The national publicity secretary of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Osita Okechuckwu, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to take a patriotic look into his administration and weed out those feeding fat on the country through unbridled corruption.
“We cannot see how our economy will grow, generate employment for our teaming youths and enhance prosperity for every citizen, when billions are being siphoned under Mr. President’s watch,” he said.
Okechukwu made this statement while reacting to the planned execution of the Unified Identity Management System project at the cost of N30. 066 billion.
According to Comrade Osita Okechukwu, President Jonathan cannot squander a huge sum of task payers’ money now when it had spent over N40 billion for Identity Data Capture Machine for Biometric Registration of Nigerians 18 years and above for the 2011 elections through Independent National Electoral Commission INEC less than eight months ago.
He faulted Minister of Information, Labaran Maku’s statement that the new data system would bring down the cost of data management by public institutions, including banks, pension commission, etc, and that Nigerians should not consider N30.066b as too much for the project.
He said that the president must investigate the N30.066 billion scam, just as he said that the said project did not follow due process since it was not advertised on official websites.
The CNPP chieftain also advised the president to match his action following his October 1 address in which he declared that he was ready to work with Nigeria to enthrone the rule of law and banish corruption.
“It is our considered view that Unified Identity Management System is very important; however a data base already exists and there is basically no need to spend N30.066 billion when Nigeria spent over N40 billion for Identity Data Capture for the Biometric Registration of Nigerians of over 18 years old and above for the 2011 elections by INEC less than eight months ago. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) also deployed around the country state of the art Biometric Equipment for Driving Licence for 18 year-olds and above, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has Identity data capture machine, National Communications Commission (NCC), the banks, pension commission and sundry agencies have similar equipment,” he said.
The CNPP scribe wondered why government did not find away to utilize these resources and develop a good data base rather than waste such a colossal amount of resources when most Nigerians are living below the poverty line.