The House of Representatives has urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to jettison the two weeks deadline for linking SIM cards to National Identity Number (NIN) and extend the deadline.
The NCC at an
emergency meeting chaired by the Communications Minister, Isa Pantami, asked
telecommunications company to block all sim cards that are not linked with a
National Identity Number within the next two weeks.
During plenary on
Wednesday December 16, the house observed that the timing for Nigerians to link
their sim cards with their NINs was too short.
The decision to call
for an extension came after a motion of urgent public importance was moved by
the Minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu.
Elumelu in his motion
explained that the House agrees with the policy of linking SIM cards to NIN and
that the policy is consistent with the position of the House. He however noted
that Nigerians haven't been adequately sensitized and that calling for
registration at this time could lead to a stampede and exploitation.
Emphasizing the need for the extension, Mr Elumelu said two weeks was too little
for the over 200 million Nigerians, especially considering the Christmas
period.
“As laudable as the
idea behind the policy may seem, the timing is very wrong because Nigerians
have not been properly sensitized, as only a few educated persons who bother to
read the dailies might have heard about this instructions.
Therefore trying to
enforce this policy in a period where most Nigerians are gearing up for
Christmas festivities may lead to stampede in the process of rushing to get
registered which could lead to unnecessary death and injuries.
If the NCC is allowed
to carry out this directive, it will bring about untold hardship as millions of
subscribers will be disconnected this yuletide period which could spell
disaster in an already volatile nation like ours.
If the NCC is not
urgently called to halt their plans there may be unnecessary panic in the
country, which may lead to exploitation of vulnerable Nigerian thereby causing
more pains in an already pathetic situation, hence the need to urgently wade
into this impending crisis”
Adopting the motion,
the House urged the NCC to instead give a reasonable amount of time to enable
Nigerians to submit their national identity numbers to service providers.
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