FIJ
My name is Emmanuel Uti, and although I was born only once, I can now legally exist as Sunday Chima Samuel, a 26-year-old man “born” on March 14, 1998, in both Ebute Metta, Yaba, and Oregun, Ikeja – at the same time. But what are the odds of being born twice on the same day, or even under two different names? As FIJ has found, the “miracle” of creating a legal doppelgänger is made possible by faith — faith in the weaknesses of the National Population Commission (NPC), backed by a willingness to act by bribing officials.
THE LEGAL DOPPELGÄNGER
A student of the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti told FIJ in August that they paid N15,000 at Kosofe Local Government House to obtain a birth certificate after they had misplaced the copy handed to their parents by the NPC.
Probing the matter further, FIJ found that the student was born in 1991 and that their parents could not have received a copy of the birth certificate from the NPC, as only those born after 1992 — the year the NPC was established — could have an originally issued one. To verify the student’s initial claim, I attempted the same re-issuance process to gauge how difficult it is to obtain a replacement birth certificate in Nigeria.
To do this, FIJ first visited Ikeja Local Government on August 22, at 1 pm. When this reporter arrived at the gate of the local government office, a mean-looking old man asked where they were headed.
Without hesitation, I informed him I was there to get a replacement birth certificate. He questioned why I believed the local government could issue one. I explained that a friend who had misplaced their copy had obtained a replacement from a local government office and I thought I could also get one there. From where he sat, he looked at me as though I had uttered nonsense. But after a few seconds, he heaved a sigh and invited me inside.
Once inside, he asked what had happened to my original certificate. I told him I wasn’t sure how I misplaced it but believed it happened at school. He followed up by asking why I needed the new certificate. When I said it was for school registration, he asked no further questions and directed me to a container shop nearby.
Inside the shop, he handed me a piece of paper to write the names of my father and mother, their occupations, and mine. In no time, he disappeared with the paper. But before he did, he said, “Stay here.”
He shut the door as though he knew he was doing something illegal.
“How much do you have for this birth certificate that you are doing?” the man asked me after showing up at the container shop moments later. “I have only N3,000, sir. I have spent all of my money on registration at school,” I told him.
“No. The standard price is N5,000. And I am not overcharging you. It is because you are a student, and I want to help you,” the man said. But at that moment, I had only N1,550 cash on me. Once I brought it out, he collected everything and asked me to go outside to find a point-of-sale merchant to withdraw more money to pay him up.
“But sir, I have spent all my money. I would have to wait for someone to send me money,” I said. “Just go out and get the money. I will wait for you. Let me show you where to withdraw,” he said.
So, we went out together, and I sent money from my OPay account to the operator, someone he knew well, but he didn’t bother to verify my identity. After I paid the operator, he got my phone number and went inside the compound, although he did not call me and would not give me his number when I requested it. Within five minutes, he returned with a new birth certificate bearing the name of my doppelgänger.
The certificate bore the details I provided. Name: Sunday Chima Samuel, Father: Sunday Alexander, Mother: Omonefe Inegbedion, Birth Date: March 14, 1998. He did this without verifying who I was or asking me to present any document for verification, an unexpected lapse for anyone handling such data.
“Your work is ready,” he said as he handed me the new birth certificate. “Thank you, sir,” I responded while handing him six N500 notes to complete my payment. He bade me farewell and returned to the seat where I had first met him.
BORN AGAIN
If the phrase “to see the kingdom of God, one must be born again” were taken literally, my chances of making it to heaven would have jumped to 99% after September 19, when the NPC effectively made Sunday Chima Samuel “born again”. That day, although I could have chosen any healthcare centre or local government office for a birth certificate, I opted for the Ebute Metta General Hospital. Once I entered the hospital, a woman named Iya Bolu, also known as Cecelia Adeola, presented herself as someone who could help and began quizzing me.
She asked how I lost the original copy and why I needed it. I explained that I had been careless and needed it for academic registration. I figured the questions were not genuine but for formality. Once I finished, she gave me the phone number of a man named Owolabi Stephen and explained that he was the one who could issue the certificate. I didn’t hesitate to call him on WhatsApp.
“How old are you?” Stephen asked after I introduced myself. Once I replied, he informed me that I would have to pay N26,000 to get a new birth certificate, claiming the high fee was due to my age. But this claim is unfounded. On the NPC birth registration self-portal, it costs only N2,000.
“Retrieving the certificate will cost you N26,000 because your parents gave birth to you in 1998,” Stephen told FIJ.
“But I know you’re a student and might be broke, so pay whatever you can afford,” he added after I interrupted to explain I didn’t have that much money.
I stood firm on paying N7,000, but he pushed for N8,000, which I eventually paid to Iya Bolu without further dispute. She passed me a sheet of paper to write my details, and I filled in the same names I had provided in Ikeja LGA. Just as with the man in Ikeja, she did not attempt to verify my identity.
“You’ll come back tomorrow to collect your certificate, as the man who will process it isn’t around,” Iya Bolu said, assuring me the certificate would be ready before 10 am on September 20. True to her word, it was. She called me at 8 am for it.
The night before, Iya Bolu had asked for my details via WhatsApp. As in person, I provided the fictitious names: Sunday Chima Samuel, Sunday Alexander, and Omonefe Inegbedion, all went unverified.
LOOPHOLES IN THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE RETRIEVAL PROCESS
According to official NPC guidelines, to retrieve a birth certificate, an applicant must provide their birth record, have their details verified, complete the application process, and pay the required fee. Once the application and documentation are verified, the NPC will process the replacement and issue a new birth certificate.
If applicants choose to do it online via the self-service portal, they must input their NINs.
However, our investigation reveals that these requirements, such as obtaining an affidavit, can be easily sidestepped by bribing officials or asking a government-owned hospital staff to use their influence to exploit the system.
In the case of the FUOYE student interviewed by FIJ in August, they mentioned that although they had valid identification and passport-sized photographs during their visit to the NPC at Kosofe Local Government House, they were not required to present them.
“The process is meant to be strict,” the student said, “but I got a replacement certificate that same day without providing any details apart from my name and parents’ names. All I did was haggle the price of the replacement certificate from N30,000 to N15,000.”
This case is not an isolated one. A 2021 report highlighted how a reporter obtained four birth certificates for a fictional baby for as little as N500. Among other implications, this makes it difficult to believe the estimated population figure of Nigeria from the NPC.
ONLINE PORTAL HAS NOT DEFEATED CORRUPTION
As part of the federal government’s larger digital transformation efforts, the NPC launched the birth certificate portal in February. This portal was intended to provide a convenient and accessible platform for citizens to register their children’s births online and reduce the need for manual processes and paperwork.
However, several months after its launch, feedback from users reveals significant discrepancies between the portal’s intended purpose and user experience.
One such Nigerian is Seun Olota, a Lagos-based full-stack web developer. Olota told FIJ that after paying N3,036 in January for a birth attestation through Remita, he was forced by the shortcomings of the NPC website to visit their office at Ajose in Eti-Osa LGA, where Oluwabunmi Badmus, an NPC staffer, asked him to pay N18,000 for the attestation. This was after Badmus informed him that his online payment did not matter.
Although Badmus’ statement hinted at extortion, the matter was not straightforward because the NPC, in response to an investigative report in January, asked Nigerians to pay into their Remita account. However, many who paid this way could not use it and were forced to visit physical centres where they were extorted.
“I paid through Remita as directed by the NPC in January but could not complete my application because the website deemed the payment invalid. I explained several times to many NPC staff members but to no avail. They said the online payment on their website was the only valid one,” Olota told FIJ.
Two weeks after Olota paid for attestation, he discovered that the NPC had implemented his advice to vary their payment options by adopting internet banking and bank transfers.
“These options were added to the only card option available around January and early February 2024. Even the card payment option was not working at that time. That prompted me to pay on the NPC’s website because I needed the birth attestation document then,” he said.
“I paid, filled out my form, took a photo of myself with my phone, submitted the form, and downloaded my copy that same day. It was simple. I was never going to pay N18,000 as an educated person. But my initial N3,036 is still hanging with the NPC to this day.”
MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE NPC WEBSITE
A simple search by FIJ on November 1 showed that many Nigerians who have embraced the birth certificate portal are experiencing difficulties using it. For example, Okodaso Peter, an X user, said in a November 1 response to the official NPC X handle that the attestation portal was inactive.
“Good morning, NPC. Your attestation portal is not working. It is affecting our ability to process NIMC modification of date of birth. What could be the problem?” Peter asked but never received a response, and he was not the only one.
Okoh Mathias, another X user, expressed frustration in an October 27 post after he could not proceed with the attestation process.
“It’s so frustrating that your self-service portal for birth attestation has been down for a week now. Kindly look into this and resolve it so the public can have a seamless process,” he posted.
Abiola Atanda, another X user, posted on October 25 that he needed assistance with an affidavit of birth but did not receive a response to his emails. He claimed that the phone number on the NPC’s website did not connect. Olota had a similar issue.
According to Olota, he called the five numbers on the NPC’s website in January, but none was reachable. He said he had sent several emails to them, but they refused to respond. FIJ found that this claim is not far-fetched.
On October 9, FIJ emailed the NPC for comments on the matter, but they refused to respond. FIJ also called the phone number on their Facebook page, but it did not connect.
FIJ emailed the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for comments on October 9. NAPTIP had not responded at press time. When FIJ called the NAPTIP call centre on November 1, the respondent asked FIJ to keep reminding the organisation via email to respond. FIJ also called Comfort Agboko, the Lagos State Zonal Commander for NAPTIP, but she said she had no comment.
When FIJ emailed the National Orientation Agency (NOA) for a response on October 9, they did not respond. The NOA had not responded at press time.
IMPLICATIONS OF NPC’s LAXITY
The practice of purchasing or obtaining replacement birth certificates without proper verification has far-reaching and damaging consequences in Nigeria.
This form of forgery is part of a larger issue, where corruption has made it easier for forged documents to be produced, an archived report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) notes. The report further shows that one major contributing factor is the lack of consistent verification processes by government authorities for information on official documents. This lapse allows inaccuracies and falsifications to enter the system unchecked.
A recent instance illustrating the impact of these systemic weaknesses occurred before the 2023 elections. In November 2022, it was discovered that numerous children, some as young as 10, were registered to vote in northern Nigeria by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with suspiciously incorrect birth dates.
Proper verification mechanisms could have easily prevented these registrations which undermine electoral integrity and manipulate voter records.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN FIJ
