THE
Federal Government, on Wednesday, hinted that the national identity card would
replace voter cards in future elections in the country just as it approved the
printing of 33.5 million new permanent voter cards by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).
Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku,
who revealed this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly
meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), said the new voter cards would
be printed at the cost of N2.17 billion.
He noted that the new voter cards would
contain unique biometric features to identify the holders and come with a
lifespan of 10 years, adding that during the 10 years lifespan, the national
identity card would replace it as the voter card.
Maku said: “Following the successful
conduct of the nationwide voters’ registration in 2011, the commission proposed
to print 73,500,000 permanent voters’ cards to replace the temporary voter
cards issued during the voter registration.
“The commission printed 40,000,000 permanent
cards in 2011 for the first phase of the project which is in progress. There is
the need to print and issue the remaining 35.000,000 permanent voter cards.
“After deliberations, Council approved the
contract for the second phase of the printing of permanent voter cards at the
rate of N65 per card in the sum of N2,117,500,000 with a completion period of
six months,” he said.
The minister explained that based on INEC’s
estimate, the permanent voter cards would be used for elections in 2015 and
2019 after which the national identity cards would be the instrument for use in
elections in the country.
FEC also approved the institutionalisation
of six-level National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) and the
placement of National Vocational Qualifications in the Scheme of Service.
Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu
Rufa’i, who was also at the briefing, explained that the decision was informed
by the need to de-emphasise over-reliance on paper qualification and integrate
skilled professionals into the scheme of service.
In doing this, the council reasoned that as
Nigeria aspired to become a major player in the world economy, the place of
skilled and competent workforce could not be underplayed.
Source: Tribune
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