NIGERIA:House Probes National Identity Card Scheme

The House of Representatives yesterday directed its committees on Interior and National Planning to conduct an investigation into the proposed National Identity Card scheme expected to cost about N30 billion.

The directive came as the lower chamber of the National Assembly expressed doubts about the scheme and urged the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to suspend the project.

The house mandated the committees to ascertain the state of the project, the amount so far deployed to it, as well as the expected completion date. The resolution to probe the project followed a motion sponsored by Hon. Bimbo Daramola (ACN, Ekiti), who expressed anger over the scheme.

The lawmaker said whereas  the scheme had been on the drawing board for several years, it had been characterised by corruption and waste of huge resources by public officials saddled with the responsibility of executing the project.

“One is deeply concerned that the N30 billion approved by the Federal Executive Council to be spent on the project has neither gone through appropriation of the House nor was the parliament consulted.

After the failure of an earlier and similar scheme, Nigerians, in their millions, are alarmed that the Federal Government is about to commit this huge resource to the project again,” Daramola said.

Similarly the House has urged the Federal Government to submit to the parliament, a definite road map towards achieving its policy on job creation and reduction of unemployment.

The blueprint on job creation, the lawmakers said, should include definite programmes and projects targeted at employment generation for the youths over the next four years.

The request came on the strength of a motion brought before the House by Hon. Andrew Uchendu (PDP, Rivers). In the motion, Uchendu blamed the increasing crime wave and terrorism in the country on mass unemployment and the quest for survival and frustration amongst the army of unemployed citizens.

He warned that if the country failed to plan for these millions of Nigerians to be gainfully employed the situation could trigger worse crisis in the near future.