FRSC: Nigerians lament huddles in processing driver’s licence

Many Nigerians are stranded in their efforts to process the renewal of their driver’s licence through the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

This is because of the huddles emanating from the process of linking the FRSC database to that of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

The Federal Government recently ordered the FRSC not to process any class of driver’s licence without the use of applicant’s National Identification Number (NIN).

The move, government explained, is to curb the deteriorating spate of insecurity in the country through the harmonization of citizens’ data by relevant agencies.

The FRSC had in a statement notified members of the public that it would commence the process of harmonisation of citizen’s data as directed by the Federal Government effective December 21, 2020.

“In compliance with the FG’s directive on the harmonisation of citizens’ data by relevant agencies, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) from 21/12/2020 will begin the enforcement of the NIN in the processing of driver’s license”, FRSC said in a statement on its website.

However, many could not successfully complete the online processing of their licence renewal during the week.

The system now rejects many applications on the ground that the data supplied by the applicants are inaccurate.

“Your application cannot be processed as the name you provided does not match with existing data,” the website responded.

Such applicants are further directed to visit FRSC or NIMC offices to rectify the error.

Investigation revealed that in many cases, applicants’ first and middle (second) names were joined, thereby creating “double first name”; with the surname properly captured, leaving the space for the middle names blank.

A licence holder named John Obot Asuquo, had ‘John’ and ‘Obot’ stated together in the box for first name, while the space for his middle name (Obot) was blank, before ‘Asuquo’ the surname.

At both the Old Secretariat and Ojodu Berger offices of the FRSC in Ikeja, Lagos, during the week, angry citizens were seen in hot arguments with FRSC officials who laboured to explain the cause of the bizarre error.

An official at the FRSC Old Secretariat office, Lagos, told newsmen that “the error was caused by the person who first keyed in the applicants’ particulars on first issuance of the licence”.

“It is possible that the person had joined the first and second names together and that is what is manifesting now,” the official laboured to explain to the angry applicants.

A middle-aged man whose licence was first issued in 2001 produced previous documents downloaded from the FRSC website bearing his names in the correct order.

“How did I renew my licence many times all these years with my names correctly printed out? Why is it now that I am bearing double-barrel first name?” he queried the FRSC officials who continued to exonerate the Commission.

To rectify the anomaly, affected driver’s licence holders are required to present a newspaper publication supported with an affidavit and e-mail application for “separation of names” through an FRSC office.

The Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO), Mr Bisi Kazeem, could not be reached for comments.

A document seen by newsmen at the Old Secretariat office showed many applicants are affected by the data muddling in the process of linking the FRSC database with NIMC.

An official of FRSC told newsmen on point of anonymity that the Commission did not do a thorough job.

“It is going to create a problem for us and members of the public. Each time a policy is made, it creates another problem that would lead to initiating another policy to solve it. We cannot do anything right in this country,” she said.