Concerned Lagosians have expressed support for the Babatunde Fashola administration’s plan to introduce resident identification card in the state. Fashola had said, while presenting the 2010 budget to the State House of Assembly in Alausa, Ikeja, that his administration would introduce the ID card scheme in 2010.

He also said that the scheme would help the state government in the delivery of social amenities to the people.

He said, “We have now reached a stage where it is no longer avoidable to ask: ‘How many people can Lagos State meaningfully employ and sustain?’”

In an interview with our correspondent, a former Commissioner of the Security and Exchange Commission, Chief Kayode Otitoju, said that in the 21st Century, the use of the ID card scheme was the best way of knowing the actual number of people living in a geographical area.

Otitoju said, “The best way to carry out census in this 21st Century is to use ID card. It is the best way of ascertaining the actual number of people living within a geographical area.”

He, however, said that in a place as large as Lagos, such an exercise could pose problem, as many residents lived under the bridge, in uncompleted buildings, in makeshift accommodation on top of creeks, among others.

He said, “It is a good idea, but the implementation may be very difficult. If it is well executed and the accurate number is got and everybody has an ID card, it becomes very easy for the government to plan for the people.”

A Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, Chief Cliff Ogbede, also commended the move.

He said, “It will help to know the exact number and location of every resident, which will help the government in planning and sharing basic infrastructures. It is a good development which well-meaning Lagosians should embrace.”
But a lawyer, Mr. Silas Udoh, said the state had no constitutional power to issue ID cards to residents because the country is operating a federal system of government.

He said that such policy would not achieve any meaningful purpose; instead, he said, it would widen national disunity, ethnic sentiments and foster discrimination.

In an SMS to our correspondent, the Chief Executive Officer, Leading Edge Consulting, Dr. Ije Jidenma, said it was a fundamental planning requirement to have the statistics of residents in a particular geographical area.

She also said that the demography would help in identifying different groups or categories of people, what their needs were and how best to make amenities available to them.

The President, Campaign for Democracy, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, welcomed the idea, stressing that it was very good for planning purpose. She also said that it would be useful for biometrics purpose such as knowing the actual population of those in school, unemployed, those in old people’s home, among others.

The Executive Secretary, Victoria Island and Ikoyi Security and Environment Trust, Alhaji Abdullatif Muse, said that the measure was a desirable administrative, planning and security tool to promote good governance.