What if McDonalds branded our international passport?

There’s been a lot of hoopla generated by the recent launching of Nigeria’s new electronic national ID card, especially in view of the fact that Mastercard, one of the major global payment systems provider (credit card company), has it’s logo on the back of what is meant to be a national document.  I don’t think […]

There’s been a lot of hoopla generated by the recent launching of Nigeria’s new electronic national ID card, especially in view of the fact that Mastercard, one of the major global payment systems provider (credit card company), has it’s logo on the back of what is meant to be a national document.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with working with MasterCard in putting our national identity in good order, apart from ensuring that 1. They sign some terms and conditions and ensure they never use the information with them for marketing 2. For intelligence reasons that they don’t manipulate the information they have or sell it to foreign countries or intelligence services in a way that makes Nigerians vulnerable. 3. Among other disclosures…  From the way impunity reigns in government in Nigeria today, it is almost a certainty that none of these considerations were made and Nigerians are simply on their own.
There would not have been this outcry had MasterCard not decided to push the envelop because it is Nigeria, and affix it’s huge logo on our National ID Card. I’ve never seen that done in any other country where a private company, especially one known for it’s marketing and for giving credit cards to people, will affix its logo on a national document. I have an NI card from the UK and it’s simply a UK Document. I know people who have US identities and they are simply national documents.
Anyone who runs a company in many of the OECD countries (developed countries), will know how protective they are of their people’s information. And for good reason too. They make employers sign documents never to reveal employee information without consent. He breach of such conditions attract stiff punishment. Sometimes, one wants to believe that we suffer this lapses in governance because some of our people were not exposed to how things are done abroad. But then, many who man positions in government today trained and lived abroad for long. Even those who bring these kind of proposals to them are foreigners – with Nigerian counterparts. Let us even assume that in this instance the NIMC collected all the assurances and made Mastercard sign non-disclosure and non-misuse agreements, the next step should be to let Nigerians know what they have done. For we, Nigerians, are the ones that will use and rely on that document!
The National ID Card, is a currency. Currency, like the Naira, and so-called because of the frequency of use, the ubiquity it acquires, the reliance we place on it. A currency is usually taken for granted, because we have all the confidence in the government that issues it. The other time, there was much brouhaha about Ajami writings on the Naira. I noticed that Soludo’s CBN did not continue with Ajami on the polyesther-type currency they printed in Australia. Some Nigerians protested over what they believed was religious, but which was perhaps agreed upon decades ago, to help some Arabic-educated people in some parts of Nigeria. But in this instance, this is a private company’s logo. It’s a different, more serious ballgame.
The implication is that with that company’s logo on our national ID card, for any holder of the card, the contract is not only between him/her and the Nigerian government, but a tripartite agreement between holder, government and the private company. The only disadvantaged party in this agreement, is therefore the holder, who is not privy to the fine details of his rights and obligations in carrying that card. This is therefore an unfair game. For me, I would like to know the limits of Mastercard’s power over my life before I sign up. Personally, due to some of my experience abroad, I prefer dealing with VISA Cards. I think the other one is a bit more tricky to deal with. So, I would rather stand back for now and rely on other types of identity cards which are available, including the International Passport. God forbid that that one too, should be branded by the Microsoft, Google, Facebook or Intel!  Or worst still by some nondescript food chain which happens to develop the confidence to put the idea to our half-cooked public administrators!
It’s the impunity and lack of taste I reckon. Today, driving down Area 1 and Area 3 in Abuja, along the expressway, I saw dozens of people, huddled together at a certain point, raising the iron-net barricade that the government used to divide the road, in order to force people to cross using the pedestrian bridge almost a kilometer away. I said, “well, why not?” When you plan infrastructure without putting people who will use them into consideration, they take the law into their hands when they believe the suffering is too much and unwarranted. Nigerian government functionaries, alas at the centre, have not shown us that they respect themselves, for respect begets respect. If they respected themselves, they would respect and dignify the people they ‘lead’. Again, I urge those who run Abuja, to look at the growing trend around the South West of Nigeria, where pedestrian bridges, are now covered, to protect the poor users from rain and the sun. Development is dignity.
Back to this Mastercard chip issue, in a deeply religious country like Nigeria, where I know people who have refused to use the internet because WWW, has been touted to be VIVIVI, or 666, or the “mark of the beast”, imagine forcing us all to carry these national ID cards, with well-advertised microchips from one of the world’s money-spinning institutions. Another theory that has been around forever, says that the ‘mark of the beast’, which the Bible predicted, is going to be in form or microchips, embedded one way or another, on one’s body. Maybe this is a precursor – that we should carry the chip around in a wallet first.  Who doesn’t know that money and evil go together?
Another argument I’ve heard goes something like “the card can also be used for making payments at supermarkets and enhancing financial inclusion”. Oh God! What kind of country is this, with this fixation on ‘making payments’, ‘financial inclusion’ etc? Why are we trying to push people into trouble by making it easier for them to spend money? Why are we creating this environment where everyone just thinks about getting rich and most get into serious debts? Not even the USA does this. And why not copy China with a savings rate of 30% of all income earned?  Why not focus our people on creativity, not easy living and ease of spending?
And finally, while still on this, what happened to those big ‘come and eat’ men, who embezzled the billions of dollars in the last National ID Card exercise?