One of the selling points of having a system automated is to help it operate easier, faster and more proficiently. So it came as pleasant news when I heard of the Federal Governments intension to introduce “Automated driver license registration and renewal scheme”, but is this obtainable in Nigeria today? I don’t think so. In fact I heard that when your process does go through without a hitch (in an ideal situation), you are still issued a temporal license that would be used for upwards of two months before the actual license becomes available.
Well i would be taking this from my personal experience, my ordeal with the FRSC/ Licensing office started about 3 years ago when the previous license expired and I sort for a new one. That day I went to the FRSC office in Isheri in Lagos and after making the necessary payments I was held up for more than 8 hours while I looked at staff members eat and gist away. At the end of the day, I was issued a receipt and copies of other documents I was made to sign during the course of the day (these documents were supposed to act as a temporal permit for a month, while I awaited my computerized capture schedule). On the appointed date of capture, I was informed that they were out of materials for the capture and was told that the temporal license would be renewed (stamped and extended by date), I didn’t know at that time that this was going to be a routine for me for the next 2 years, by this I mean at the end of every quarter I had to go back to the office of the FRSC to get my permit extended.
Finally this year, after more than two years of waiting for my data capture to take place, I decided to go and seek a renewal and start the process from scratch since I felt after so long, the agency should have gotten their acts together. Prior to going to the licensing office, I had invested time and effort into going online to fill the online form and make submissions, this was where I first got wind that they had issues they hadn’t figured out, there site has a payment system, yet you are not allowed to use it, you are expected to print out the form you filled first, get it verified at the licensing office in person, before going to the bank to physically make your payments.
One this faithful morning, I and a friend of mine arrived at the office at 7:30am, hoping to tidy up all the requirements and make it back to our respective offices before 9am … Was I mistaking or what? In fact the officers that we needed to see didn’t start walking into the office till about 9:30 am, we were not attended to till about 11am that morning, after being thrown from office to office, at about 11:30am we were asked to go to a bank on Oba Akran in Lagos, this journey that would have normally taken 15 mins at most, took us about 2 hrs to complete because of the hectic traffic that faithful day and the none availability of “okadas” (this waste of time would have been avoided if only the online payment was effective). Finally arriving back at the licensing office at about 2:15pm, we were asked to submit the payment slip and wait for vetting. This took another 1hr 30mins before we were asked to go and return in a month for data capture.
It has been 73 days and 5 visits after the date of first data capture appointment and all we have been getting is “We are out of data capture materials, check back next week”. Honestly, what are the materials needed for data capture that can be exhausted? I thought the idea was to go computerized? What exactly has finished? Is it the scanners, computer, internet connection (if needed) or what exactly has finished?
It has now been three years of me driving in Lagos with a temporal driver’s license, all I would normal have done with my license, I haven’t been able to do… I have to take my international passport for identification purposes at the bank, depend on office ID card for day to day identification needs (which in most cases prove ineffective to say the least).
I only hope I would not have to wait another 3 years before I am issued a license, because with the recent trend of events it seems to be a replay of what transpired during my earlier attempt to get this same license. Even though I understand the reason to go computerized, especially with the insecurity in the country, but I really miss the times when I could get my license within 48 hrs (pre-computerization era).
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