In January, PREMIUM TIMES reported how NPC officials in Abuja were taking advantage of the rush for birth attestation certificates to impose unreceipted cash payment of N2000 'administrative charges' on applicants.
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Finally, at 9:10 a.m., a female official of the NPC emerged at the gate bearing freshly printed-out application forms with numbers circled in red ink. After completing the forms, they turned their gaze to the NPC premises in anxious expectation of the return of the official to take them to the next stage of the arduous process.
The development forces many Nigerians to throng the NPC offices across the country to obtain their birth attestation certificates, now in high demand, to complete registration and documentation for academic examinations and other official purposes. They scrambled for available standing or squatting positions near any flat surface, including the floor and edges of tables, in the crowded office space to fill out their forms.
“We are resolute in maintaining transparent and accountable operations in carrying out the mandate of the commission of providing demographic data for national development,” the agency said. To a distant observer, the official arrived to just collect the forms and return to the office building to process them. But the reality is that the official had managed to spread the instruction to applicants to tuck their N1000 “admin charges” in their documents.
But overpowered by the security details, Mr Lawrence had his black bag flung away and himself forcibly removed from the building by an operative of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp on secondment to the office. “On Monday at the NPC office in Abuja where I had gone to register three of my kids ages two, four and nine, the NPC officials who attended to me made sure they collected cash from me. Thereafter, I requested a receipt for the payment, but the officials refused. So, it’s not true to say birth registration is free,” Ms Tolu told PREMIUM TIMES.
On 8 November 2023, President Bola Tinubu launched the electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System , a data repository, as part of the broad agenda of the NPC to digitalise civil registration of vital events such as births, marriages and deaths.
Then, they are redirected to birth attestation “self-service.” It is followed by a service payment of N3000 using a debit card. The portal is being managed by Barnksforte Technologies Limited – a local ICT solution provider praised by the NPC as having a track record of success in ICT solution provision with government agencies.
With the slow take-off of the portal, Nigerians are going to wait much longer before they can enjoy the digitisation expenditure of the NPC. The development is linked to Nigeria’s drive to automate its governance processes, especially payment systems, citizens’ identity databases, and data exchange. But while the NPC’s self-service portal flounders, NPC officials reap the windfall resulting from the need for applicants seeking birth attestation and other related documents to physically visit their offices across the country.
The process which entails filling out forms and typing of applicant’s details, ends with the signing of the birth document by Madiu Suleiman, the Federal Capital Territory director of the NPC, Abuja. Chidinma shuttled between her car parked under a tree and the NPC office where she processed the documents for her clients who waited in their chauffeur-driven cars, unlike regular applicants who had to wait long hours in batches at the gate to have theirs processed.
Another X user @agbaue_p in Asaba, Delta State, South-south Nigeria, said, “I payed #5000 this week in Asaba office for attestation of birth.” Two top anti-corruption activists in Nigeria – Eze Onyekpere and Debo Adeniran – in their separate interviews with this reporter, asked the ICPC and EFCC to swing into action over the illegal cash transactions at NPC.The culture runs deep and widespread in Nigeria’s public sector.
“The NPC Chairman Nasir Kwarra frowns at any form of extortion by registration officials, and anyone found wanting will be dealt with,” Ms Nwakusor said.