Towards building reliable national screening database (I)

With two ministers caught in flagrante delicto of national laws on youth service, it is high time to ask the question – what is security clearance and how seriously do we apply it in screening candidates for national office? But then, the question itself seems preposterous. The real question ought to focus on the level […]

With two ministers caught in flagrante delicto of national laws on youth service, it is high time to ask the question – what is security clearance and how seriously do we apply it in screening candidates for national office? But then, the question itself seems preposterous. The real question ought to focus on the level of preparedness of our political office holders. How clear-headed are those who aspire for public or elective office about their definitional roles.

It is common to see that people are not well schooled on what their positions would be and what they’d be required to do in office. We hear senators obsessed with constituency projects, governors putting signposts on federal projects and local government officials tied to the apron strings of their governors. We know of legislative houses that passed budgets at a single sitting. With these incidences, we can’t be serious about governance.

How could Kemi Adeosun and Adebayo Shittu have passed screening without meeting the basic requirements recommended for employment or appointment into any job in our country? Why is nobody taking the bullet for the lacuna of passing candidates without doing the due diligence of screening? What does that say about the level of insecurity currently plaguing the nation – from Boko Haram, through Badoo to kidnapping and ritual killings?

It would take a thesis of gargantuan proportions to answer these questions, but an attempt would reveal why we’ve got a long way to go in securing our country and becoming respectful members of the comity of nations.

Responsible nations weave security consciousness into the evolutionary process of their citizenry by opening a security file for every citizen born or adopted into the nation. They update such information at every level of contact with the state by that citizen. This

include biographical and health information. Schools populate this file with academic records including achievements and suitability for specific duties as a result of inherent talents assessed by school administrators in the course of schooling. As the citizen grows into responsible workers and taxable adults, records of their employment and tax returns are added. All these information are accessible via a unique social security number, SIN or any similar document peculiar to that individual. The citizens are obliged to remember and update their data with the state.

In Canada for instance, municipalities that issue driver’s licenses oblige holders to update their addresses within a specific number of days of moving changing abode. As you interact with the system, you are required to remember dates of travels and points of departure and entries. This is why perjury is a grave offense and citizens or visitors are obliged to remember minute details of their interaction with the state from the moment they are born or accepted as residents. They must keep and update residential, school and work details and addresses. One inconsistency and you are faced with the full ramification of the law.

A person convicted of perjury may escape with a fine rather than a prison sentence, but they unwittingly delete themselves from the list of people that could be trusted. They render themselves unworthy of jury duty. Untrustworthy individuals lose the right to participate in elective offices or eligibility for selection into positions of trust. To be untrustworthy here could lead into a life of misery.

We are far from this ideal with no history of efficient record keeping at any level. As a nation, we need to start thinking about building reliable data. NYSC records ought to be accessible online. Certificates of service or exemption ought to have distinctive security watermarks, with numbers, not made from MS-word generated templates. Yes, we have evolved into having a national identity card, but it is not anywhere near what it should be. These cards should have vital information including registered place of birth, domiciliation, financial details of the individual and where applicable useful medical records to help first responders in emergency situations. I write conscious of the fact that the concept of first responders is alien to us.

It’s a shame that the best way to attest to an individual’s character or record of service is oral attestation or a document that could be made at any business center. A retired school principal had to rise to the defense of his ex-student who was accused of faking school records. As good and timely as that testimony is, it would need further verification to be admissible in law. The ex-principal’s testimony could have been bought. If there were public records, verification is made easy.

There is a compelling need for the codification of reliable, accurate and digitally accessible information across portals. This is essential for security clearance. Oral evidence is good, but in a country where people swear to affidavits to support lies for pecuniary gains, oral evidence is discredited on arrival. The infamous case of one James Onanefe Ibori’s conviction by a Bwari Magistrate Court comes to mind. Somebody was happy to depose to an affidavit accepting complicity for a crime they did not commit in order to exonerate the real culprit. If the convict had been fingerprinted with mug shots, this would have been averted.

To be continued…