Data Duplicity in Nigeria; yet Inaccessible

I have been in several conversations across different forums where some people say it is difficult to identify people people or validate the identity of people who have committed a crime or for any other reason without them presenting true means of identity and this piece is to throw some insight based on my experience on how we can do better as a nation.

I recall several years ago, I was to renew my international passport and at the point of NIN validation, the immigration officer told me he couldn't proceed with the process because of a mismatch in the order of arrangement of my middle name and first name when comparing the National Identity Number (NIN) Database and the Nigeria Immigration Service Database upon a NIN validation. I was like "hey it is me" there must have been some error during the NIN enrolment but the officer was having none of it.

I was like, that will be easy, let us align with the NIN Database and update the Immigration Database since I am here so we can proceed

Long story short, the officer told me I had to go back to update my NIN data with NIMC and how Immigration Database is more superior to the NIN database and how I had to present an elephants tooth (showing difficulty) before I will be able to update my data on the Immigration Database.

This experience got me thinking of the several ways the Nigerian government has access to my data as follows;

1. Bank Verification Number (BVN - CBN)
2. National Identity Number (NIN - NIMC)
3. Drivers License (FRSC)
4. Passport Number (NIMS)
5. Telco Biometric Registration

My interaction with the immigration officer showed he only wanted to validate if I was same person, not necessarily the order of the name

However, considering the real intention was validation, I wondered why a biometric validation couldn't be done at the Immigration office and this triggered other thoughts;

1. Who does a police officer have to tell me to identify myself without any other means of validating the authenticity of the data I provide?
2. Why can't security agencies have easy access to data?
3. Why can't multiple national data sources be linked?
4. The questions go on and on...

This piece is strictly how we can advance as a country and below are suggestions to achieve this;

1. We need to go back to communities building social amenities like schools, police stations, hospitals, etc. We have a great deal of security needs that cannot be solved solely by the government.
2. All BVN needs to be linked to NIN, and every other national data. This was the case for NIN a few years ago but not sure this is still the case. Linking NIN to BVN will enable security agencies to follow the money.
3. NIN needs to be upgraded with liveliness functionalities. This is available for BVN as biometric validation is one sure way to validate an identity
4. Security agencies must be equipped with technology and power to be able to validate people or even enrol. I want to suggest that, security agencies should be empowered to enrol someone of interest if data doesn't exist and such registrations may be called lobby registration until registration is completed by right agency but data can be re-used at the same time.
5. Add more in the comment section

Finally, I am of the opinion that data exists today and government has to play a major role in making sure it is available and harnessed while we support provide support to making this a success.