By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye
As a Nigerian, if there is any phrase that would readily be chosen by a speaker to explain the position on which the federal government is standing on in the bid to implement the SIM-NIN integration, it is unarguably the one that is known as”By-fire- by-force”. Interpretatively put, it is usually used to express the fact that something must definitely be done irrespective of foreseen barriers.
The foregoing contextual position adopted by the government and its concerned agencies in the bid to implement the policy has not been easy as it has been met with resistance from key stakeholders. For instance, while telecom operators opposed it on the ground of probable dip in their revenue, subscribers were on the other hand embittered because they could not obtain or register new SIM while those that wanted to replace lost or damaged SIM cards could not do so.
Despite the fact that the Federal Government had initiated the NIN-SIM linkage policy as part of itsnmeasures to bolster security and logistical planning, there seems to be soaring rate of insecurity on the back of having over 125million SIMs submitted for NIN linkage, verification and authentication since December 2020.
As also gathered, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued over 78million unique NINs as at April 7, 2022 as disclosed in a statement. The Nigerian Communication Commission ( NCC0 had in February published data shown that there were some 303.6million mobile lines connected in the country, out of which about 197.77 were active. With subscribers of 125million active lines having submitted their NIN for linkage to SIM cards, there were about 72.7million lines affected by Monday’s partial deactivation.
But the question that has been on people’s lips is “Has the government made commendable headway tracing criminals with information made available through NIN-SIM linkage since linkages of NIN to SIM earnestly commenced?
The foregoing question becomes germane as efforts to implement the policy in some cases appear to be doing more harm than good.
For instance, prospective 2022 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board candidates are finding it difficult to register for NIN which has been made a prerequisite for sitting for JAMB’s UTME examination amid the rigorous process of registering for the Examination. As most of the candidates unanimously confessed, the registration process is frustrating, stressful and beyond human comprehension.
It was gathered that candidates are told to send NIN to 55019 or 66019 to generate profile code at the cost of N50 but the code is often not sent even after several trials, thereby incurring additional costs. After generating it, the candidates are asked to make payment and acquire pin code, which is also another tedious process.
To worsen the situation, the centralization of the registration centers, which may require candidates from more than two local governments to register around just one CBT center, is creating serious pains and frustration as candidates, who have already made their payments in the bank, are compelled to queue under the scorching sun for days just to complete a simple registration process that a simple mobile app can achieve.
Without doubt, difficulties been created for prospective students as the prevailing imbroglio may render some of them ineligible that they may at the end be in a state of not being able to write the upcoming JAMB examination.
Besides, there are equally confusion, anger and frustration, especially from subscribers who claimed to have been barred in error despite successfully linking their NINs to SIM cards.
As gathered from the Guardian newspaper of April 6, 2022, following compliance to the directive by the service providers, especially the mobile network operators (MNOs), some 75 million lines have been barred. But it appears the barring have equally affected some subscribers who claimed to have verified and linked their NINs to SIMs.
“A Globacom subscriber, Abioye Owolabi,y that he had completed the linking and verification exercise as far back as 2021, “but I was shocked this morning to discover that I cannot make calls. This is my main line and imagine not being able to make calls. It is shocking! All what I was asked to do then, I complied with and got confirmation that my line was successfully linked”.
Another Globacom user, Esther Olatunji, also said she has been barred despite completing the NIN-SIM exercise. “I woke up to make calls this morning (yesterday), only to discover that I cannot call out. I remember completing the entire NIN-SIM process around June 2021 and there was confirmation to that effect.”
“Olatunji, however, said she sent a message to *109# and “I was asked to provide my NIN, which I did. After about two hours, a message came as ‘Thank you for providing your NIN. SMS confirmation will be sent to you once your NIN has been verified and linked to your line.’ I am still waiting for them to unbar me.”
“Nduka Maduka, a 9mobile subscriber, said he was among the first set of Nigerians that registered and linked the SIM successfully, “but I woke up this morning to discover that my line has been barred. I will visit the 9mobile outlet to go and vent my anger because I knew what I went through to verify and link then, only for them to block me again.”
Just recently, Telecoms subscribers under the aegis of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers have called on the Federal Government to suspend issuing of deadlines for the National Identification Number-Subscriber Identity Module data verification exercise and adopt a continuous registration model.
This, according to the industry pressure body, will help the government accommodate the National Identity Management Commission’s lack of capacity to host the data of telecommunication subscribers.
The President of the association, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, made the disclosure at a media parley. According to him, a continuous registration process will cover the various hiccups experienced by the exercise.
Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to ask, “Why is the linkage of NIN to SIM a do or die affair? Why is its implementation its implementation “By-Fire-By-Force kind of approach?
