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 Rufai, 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.
