Fast-tracking the National ID project

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Nigeria should press ahead with finishing its national identity project, and fast. No modern state can govern, plan, or protect a population it cannot properly count. After nearly two decades of fits and starts, the country is finally within sight of getting this right.

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The numbers tell part of the story. More than 137 million Nigerians and legal residents are now enrolled in the National Identity database, up from roughly 117 million barely a year and a half ago. President Tinubu has signed a new law, the NIMC Act 2026, replacing the original 2007 statute, and has ordered the Commission to capture every last citizen by the end of this year.

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This shows the administration’s resolve to achieve results in this sector, and that is also an ambitious deadline for a country whose actual population is still a matter of estimates rather than fact — anywhere between 200 million and 250 million. A serious identity system will finally largely settle that question.

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None of this erases the project’s real troubles. Enrolment has been slowed for years by weak infrastructure, patchy funding, sparse centres, and the sheer difficulty of reaching remote communities. Public trust has taken hits too. Many Nigerians believe the database has, at various points, been too centralised, too slow, and too exposed to abuse. This includes persistent allegations that foreign nationals brought into the country during the Buhari years were registered alongside citizens.

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Whether or not that charge holds up to scrutiny, the fact that it circulates widely and is believed is itself a problem. A national identity system is only as strong as the public’s confidence that no one can quietly slip through its checks.

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There is also a harder truth about security. Linking NIN to SIM cards and bank accounts was supposed to strip criminals of their anonymity. Yet kidnappers, bandits, and terrorists continue to operate with little visible constraint. This project is both defective and unfinished business. A database that isn’t universal, rigorously verified, and intelligently tied into policing and prosecution cannot, on its own, defeat organised crime.

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A full register makes fraud and duplicate identities harder to pull off. It lets the government target welfare, health, education, and voting systems with real precision instead of guesswork. Its linkage to bank accounts benefits the people and promotes good government. And it gives the state an honest count of the people it serves.

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The answer to years of delay is not to abandon the project, nor to rush it recklessly, but to discipline it — tighter verification, tougher border checks, stronger data protection, and unrelenting follow-through until every citizen is captured. Nigeria does not need this system for prestige. It needs it for order, security, and the basic capacity to govern. Let’s finish the job without further delay.

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