What is NIMC doing?
The edition of Saturday June 6, 2015, carried the story of a fake doctor who worked with the Federal Ministry of Health for nearly 10 years before his true identity was discovered. He claimed to be a doctor on a practice license he allegedly stole from his friend. The fake doctor who was a top official of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) worked since 2006 under the name of Dr. George Davidson Daniel until his arrest recently in Abuja.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) which registers all medical doctors in Nigeria and regulates their practice called for the arrest of the fake doctor after its own investigations uncovered two Dr. Daniels; the same name on two separate identity photographs. The MDCN had earlier been petitioned to investigate complaints against Dr. Daniel who worked with the NCDC. Investigations revealed that the photograph in MDCN’s database was not that of the fake doctor. The actual person that bears the name is a doctor doing his residency at the Jos University Teaching Hospital.
The real Daniel appeared before the MDCN on invitation and identified the fake doctor as Martins Ugwu. Dr. Daniel said Martins was his childhood friend and was the best man at his 2006 wedding. Daniel explained that he lost his credentials when both of them (Daniel and Martins), in their search for jobs, visited an uncle in Abuja. Daniel told the investigators that he did not report that his documents were stolen because he thought he misplaced them. A year later, Martins returned Daniel’s certificates; claiming that a Good Samaritan had found and sent them back.
The fact that Martins who rose on a fast-track to directorate cadre was able to beat all verification and screening exercises for a period long enough to earn gratuity reveals how loose, corrupt and fraudulent the Nigerian civil service has been. The MDCN says it is currently prosecuting 40 cases of quack doctors in courts. This is quite disturbing; given the consequences of having such a large number of unqualified medical personnel practicing what they do not know. God knows how many Nigerians have been sent to their early graves by such quacks.
The incidence of forgery and impersonation in the country is alarming because pervasive corruption is inhibiting government from taking due advantage of modern technology which has the systematic capacity to effectively check forgery and impersonation. Similarly, the failure of the national identity card scheme is more than any other factor responsible for the inability of relevant security and law enforcement agencies to achieve reasonable success in the fight against crimes.
It also explains why an accused or ex-convict audaciously describes his prosecution as a mistaken identity in order to justify his eligibility to contest in an election. Intelligence gathering would have greatly improved if the national identity card project had succeeded as designed. Like the power sector, successive administrations in Nigeria unfortunately turned the project over the years into a sink hole from which billions of naira appropriated for the exercise were siphoned.
So much was embezzled in the project under the failed Directorate of National Civic Registration (DNCR) that the name had to be changed in 2007 to National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC). If any forensic probe were to be conducted on the over three-decadesold exercise called national identity card project, no minister of internal affairs who served between 1980 and 2015 would escape jail. In spite of the huge resources expended on it, many