The Punch Editorial
The Nigeria Police Force seems to have saddled itself with the role of revenue generation as it continues to advance the entrenchment of the Electronic Central Motor Registry for vehicle owners. Although the police have suspended the initiative, they should confront insecurity, their primary responsibility. The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, should dismantle the project outright.
Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, recently gave vehicle owners a few days to meet the July 29 deadline for the e-CMR registration. The process, which included issuing the e-CMR certificates by the police, was meant to cost vehicle owners at least N5,375. A breakdown showed that N5,000 was accrued to the police while N375 was VAT.
This caused a backlash as citizens accused the police of creating a conduit for extortion and oppression.
With over 11.8 million vehicles in the country, the police would have reportedly earned at least N59 billion if the deadline was implemented.
The police say the e-CMR provides “information about vehicle ownership and other details that will be useful in the investigation of motor vehicle theft and recovery and for enhancing national security.” They stress that it would digitise policing, ensure the safety of lives and properties by collating data and biometrics of vehicle owners, and provide robust incidence reports across the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. Security agencies make these claims in their attempt to burden Nigerians.
It is not a well-timed initiative. Nigerians are confronted with high fuel prices, a cost-of-living crisis, and a slew of taxes. A 2023 federal initiative to prune taxes from 62 to nine has yet to see the light of day. During this period, the Federal Government introduced the 5.0 per cent excise duty on telecom services before suspending it. It disdainfully revived the EMT in May. It was again suspended after a national outcry.
Although Adejobi has denied that the e-CMR is a ploy to generate revenues, the intention of the Force to sensitise the public to adopt the data collation system while retaining the e-CMR website shows that the police remain stuck to their guns.
Despite the rationale behind the vehicle biometric platform, it duplicates existing database architectures that can be harnessed through collaboration between the police, the National Identity Management Commission, the Federal Road Safety Corps, and the Vehicle Inspection Service.
Therefore, the police do not need to create a new data collection platform to tackle crime, track and apprehend vehicle thieves, recover stolen vehicles, and validate the authenticity of vehicle ownership.
The e-CMR complicates the intention of the Bola Tinubu administration to streamline the numerous taxes, including nuisance taxes. While it is working on drastically reducing taxes, the police are compounding the situation by introducing the e-CMR.
The police should tackle the fundamental issue of manpower, ethics, and discipline within the Force, quickly dissolve the bickering between them and the Police Service Commission over jurisdiction, and recruit more officers. There are only 371,000 officers for 230 million Nigerians. Out of the existing police personnel, two-thirds are illegally deployed to VIPs, leading to a grave shortfall and a loophole for criminal activities in the country.
The Nigeria Police should borrow a leaf out of the book of the United Kingdom where the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is involved in vehicle database and taxes, not the police.
Corralling Nigerians through another biometric process is unnecessary. The police should harvest data from NIN, vehicle registration, and the FRSC number plate registry. Indeed, such a policy should go through the Joint Tax Board. This will enable the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and state tax agencies to make inputs on the initiative.
