Simon Kolawole
Three weeks in the past, possibly even 4, I bought a message from my cell phone firm asking me to re-register my line and hyperlink it to the nationwide identification quantity, aka NIN, else I might be barred. I murmured to myself: “Right here we go once more!” What number of instances will I hyperlink my line to NIN? I scampered down reminiscence lane and disgust overpowered me. It appears some folks in authorities get up daily asking themselves: what extra can we do in the present day to destabilise and demoralise Nigerians? It seems they’re by no means at peace till they inflict disruption and discomfort on hundreds of thousands of Nigerians by obnoxious insurance policies and directives. That’s their understanding of creativeness and innovation.
On this article, I’ll give seven cases on this biometric enrolment epidemic. First, in 2010, we have been directed by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) to register our SIM playing cards. I went to a centre near my property to offer my mom’s maiden title to some random particular person consuming noodles beneath an umbrella by the roadside. It felt so uncomfortable. Months later, I used to be knowledgeable by my telco that I used to be but to register and that my line could be barred. I used to be perplexed. I referred to as a pal on the NCC and he mentioned my telco was bluffing. Because it turned out, the information captured by the roadside noodle eaters couldn’t be built-in into the telcos’ programs due to compatibility points.
Your complete NCC registration train was null. We wasted hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on the contracts and by no means heard something about it once more — however is it not Nigeria? We merely moved to the subsequent degree — my second occasion — when the NCC issued one other directive that every one SIM playing cards should be registered by 2015. This time round, I went to the airconditioned workplace of my service supplier and felt extra snug telling them my mom’s maiden title. It labored this time as no person threatened to chop off my line once more. However when my sister, on the level of demise in a Kano hospital in September 2015, desperately mentioned “I wish to speak to my brother”, her line had been barred, albeit it was registered.
She died with out with the ability to speak to me. Until in the present day, I nonetheless stay with the trauma of questioning what she wished to inform me. It pains me I might by no means know — not as a result of she disobeyed the directive to register her line however due to our sloppy system. We had hardly calmed down with SIM registration after we have been requested to get a financial institution verification quantity (BVN). We have been threatened once more that our accounts could be blocked if we didn’t obey the order. We queued within the solar and beneath the rain to get the BVN. We gave our moms’ maiden names once more, along with the very invasive capturing of our biometrics — one thing finished solely to legal suspects and foreigners in superior societies.
Most of us survived the BVN badgering however those that didn’t needed to undergo the extreme inconvenience for months. We have been nonetheless catching our breath after we have been ordered to register for NIN — my fourth instance — in any other case we’d not be capable of get a passport or write college entrance exams. We queued up once more, come rain or shine, to do the “needful”. Registration centres grew to become like police checkpoints the place extortion is the technique of worth trade, if you already know what I imply. There have been individuals who spent days and weeks making an attempt to register. However the registration was not sufficient — there was one other one referred to as “verification” which additionally supplied a candy opening for extra extortion.
The fifth occasion was the instruction to hyperlink NIN to our cellphone strains in 2021 — when COVID-19 was nonetheless killing folks. In any other case, our strains could be barred. Previous, younger, aged and sick folks had no different possibility than to flood the registration centres once more. Ordinarily, if you have already got a NIN, there needs to be a very simple manner so as to add your quantity since all of your particulars have already been captured by each the Nationwide Identification Administration Fee (NIMC), which manages NIN, and the telcos. It needs to be so simple as going to a portal to do the linking. Apparently, or fortunately, NIMC ultimately got here up with an app to make life simpler, and I can bear in mind registering all my strains by way of the app.
Not so quick: the sixth occasion was coming. That was once I bought a message from my telco to hyperlink my NIN to my line by February 29, 2024 or I might face the implications. I used to be baffled. What occurred to the “linking” of 2021? Has it expired? Pondering I used to be good, I rapidly opened my NIMC app. Alas, I might now not entry my linked numbers. It stored telling me “unauthorised entry”. I went to a different menu and eventually noticed my linked numbers — however my foremost line had disappeared. I clicked the “add quantity” button and was advised a one-time password (OTP) had been despatched to me. I’m nonetheless ready for the nice OTP — after making an attempt my luck 1,000,000 instances since February. I now do it for enjoyable.
Now, anticipate the seventh occasion. I bought a mail from my financial institution that I ought to add my NIN to my account, in any other case what occurred in 1979 would repeat itself (in the event you don’t know the Okey Bakassi joke, settle for my sympathy). That is the thriller: my account has a BVN, and it was from this BVN that my NIN was generated (properly, that was what the NIMC woman that registered me for NIN mentioned). If my NIN was certainly generated from my BVN, why do I’ve to hyperlink my NIN once more? Comically, all of the banks that mentioned we might hyperlink our NIN by way of their web banking platforms have been solely “utilizing us to play”. There isn’t a such menu or portal or perform or button on their websites. After checking for 3 banks, I gave up.
The excellent news is that I made a decision to spend a complete day going from financial institution to financial institution to hyperlink my NIN in order that no person would cease me from accessing my checking account for no fault of mine. The financial institution officer who attended to me at my first port of name mentioned my line was linked to many accounts, so I ought to change my cellphone quantity, in any other case he wouldn’t be capable of hyperlink my NIN. I wished to deal with it as a joke however he was not laughing. I stood my floor. He buckled. I thereafter went to my telco to re-link my NIN. I used to be No. 225 on the queue. I’m not joking. I met many unhappy and drained Nigerians who had spent hours on the queue. I felt nothing however pity for them. That is what Nigeria does to its residents on a regular basis.
After I was finished re-linking my NIN to my cell line, I headed for the second financial institution to obey the most recent CBN directive. The safety man on the foremost gate approached me to search out out what I used to be on the lookout for. I mentioned I wished to do the needful. He mentioned it was previous 4pm and the financial institution had closed. That was once I realised I had misplaced my sense of time. Hungry and pissed off, I drove straight dwelling questioning why Nigeria routinely does this type of factor to its residents. It’s an annual punishment. The philosophy of our policymakers appears to be: why make life simpler when it may be difficult? I can wager that there’s extra within the offing. Quickly, we could also be requested to hyperlink our BVNs to our driving licences.
Although I sound as if I’m offended or bitter or unhappy, the reality is that it’s the poor and lowly folks I actually really feel for. I’m an employer. I can by some means afford to burn at some point going from one financial institution to the opposite to hyperlink NIN and all that, however hundreds of thousands of Nigerians don’t get pleasure from that luxurious. Their lives rely on every day earnings. They don’t seem to be asking authorities for contracts. They don’t seem to be asking authorities to pay them welfare assist. All they wish to do is figure with their very own arms to feed themselves. However that’s not adequate for the policymakers. There should be a brand new directive to disrupt their lives and ship them on unsettling errands that may be finished on a wise cellphone. Hundreds of thousands of strains have been minimize off.
By the way in which, I’ve nothing towards BVN or NIN — or linking the nationwide ID to our cellphone strains. I have to be clear about that. I’m cool with no matter measures the federal government needs to take to deal with terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cash laundering and different crimes. The authorities owe us the responsibility of constructing our nation secure and safe — and we, the residents, have the responsibility of supporting and co-operating with them. However should they make life this depressing for us within the course of? Robert Nesta Marley, the reggae legend, captured it in these strains: ‘They made their world so laborious/Day by day we bought to maintain on preventing.’ For those who drink peculiar water in Nigeria, you will have to make use of a toothpick.
The wickedness of our policymakers doesn’t have any restrict. They wakened at some point in 2022 and decreed that they have been going to re-colour naira to “battle corruption”. After sadistically ensuring there wasn’t sufficient money in circulation, they confiscated the outdated notes from us till the Supreme Courtroom got here to the rescue. They ensured digital channels didn’t work properly in order that financial institution transfers could be powerful. Individuals died within the course of. In line with authoritative rumours, the coverage was to cease Asiwaju Bola Tinubu from profitable the presidential ballot. The lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been ruined. The Nigerian economic system was mutilated. And Tinubu nonetheless grew to become president.
The best way authorities has dealt with SIM registration, BVN and NIN exhibits the poverty of pondering, the abject lack of rigour, in policymaking in our dearly beloved nation. Somebody comes up with a proposal and says “Oga, higher dey for you o” and it turns into a coverage with discomfiting deadlines. The concept is not going to be examined, the decisionmakers is not going to suppose by it and the monetary or human prices are by no means thought-about. All they wish to do is generate profits, even when the economic system will probably be ruined within the course of. Why should anyone go bodily to a financial institution or a telco to hyperlink their NIN when all the small print have already been captured on a system that we spent hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to construct? Why?
I want to be a fly on the wall when a few of these heartless insurance policies are being mentioned. I want to know if there may be any sane human being within the room who highlights the impression of those directives and orders on Nigerians. I’ve this humorous feeling that most individuals in energy are going through the identical path. Perhaps those that have opposite opinions typically determine to close up in order that they’d not lose their positions or get branded as renegades. I have no idea. I’m simply guessing. However I want that policymakers would cease treating Nigerians like goats. Life doesn’t need to be this tough over issues that may be simplified with the assistance of widespread sense. As if issues aren’t laborious sufficient.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
ANOTHER ORONSAYE
The spate of abductions in northern Nigeria prior to now few days may be very scary. Almost 300 faculty kids have been kidnapped from Kuriga, Kaduna state, on Thursday — a tragic reminder of the Chibok kidnappings of 2014. Somebody requested if this and different incidents aren’t co-ordinated or if the financial hardship is instigating an upsurge in legal actions. As anticipated, some politicians are seizing the chance to play politics, as we noticed with the Chibok abductions. Regardless of the case could also be, President Tinubu should realise that securing the nation is his main accountability and no excuse is suitable. We wish to see motion and outcomes, not rhetoric or blame-trading. Pressing.
ANOTHER ORONSAYE
One other week, one other company. Since President Tinubu “ordered” the implementation of the Oronsaye Report to chop the scale of federal our bodies, the Nationwide Meeting has kickstarted the method of creating extra. It was Peace Corps in week one. In week two, it was the Nationwide Tax Crimes and Oversight Fee — the perform properly carried out by the Federal Inland Income Service (FIRS). It is a clear indication of the standard of pondering in sure circles and a disturbing affirmation of an absence of goal. At this fee, we might have to arrange one other Oronsaye Committee to rationalise the brand new businesses and commissions being created after Tinubu’s directive. Dissonance.
POWER PLAY
Chief Bayo Adelabu, minister of energy, spat fireplace on Wednesday over the dire energy state of affairs within the nation. He “summoned” the chief executives of distribution firms (DisCos) and threatened to revoke their licences. He mentioned regardless of all efforts to enhance technology, “Sure distribution firms are failing to adequately distribute the ability equipped by TCN (the transmission firm).” I’m a bit baffled. Is it attainable to carry again energy that’s already on the grid? The place will the DisCos preserve it? I perceive that Adelabu is beneath strain due to public criticism, however he must be calming down to have the ability to perceive the sector earlier than issuing threats. Difficult.
NO COMMENT
Have you ever heard the most recent? A forensic analyst advised an FCT excessive court docket on Thursday that the paperwork used to request the cost of $6.2 million for unnamed international election observers have been solid. Mr Bamaiyi Meriga, the forensic analyst, confirmed earlier claims by Boss Mustapha, former secretary to the federal government of the federation (SGF), that President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter and signature have been solid. Fellow Nigerians, I at all times declare that “I’ve seen all of it” however there may be undoubtedly nonetheless extra to unfold about how rotten our Nigeria is. You imply $6.2 million could possibly be so simply taken out of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) with out due diligence akin to checks and confirmations? Fantastic.
