National Day of Identity: Government can’t work for citizens without identification

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, has said that it would be difficult for the government to work for its people without proper identification.

The Minister spoke at the 6th National Day of Identity, 2024, where he argued that it would be difficult for any government to protect or provide for citizens it does not know.

“If you do not get the identity of the people right, you can’t protect who you don’t know. That is the truth. You can’t provide for who you don’t know, and for you to do that, you must get the identity right,” he said.

“You must get the EOI right. What is the EOI? That’s the Evidence of Identity. Because identity is the foundation. Identity is the credo, it is the genesis. It is the beginning upon which development will be built.

“If we do not pay the necessary attention to identity management, what are the problems we’re going to be getting? Number one, we’ll have the issue of reputational damage, which is what we are getting at the moment.

“I tell you this, of every 10 Nigerians that attempt criminality, there are 100 million fantastic Nigerians. That is the truth.

“But if we are unable to manage their identity, you will find it difficult to be able to segregate the good from the bad.

“You’ll find it difficult to provide basic policing, basic amenities of life for the people.

“If you know the identity of people, the next level will be to know the needs of the people, to know the wants of the people, for you to be able to meet up with the aspirational aspirations of the people.

“If you are not able to do that, then what do you get? You get a country that will forever be a country of potentials without attaining potential.

“You cannot manage an identity when you can’t protect the data. The Data Protection Act is fundamental in any democracy in the world. It is the right of the people.

“It is the right of the government to have the identity of people, to harness the identity of people, to have the ability to identify people, but it is the right of people for their identity to be protected.

“So in this, it brings you to a situation where you have to strike a balance between security and identity management.”