By Longtong Ibrahim
The Kano state government, Northwest Nigeria has launched a 60-day emergency period to enable residents who have not registered for the Permanent Voters Card, PVC, and the National Identity Card to do so.
At the launch on Tuesday, Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje tasked residents across the 44 Local Government Areas to take advantage of the exercise to enrol in order to have a legitimate means of identification and avoid disenfranchisement in the forth coming general coming elections.
According to him, the importance of having a National ID card number cannot be overemphasised as it can easily be used to confirm legibility by institutions, help in eliminating fraud, provide identity for every transaction, and help government in its planning as well as the provision of infrastructures and social amenities among other benefits.
Governor Ganduje further pointed out that, government has provided the registration bodies with solar facilities, internet services to facilitate and make the exercise a success, especially in remote areas where access to power is a challenge.
He added that a circular has also been issued to civil servants to utilise the opportunity to register while the government in its sensitisation efforts, would embark on awareness programs such as radio programs and jingles to sensitise the public.
In a remark, the Director General of the National Identity Card Commission, Aliyu Aziz Abubakar, lamented the low response of ID cards collection by the public, saying many who took their time to go and enrol, have found it difficult to collect their cards.
He called on them to check at their various offices across the country where they registered for their ID cards.
The DG also thanked the Kano state government for providing the enabling environment for the exercise saying the state have one of the highest numbers of enrolment.
With the launching of the exercise, the state government intends to boost enrolment of both the PVCs and National Identity Cards to about 25,000 from 12,000 weekly across the state.
It would be recalled that Governor Ganduje had promised President Buhari five million votes from Kano state in the 2019 general elections. In 2015, the state delivered about 1.9 million votes to the President.
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2018/06/26/news/south-africa-over-a-million-of-sassa-beneficiaries-switch-to-new-card/
