Weekend Arena - NIN Registration Is Another ‘Food For The Boys’

I am not here to talk about Christmas or anything to do with Jingle bells because i cant hear any....

Let us talk about Nigeria.....

Sometimes it is difficult to understand the relationship between the Government of Nigeria and the People of Nigeria. 

Under normal circumstances, a government is supposed to be working for the good and interest of her people, but in Nigeria, it is often the other way. It appears the Government is the predator, hunting and tormenting her citizens. Several instances exist to buttress this fact.

Let us begin with FG’s recent decision to deactivate SIM cards that are not linked to a National Identification Number, NIN. While there is nothing wrong with having an accurate database of mobile phone subscribers in the country, something is grossly grotesque about the way the Ministry of Communications and her officials are going about it. 

Measures like this, considering the lack of logistics in Nigeria, require setting a deadline that should be as long as six months; but people just woke up to hear of a deadline that would expire at the end of the year, which ordinarily set off the panic mode amongst Nigerians, who do not want their lines to be deactivated. The outcry only got the government to extend it by a few weeks which by every stretch of imagination would still not be adequate to get this done.

 If people in the major cities of Nigeria did not hear of this compulsory NIN linking to mobile phone numbers, one wonders how the government expects the old women in the villages to hear and comply. Definitely, exercises like this would require huge sensitization to achieve the set goals, but like everything that does not have a political motive the government would always place it on the back seat in terms of priority.


The implication of this hurried decision is already telling on the masses. In the midst of the resurgence of COVID 19 and its new strain, which has reportedly come into the country, thousands of citizens are thronging the registration centres to get themselves enrolled in order to beat the deadline. With the contagious nature of the raging virus, one would not be surprised to see our infection rate soaring on account of this. As if that is not enough, the government has also created an avenue for Nigerians, already impoverished by inactions of those in government as leaders, to be equally exploited. 

 At the moment, getting one registered on time is going to the highest bidders. Some are paying as much as 20k to get their NIN in less than 3 hours, while those who do not have that much to spare under the present harsh economy are made to go through the rigours of waking up early to be the centres at 5am to be attended to.


As vulnerable victims (VV) that the government likes to make her citizens, the telcos, decided to cash in on the opportunity. Realizing that with Nigerians, anything can happens and nobody would bat an eyelid, they had imposed a N20 levy on people trying to link their mobile lines to their NIN. Such a levy would have meant N20 multiplied by the tens of millions of subscribers, who obviously would need to recharge probably a minimum of N100 in order to carry out this exercise.

Of course, the management of the National Identify Management Commission who all the while has shown gross incompetence in getting more people registered would always act like a typical Nigerian agency by claiming readiness to do this job, but everyone knows that even those who got registered in 2014 are yet to get their national ID card. Yet banks handle matters as security-sensitive as issuing ATM cards in less than thirty minutes, when one walks into their banking halls. So why is it difficult for a government agency to do so in 6 years?


NIMC has with the new order set their personnel on the stage of importance. You would understand how important they are when you go to their offices for their services when your greetings are not returned, and barriers are placed in order to get you to negotiate to act the Nigerian way to get what you want.


Nobody is against any measure by the government to stem the tide of self-inflicted insecurity in the country, but it has to be done with the interest of the citizens at heart. Nigerian government, for obvious reasons has continued to show apathy towards deploying technology to solve simple tasks. That is why our elections have remained vulnerable to manipulations, in order to impose stooges on us. Something can still be done with technology about capturing and syncing all the data so far collected by the government for voting, driver’s license, births, banking etc. Like they say, it is not rocket science for a country to have an accurate database, but some people deliberately refused to think for selfish gains.

Ngozi you hit the nail on the head.....