By Correspondent in Ilorin
Applicants in Ilorin, Kwara state, who are undergoing various processes in the ongoing linkage of subcriber Identification module (SIM) registration with the Nitional Identity number(NIN), directed by Nigerian communications Commission(NCC),saod the exercise had posed hardship to them.
The applicants, who expressed the concern in separate interview with our correspondent in Ilorin on Tuesday, said their agony became apparent in the face of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country.
Reporters recalls that NCC had in December 2020 ordered all telecoms companies to disconnect the SIMcard of all persons without Natonal Identity Number NIN.
However, the applicants noted that the directive had posed insurmountable challenges in terms of stress and health risks to them, adding that the exercise had exposed them to long gueue and many hours of standing to accomplish their registration, defying COVID-19 protocols.
Our Correspondent reports that the stranded applicants, who claimed to have trooped to Ilorin from various local governments of the state in their large numbers, include the age, nursing mothers and others seen flouting the NCDC protocols and lamenting over poor and slow pace of the registration.
Some applicants,who told the online publication that they came to the registration centre,located on Asa dam area of Ilorin as early 5.a.m, called on the Federal government to decentralize the registration to ease their agony.
According to them, executing the registration through their local government areas and extension of the dateline for the exercise would lessen the difficulty of the applicants.
A resident of Ilorin, Malam Musa Sani, called on the government to suspend the ongoing registration and provide safety means for the applicants to safe them from contracting COVID-19, due to the large crowd at the registration centre.
Mr Demola Akinyemi, who also narrated his sour experience in the exercise, noted that “when they started, there was no COVID-19 second wave”, adding that now the second wave of the deadly had come, government must do the needful by protecting the applicants by providing them with safety measures.
“Government should suspend the ongoing NIN registration, they should decentralise the registration centres for people to walk to the nearest place to do theirs, government should also extend the deadline, ” he said.
Some applicants called on government to close keep eagle eye on the officials charged with the responsibility of registering applicants to check extortion and
other corrupt practices going on in the exercise.
Meanwhile, NCC has allayed the fears of of Nigerians on SIM disconnection, assuring that the “current exercise of linking NIN to SIM is for the common good of all Nigerians.”
The commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, who gave the assurance in a statement he signed,added that the exercise had far reaching benefits apart from enhancing general safety.
According to him,it will also will help in vital exercise such as national budgeting, policy planning, social intervention programme among others.
“The minister of communication and Digital Economy has assured that the government will continue to review the exercise in the light of experiences to ensure its smooth implementation,” he said.
