Police Biometric Registration: A Development Long Overdue




 Nigeria Police Force has commenced the biometric registration of all vehicles nationwide, in a bid to effectively check insecurity in the Country. The Biometric Central Motor Registration (BCMR) comes against the backdrop of contemporary security challenges bordering on terrorism, high incidence of car theft, carjacking, kidnappings and other acts of crime and criminality in our society...

We all love to talk about the police. I am particularly interested in whatever they have to offer. When I got this news, I was inclined towards confusion at first then, just to be sure, I looked up the word "Biometric".Thereafter came a big sigh. Apparently, the information I have in one of those documents in the car glove compartments, are now just about to be entered in a computer, in the year 2013. What a milestone! I am sure we will all have to queue for that, while wondering (and not complaining as usual) what happened to all the information submitted earlier. Also, what on earth were all those routine police stops for?

Here it is, Biometrics is and has been a way of life for many years now. I hope someone, somewhere in the government does not see this exercise as a career boost or a leverage for popularity because as far as I am concerned, we ought to have come too far to see incidences such as these as newsworthy. Next time, just so because we have to catch up with the rest of the world, let projects such as these be carried out discreetly and swiftly. Thumbs up all the same to the Inspector General. Let's get on with it.