The National Identity Card (CNI) is a matter of a country’s sovereignty and responds to a regal obligation of the exclusive domain and under the high security of the State. The CNI is a permanent issue of top national security. You will notice with me that all the developed countries in which most of you live have a good grasp of their identification system for all their citizens and all foreign nationals living on their soil.
The new National Identity Card(CNI) is a polycarbonate, laminated, and secure document, established on a pre-printed background according to ISO/IEC 7810 standard in 10-1 format. It is computerized, biometric, and personal. It attests to the quality of a citizen of a country and grants them legal existence.
The DGSN signed a contract on May 13, 2024, with the German company AUGENTIC GMBH for the production of a CNI within 24 hours. A BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) contract for a cost set at 15,000 FCFA, recently revised by the Senate and the DGI to 10,000 FCFA. It should be noted that the price was 2,800 FCFA in 2016 under the previous contract signed in 2015 with the French company Gemalto, a subsidiary of the Thales group of the same nationality.
Identity represents the soul of a nation. It cannot be managed like a commodity, an ordinary good or service, like a road, a bridge, etc.
The CNI is a matter of a country’s sovereignty and responds to a regal obligation of the exclusive domain and under the high security of the State. The CNI is a permanent issue of top national security.
Today, it appears like in the era of slavery when the master issued the emancipation permit to the slave for their freedom. The theme chosen by Prof Maurice Kamto during his conference in The Hague is quite evocative: INTERNATIONAL LAW AND UNFINISHED DECOLONIZATION . Because we are still in the era where it is the white man who determines who is a Cameroonian citizen and who is not. We must imperatively and radically stop this neo-colonization that dehumanizes us and demonstrates our inability to take responsibility. This does not happen in any respectable country, and if we want to be respected by our own and by others, we must STOP this infantilization.
You will notice with me that all the developed countries in which most of you live have a good grasp of their identification system for all their citizens and all foreign nationals living on their soil. Conversely, all underdeveloped countries have no control over their populations. This clearly shows the importance of this factor in the life of a country. And that is why we must make it the priority of priorities.
Economic projections and needs assessments are based on credible statistics in a society. How can we hope to emerge from underdevelopment if we do not know how many we are and who we are? How can a father evaluate the budget and needs of his children if he does not know how many they are and who they are? Worse, how can a father ask his friend to come and count and identify the people living under his roof and who are supposed to be under his responsibility?
Several debates are taking place around the thorny issue of the CNI with problems related to dual nationality, passports, the electoral code, and voter registration. It must be emphasized that the stakes and levels of importance and priority are not the same here.
Without the CNI, none of the other issues would exist or would be prohibitive. The same goes for an even more essential document. Without a birth certificate, the CNI cannot exist. According to MP Joshua Osih, nearly 10 million Cameroonians do not have birth certificates. Equally worrying, no population census has taken place since 2005, that is, for almost 20 years.
The complete control by nationals of all processes around the CNI must be inscribed at the heart of patriotic and national priorities…
Through this issue that concerns everyone, and we salute the campaign carried out by the valiant team of Cabral Libi “JE VEUX MA CNI”, we have a great opportunity to bring all trends around the same table, including our brothers and sisters from NOSO. And make it one of our priorities for the campaign of a POLITICAL TRANSITION in Cameroon. And thus, to combine the useful with the pleasant, we will launch a spider operation to motivate the registration of all Cameroonians worldwide through a digital solution for this purpose… to impact all political partners to join us for the advent of a new era.
According to our information and prospective studies, the CNI in its current polycarbonate/polyethylene form should not exceed 1,000 FCFA in unit production cost in its current credit card format. Elsewhere, in serious countries, this essential document for civic life is issued free of charge to citizens.
That is why we recommend that it be free for the transition period and beyond, to provide ALL Cameroonians with this indispensable official document, which could allow for a more realistic and representative electoral list of all the components of the nation.
And how could this be done?
PROPOSAL
According to the decree of the Head of State 2016/375 of August 4, 2016, setting the characteristics, establishment, and issuance procedures in its Chapter II, it is indicated that the CNI is issued by the Delegate for National Security, DGSN.
Given the numerous failures observed with several relay operators and their inability to provide Cameroonian citizens with a CNI, GEMALTO, THALES, G&D, SaphranMorpho, VERIDOS, and now AUGENTIC have all failed and are disqualified.
Given its highly technical nature through the use of advanced technologies such as BIOMETRICS, it is good that this be the business of technicians in the field and not the police, who should be tasked with control and not production.
Given its dependence on the production of civil status documents, of which birth certificates are indispensable.
For better traceability and good coordination, it would be good to entrust this task to an institution like BUNEC, created by Decree No. 2013/031 of February 13, 2013, which is the National Civil Status Bureau of Cameroon (BUNEC). It is a public administrative establishment responsible for ensuring the supervision, control, regulation, and evaluation of the national civil status system.
Composed of a dynamic and competent team, BUNEC for the Cameroonian civil status system performs the following actions:
Modernizes the civil status system
Secures the civil status system
Makes the Cameroonian civil status system reliable
As is already done in other countries with proven results like in INDIA, South Africa, or to a lesser extent in Côte d’Ivoire, a reform is necessary by assigning new and complementary competencies to BUNEC (National Civil Status Bureau) by transforming it into BUNEIC (National Civil Status and Identification Bureau of Cameroon). This new organization will have the mission of coordinating civil status and Cameroonian identity, as one cannot exist without the other. They should be provided with adequate human, technical, and material resources for the proper accomplishment of their mission. Through unique identification, we will resolve this issue in the medium term. We recall that India, the most populous country in the world with approximately 1.5 billion people, has embarked on this process since 2018 and is still in the process of harmonization with extraordinary results. And it is currently one of the most reliable systems in the world.
The registration of acts, the creation of unique numbers and birth records, the enrollment of Cameroonians of legal age for their CNI, and the daily processing of all this data will be the responsibility of the new BUNEC (National Civil Status and Identification Bureau of Cameroon), but a second actor to be involved would be the National Printing Office, which could produce as many CNIs as needed according to the DATA (electronic identification data of citizens) provided by BUNEIC. While allowing time for ramp-up after strengthening the technological and technical capacities of this operator.
Thus, our country will have a stable and sustainable institution to meet all identity challenges. And no longer at the will of a single man who decides on the existence of about 40 million Cameroonians worldwide.
Here are some avenues of reflection conducted by COSTO (Scientific and Technical Committee of the Opposition) under the impetus of CPD (Cameroon Patriotic Diaspora)
Mr. Jean GenestarPriso
Coordinator of COSTO
Prof.Tagne Jean Bosco
General Coordinator of CPD
