Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed optimism that the ongoing national identity card registration exercise would go a long way to assist the country overcome all security challenges.
The former president also said that the national identity card could serve a multi-purpose needs for Nigerians if other sister agencies work in synergy with one another for the common needs of the people of the country.
Obasanjo stated this, yesterday, at the Oke – Mosan office of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital where he had gone to register.
The former president, who arrived the NIMC office around 1: 35p.m, was received on arrival by Engineer Aliu Azeez, NIMC’s director, Identity card Data Base (DIDD), and was ushered into the data capturing room where his bio-metric data was captured.
Obasanjo, in a discussion with Engineer Azeez shortly after receiving his temporary national I.D card, recalled that the new ID card project, which he described as “a document that every Nigerian deserves,” was coming 35 years late after the initial introduction of the document in 1979. His words, “It is a document that every Nigerian deserves and it is late in coming.
But we thank God that after the initial steps in 1979, more than 30 years ago, we have come back to it. I hope that this step that we are taking now will be sustained and will serve all the needs of Nigerians.
It will also help us to maintain a little bit of security.” The former President also expressed delight that those Nigerians, who kicked against its introduction over 35 years ago, have seen the need to embrace the project.