THE DIRECTIVE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DIGITAL ECONOMY

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THE DIRECTIVE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DIGITAL ECONOMY TO ALL TELECOMMUNICATIONS OPERATORS TO BLOCK SUBSCRIBERS’ LINES THAT FAIL TO LINK THEM UP WITH NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER(NIN) WITHIN TWO WEEKS

On 15th December 2020, the federal government through the National Communications Commission (NCC) directed that the GSM operators should require their subscribers to link up their National Identification Number (NIN) to their SIMs within two weeks and failure to do so the operators should block the lines of the concerned subscribers. The statement went further to threaten the operators of sanctions which include withdrawal of their licenses if they fail to affect the blockade.

We are disturbed by the insensitiveness of the federal government in this press statement. We are forced to believe that, as usual, the government wants to punish Nigerians for her own ineptitude. At this point in time that there is pervasive hardship in the land brought about by banditry, terrorism, thuggery and increasing high cost of living occasioned by the government’s hike on electricity tariff and fuel pump price we do not expect the government to impose a new and an avoidable hardship on Nigerians through this directive.

Rather than issuing a deadline and threats on linking up the NIN to SIMs what we believe the government should do is to address the bottlenecks encountered by Nigerians in the process of registration which have prevented majority of them from obtaining their NIN. Is the government aware that it is only about forty-three Million Nigerians that have been able to obtain NIN since its introduction over seven years ago? To expect Nigerians to register and obtain NIN to link it up with their SIMs within two weeks what they could not obtain for these number of years beat our imaginations.

Nigerians have suffered immensely trying to obtain the NIN to no avail. Stories told by those that have registered are not pleasant. Some were leaving their homes for the registration centers as early as 4am daily for weeks before they could register. While those that could not withstand the rigor part with monies to hasten things up for them.

We implore the government to withdraw the directive because it was not well thought out and is highly unachievable. To register about one hundred and seventy million Nigerians that are yet to be registered within two weeks is a tall order that can never be met with the present encumbrances in the present approach of registering the people.

By giving two weeks to Nigerians that have not registered to do so will surely add more hardship on them. The Government is practically telling them to abandon their businesses and whatever they are doing that bring incomes for them within that long period of time.

Also, with the second wave of COVID-19 in the country Nigerians will not be able to storm the registration centers without contracting the virus.

Furthermore, we are in the Yuletide period during which a lot of Nigerians travel across the country to celebrate with their families to ask them to register at this time is as good as putting paid to their festivities.

In the light of the above we implore the government to rather shift its focus on getting more Nigerians registered seamlessly. Registration centers should be brought closer to the people. By this we are suggesting that there should be at least two registration centers in each of the wards throughout the federation.

If and when all remaining Nigerians have been able to register and obtain their NIN, they need not be bothered to link their NIN’s with their operators, the government through the NIMC and NCC should liaise with the telecoms operators to synchronize the NIN with the subscribers’ SIMs after all, the operators still rely on the NIMC to authenticate NIN provided by subscribers before they can link them up to their SIMS.

We understand the importance of having a comprehensive database for the country and at the same time having NIN linked with SIMs we implore the government to adopt the best of approaches in putting them in place. All these can be done without necessarily causing hardship to Nigerians.

Signed

Com. Opeyemi Tomori                                                            Com. Okonu Abdullahi A.

PTECSSAN President                                                               PTECSSAN General Secretary