The federal government has said that Nigerians are to be blamed for the ongoing rowdy exercise to link their SIM cards to the National Identity Numbers (NIN).
Isa Pantami, minister of communication and digital economy, said the government gave everyone about 12 months to complete the exercise but many ignored.
Pantami argued that linking SIM cards to NIN was designed to be a smooth process which turned rowdy because people chose not to comply to government’s directive.
“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 recently.
“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.”
Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in December 2020 gave a two-week ultimatum to telecom service providers to block phone numbers without NIN.
The government agency said telecom service providers who fail to block sim cards unregistered with NIN after the two-weeks risk withdrawal of their operational license.
“The submission of NIN by subscribers to take place within two weeks (from today December 16, 2020 and end by 30 December, 2020),” Ike Adinde, NCC spokesperson said in a statement.
The ultimatum has since been extended by up to six weeks, from December 30 to February 9, 2021.
However, many Nigerians lamented the strenuous procedures to register for NIN itself even before the deadline was announced in December 2020.