Contrary to whatever the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) may be saying, the furore engendered by the Force’s ill-advised move to introduce a digital Biometric Central Motor Registration system (BCMR) is eminently justifiable.
At a time when the national drivers’ license and new number plate number schemes are still being implemented, the introduction of BCMR smacks of insensitivity to the sufferings of Nigerians.
The Police said the BCMR will tackle crimes and terror by replacing the analogue Central Motor Registry (CMR).
So from September 16, the force will commence BCMR which implies attaching automobile owner’s personal data to his vehicle for proper identification and protection.
Frank Mba, the Force Public Relations officer, explained that the decision informing the introduction of the BCMR is against the backdrop of contemporary security challenges bordering on terrorism, high incidences of car theft, kidnapping and other crimes.’’
Under the system, hand-held machine would be used to verify the particulars of vehicles, rather than manual checking.
Mba said that the system was designed for forensic analysis where fingerprints could be matched or verified against registered fingerprints collected during the registration.
He stressed that the database would be made available to other sister security agencies.
“We are going to make the database open to our sister agencies. If for example other security organisations want to carry investigation and they needed to get information from our database, we will make the information available to them,’’ the FPRO said.
He added that motorists were expected to pay N3, 500 to register their vehicles under the system, while owners of tricycles and motorcycles would pay N1, 500 for the registration.
The touted security benefit of the scheme is clearly an exaggeration of the fact because similar initiatives in the past like the SIM card registration exercise have failed to address the purpose they were meant for including checking the activities of kidnappers.
The way public institutions are going, one day they will ask Nigerians to pay for head counts during census and even for voters’ cards during voter registrations.
President Goodluck Jonathan must stop public institutions from devising means to milk improvised Nigerians with various “scams” projects.
But for what it is worth, the BCMR project is ill-timed, ill-advised and out of tune with the mood of the country.
It is the worst duplication of efforts ever especially when the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) are carrying out similar schemes dressed in different robes.
The federal government must stop the BCMR project and concentrate efforts on integrating the various dangling data from other schemes into a central pool for planning, surveillance and trace.
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