Residents of Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta have appealed to the Federal Government to extend deadline of registration for the National Identity Number (NIN) to enable all eligible Nigerians to be captured
The residents who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Effurun, near Warri said that the process was slow and stressful.
The applicants also urged the Federal Government to decentralise the process to make it easier for them.
NAN recalls that the Federal Government had fixed Feb. 9 as deadline for the NIN registration
Mrs Mary Ndoaka said that it would be frustrating for someone to be unregistered at the end of the exercise.
“The stress is too much, It takes a lot of patience for someone to be registered. I have been coming to this venue since last Wednesday.
“Government should extend the deadline because millions of Nigerians are yet to be captured. Government can employ ad hoc staff to make the work easier.
“People are not observing the COVID-19 protocols here because of the stress and pressure to get registered. Nobody wants his or her SIM to be blocked.
“If we really want to adhere to COVID-19 protocols, we should not be gathering here because the crowd is alarming,’’ she said.
Another enrollee, Mr Joseph Aberegbe urged the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to create a site for people to enroll online, noting that it would help reduce man-hour and resources.
“The process can be done through the internet and sent to their database for onward processing, rather than crowding people, wasting man-hour and exposing people to the pandemic.
“Some people spend a whole day at the registration centres without achieving anything, so we should think progressively.
“Government should also consider extending the deadline to enable everybody to be registered,’’ he said.
Mr Iyede Wisdom suggested decentralisation of the process to reduce the crowd.
“Government should decentralise the process like that of the voters’ card. The venue is too small to contain this huge crowd,’’ he said.
Mrs Ogbeta Omuan, a 65-year-old woman said that aged persons should be given preference in the registration process.
“They should separate the aged people from the young ones because the stress is too much.
“When I was coming to the venue, the speed of a car almost brought me down on the road.
“My legs are arching me because I have been standing for a long time and I don’t know when it will be my turn,’’ she said.
NAN reports that at the NIMC office in Uvwie Local Government Area, the management ensured that people without nose mask were not allowed to enter the venue
According to Mr Isaac Itobi, the chairman COVID-19 taskforce in Uvwie, anyone who violates the protocols will be apprehended and arraigned in court from Thursday.
A staff of NIMC who craved anonymity said that the process had been simplified to control the crowd that usually thronged the venue.
According to the staff, applicants have been grouped and given dates to come for registration as the gesture will help to manage the crowd. (NAN)
