is an offense; for you to get voter’s card in Nigeria, based on section 27 of NIMC Act, it is an offense.
“For you to open a bank account without National Identity Number is an offense. For you to pay tax is an offense, for you to collect pension is an offense, for you to enjoy any government service, without having National Identity Number is an offense.
“Section 29 says if you do any of these in 27, without obtaining National Identity Number you have committed a crime that will lead to fines or imprisonment, or both of them. And this is 14 years. It is not today.”
He emphasized that no transaction should take place in the country without the NIN and further stated that, as of March, over 50 million Nigerians have been registered.
It will be recalled that late last year, it was announced that all Nigerians must link their NIN with their SIM cards or face deactivation. This clause had made many take part in the registration exercise.
He further added, “Based on the requirement by law each and every citizen and legal resident must obtain his/her National Identification Number, which is being coordinated by the National Identity Management Commission. It’s a requirement by law but many citizens ignore it.
“What we achieved in the area of enrolment from the time Mr. President has directed me to supervise NIMC till date is unprecedented and we would continue to ensure that in the next few years we have an almost complete database of all our citizens in the country.
“No country will be successful in education, health, budget planning, or national planning without a database of its citizens in place.
“What I inherited in the database was less than 20 percent of our population. But we want to ensure that before we leave office, we would look at the database and be proud of our country.”