Mistrust of government within authoritarian states hindering user acceptance and adoption of digital IDs in Africa: The Nigerian context

IF 1.8 Q3 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Data & policy Pub Date : 2022-10-25 DOI:10.1017/dap.2022.29
Babatunde O. Okunoye
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract Nigeria commenced its national foundational digital identity project in 2007 and had enrolled 60 million people by July 2021. The project, led by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), seeks to unify the country’s public and private functional identity databases, and aims to improve government services and national security. Although the enrolment process had encountered initial challenges such as the absence of enrolment centers in some communities across the country, enrolment for the biometric ID had proceeded without any significant public objection to its objectives. Following the EndSARS protests of October 2020, where youths protesting police violence and perceived poor governance were shot at by government security forces and protesters placed under surveillance, the government announced an updated national identity policy mandating citizens link their National Identity Number (NIN) with their SIM card information. For the first time, significant pockets of resistance arose against the national ID project by sections of the public who perceived the EndSARS violence as signaling a change in government behavior, and the updated ID policy as a mechanism for empowering government surveillance and authoritarianism. The resistance to the ID project marked a shift in public perception which threatens its future. This paper argues that mistrust in government data collection projects grows when data collection is perceived to be increasing government power to the detriment of human rights and freedom. It also puts forward a proposal on how to restore trust within the low-trust environment in Nigeria including the passage of a data protection law and amendments to the NIMC Act and Policies/Regulations, establishing Federated identity providers which give choices to end-users, and delinking the NIN from functional identity databases.
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专制国家对政府的不信任阻碍了非洲用户接受和采用数字身份:尼日利亚背景
尼日利亚于2007年启动了国家基础数字身份项目,到2021年7月已注册了6000万人。该项目由国家身份管理委员会(NIMC)领导,旨在统一国家的公共和私人功能身份数据库,旨在改善政府服务和国家安全。虽然登记过程最初遇到了一些挑战,例如在全国一些社区没有登记中心,但登记生物识别身份的工作仍在进行中,公众对其目标没有任何重大反对。在2020年10月的EndSARS抗议活动之后,抗议警察暴力和治理不善的年轻人遭到政府安全部队的枪击,抗议者受到监视,政府宣布了一项更新的国家身份政策,要求公民将其国民身份号码(NIN)与其SIM卡信息联系起来。这是第一次,一些公众认为EndSARS暴力是政府行为改变的信号,更新的身份证政策是授权政府监督和威权主义的机制,对国家身份证项目产生了重大抵制。对ID项目的抵制标志着公众观念的转变,这威胁到它的未来。本文认为,当数据收集被认为是在增加政府权力,损害人权和自由时,对政府数据收集项目的不信任就会增加。它还提出了一项关于如何在尼日利亚低信任环境中恢复信任的建议,包括通过数据保护法和修订NIMC法案和政策/法规,建立联邦身份提供者,为最终用户提供选择,并将NIN与功能身份数据库断开连接。
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CiteScore
3.10
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0.00%
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审稿时长
12 weeks
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