HURIWA Calls On Tinubu To Abandon New National ID Initiative

• HURIWA urges President Tinubu to cancel plans for new National ID card

• Group calls the plan a misuse of public funds and lacks national strategy

• HURIWA says many Nigerians are unbanked and cannot access the new ID through banks

Eko Hot Blog reports that the Human Rights Writers Association has urged President Bola Tinubu, to discontinue the plans for the issuance of a new National Identity Card, describing the planned exercise as a misuse of the commonwealth of Nigerians, and a scheme to rip Nigerians of public funds.

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HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the plan showed a lack of national strategy to formulate and implement beneficial public policies governing the issuance of the ID. The group questioned how 133 million poor Nigerians suffering “crushing poverty” were expected “to maintain working bank accounts to enable them to collect the so-called single National ID”.

HURIWA stated that a report showed that 50 per cent of Nigerians were unbanked and unbankable due to terrible poverty, adding that it was of the view that the plan was part of a sinister plot by “fast fingers” in the corridors of power to use the public funds to “empower their mistresses, friends and cronies”.

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The group urged the government to rather adopt the International Passport as the most critical ID card, arguing that the planned new National ID card is a misuse of public funds and lacks a coherent national strategy.

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