The House of Representatives has asked the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) to give Nigerians more time to submit their National Identity Card Numbers to their network service providers.
The Reps said on Wednesday that Nigerians should be given a minimum of ten weeks to comply with the directive from the NCC.
According to the representatives, the two weeks given by the NCC would not be enough.
The lawmakers took the decision while adopting a motion brought under matters of urgent national importance by the minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu.
The Next Edition recalls that the federal government had on Tuesday ordered all telecommunication service providers to block all SIM Cards not registered with the owners’ NIN.
Telecoms providers who fail to comply with the directive will face severe sanctions, the commission said.
According to Elumelu, there is need for an extension of the time to comply with the NCC directive since the two weeks given by the Commission falls within the festive period and was also too small for Nigerians to comply with the directives.
“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,” Elumelu said.
The minority leader said further that “Nigerians have not been properly sensitized, as only a few educated persons who bother to read the dailies might have heard about this instructions.”
He added that “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.”
He informed the House that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy had in January 2020 directed telecom subscribers to get their National Identity Numbers (NIN) and submit them to the network operators, with the aim of ascertaining the true identities of all subscribers and thereby blocking loopholes currently being exploited by unscrupulous individuals.
He said the NCC instructions were filed out based on what is happening in the country, especially considering how hoodlums used the sim cards to harass and intimidate Nigerians during the #EndSARS protests.
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He said the House had summoned the NCC to find out why the SIM card registration was not concluded, directing that all sim cards should be registered, adding that the house did not envisage the time limit as recently given by the NCC.
He asked the House to support the extension of time for the actualisation of the NCC directive so that those using their sim cards to carry out criminal activities can be tracked.
Chairman of the House Committee on Communication, Hon. Akeem Adeyemi said the extension of time will afford the commission the opportunity to educate Nigerians on the reasons for the exercise as all mobile numbers will not be linked to the NIN of Nigerians, making it easy to track those involved in criminal activities using their phone numbers.
Adopting the motion, the House urged the NCC to instead give a reasonable amount of time to enable Nigerians submit their national identity numbers to service providers.
