The Nigerian government is getting ahead of factors militating against easy registration of Nigerians for National Identity Number (NIN) in the country, especially the indiscipline of some of the officials making the process difficult for people through their corruption.
One of the ways the government has done this may be by its latest decision, whereby it licensed Private Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) to register people, who do not have National Identity Numbers to reduce the large crowds at the offices of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The DEFENDER reports that effort of the government to make the compulsory NIN registration accessible and easy for citizens have been sabotaged by officials, especially at some of the Local Government Secretariats’ offices of the NIMC in Lagos, Rivers and other parts of Southern Nigeria.
This sabotage caused the crowds, which are both artificial and real at some of the offices, although officials at some other offices adduced inadequacy of machines and lack of electricity supply that has necessitated the use of generators as reasons for the difficulty experienced by people.
Our investigations further revealed that lackadaisical attitude of the people, themselves, towards government policies, which was why they still haven’t registered over six years after it started, is another unfortunate cause of the overwhelming crowds leading to the uneasy experience.
Citizens have, however, complained about how amounts from N3,000 to N15,000 were charged for them to be allowed to register and capture at the NIMC outlets.
Ostensibly in its deliberate effort to stop these interconnected problems faced by the people, the government has granted the permit for the telecoms companies to handle their registration for the NIN.
Director General, National Identification Management Commission (NIMC), Alhaji Aliyu Aziz, said some other private and public organisations had also been licensed by the commission to avoid overcrowding at the commission’s offices.
He said, “We have licensed private and public sector organisations including telcos (telecommunications companies) so as to create more centres,” Aziz reportedly said.
His diclosure came after the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, constituted a committee to address the demands of NIMC employees.
The NIMC workers had downed tools on January 7, 2021 in protest against the poor welfare and exposure to COVID-19. The strike was suspended days after.
Nigeria government in December 2020 said all SIMs that were not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked. It extended the deadline by six weeks for persons without NIN.
Despite the extension, the process has not been hitch-free at the centres as crowds continue to besiege registration centres with many calling for outright suspension of the NIN registration due to the violation of COVID-19 protocols.
Pantami in January argued that linking SIM Cards to NIN was designed to be a smooth process which turned rowdy because people chose not to comply with government’s directives.
“The deadline was announced since February 2020 – the first day that the policy was announced in Nigeria was on 4th Feberuary 2020,” Pantami in an interview on Channels Television Politics Today.
“So it was announced since then that every citizen who owns a sim card should obtain a national identity number and submit same to the mobile line operator.
“Citizens, instead of going to obtain their national identity number, they fail to do that, they keep debating…they couldn’t comply.”
