I have lost count of how many times my biometrics have been taken by the Nigerian government and its authorised agents. I have been researching to make sure there is no disease associated with too much biometrics. Thankfully, I have not found any yet. But at the rate we have been collecting biometrics — especially fingerprints — in Nigeria, I have no doubt that we are the most "biometricised" country in the world. At the slightest provocation, we are called forward to come and surrender our fingerprints. There may be a genuine reason for the craze, but I still cannot put my finger on it. Perhaps, I should simply keep my fingers crossed.
My hopeless romance with fingerprinting started long ago. The earliest I can remember was in 1991 when we were asked to register to vote in the general election — although I am sure I did register for the local government elections conducted by the military government earlier than that. We registered at every election time. In those days, it was a simple ink-on-the-thumb and thumb-on-the-paper process. It meant absolutely nothing, anyway. On the day of election, there was no way of crosschecking if it was the same registered voter that turned up. Nobody was qualified or equipped to analyse the thumbprints. Nobody could really spot multiple registration.
