Finger Print Solution For Nigerian Police Through Block chain

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On the U. S. Pipebomber and Lessons for Nigeria

Just a few days later and a suspect is under arrest for sending pipe bombs to Trump-tagonists across the United States of America. There is no big surprise here. Once the FBI picked up a fingerprint on one of the packages, it was only a question of time before the investigation would be wrapped up.

That would not be the case in Nigeria simply because we do not have a networked national crime database. In fact, the criminal could be sharing a drink with Officers in front of the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters and they won’t know. In 2018, case histories are still handwritten in the various Police Stations across the country. There is absolutely no way to network those records written on foolscap paper or printer paper. As such, every criminal in Nigeria is a first time offender provided they have the good sense to move just a few kilometers away to commit the crime.

Back in 2008, Tenece one of Nigeria’s leading IT companies, spent a lot of time trying to convince the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on the need for a national crime database. To make it easy for NPF, Tenece pulled together a consortium of various service providers (including global tech companies, banks, telcos, etc.) to provide the service at no cost to the Government of Nigeria. The consortium worked out a business model for recovering its cost and for making a return. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Director in Tenece and was part of the team that developed the solution and made every effort to convince the government. After many months spent trying to convince two different Inspector Generals of Police, we agreed to pack up the idea sometime in 2011. One can not cry more than the bereaved. We tried again in 2015 and then basically left the idea to cool off on our hard drive until such a time when we find an IGP interested in solving a real problem.

As I read about the capture of the alleged pipebomber, I couldn’t help thinking that this would have been the tenth year anniversary of Nigeria’s National Crime Database. We would have worked out the kinks by now. Nigerians would have been better off for it. It would have helped resolve even some of the seemingly intractable conflict issues across the country: Herdsmen-farmers conflicts, Boko Haram, election violence, etc. The perpetrators of most of these conflicts are mere criminals.

Nigeria can still revisit the solution. In fact, advances in technology have made the solution more attainable at an even cheaper rate using blockchain technology. We know what to do but corruption and lack of implementation is a big issue here in African.