Despite criticisms from many Nigerians of the two-week ultimatum for the registration and linking of National Identity Number (NIN) to mobile numbers, the federal government has insisted on the deadline.
The director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Friday said there was no extension for the announced deadline.
“Right now, the way it is, there is no extension. We should not be complaining, rather we should see how it can be done,” he said.
“It is until after 10 to 12 days then we will see how far it has gone before we beg the government for anything.”
Nigerians react
When the agency issued a two-week ultimatum for the enrolment, Nigerians took to social media platforms to kick against such a deadline.
“In the whole of Yaba-Akoka axis, there is only one NIN registration office, which is in UNILAG, and they have only one functioning desktop! Even if you give people a whole year extra, there aren’t enough resources to register provided by the government!,” Xl2letters said on Twitter.
Putting the festive atmosphere and the threat of the coronavirus into context, another Twitter user, Salsu explained the difficulty that may come with the process.
“During a pandemic? Just 2 weeks? Festive season? I don’t agree with this. It isn’t the right time for this and the notice is short. I hope it would be possible for those of us with NIN to email our network providers rather than going to their office,” he noted.
“It doesn’t work that way. The process should be well articulated. NCC does not have the capacity to serve larger crowds at a moment. My problem with leaders in this country is that they don’t think,” Buchy Ogba succinctly captured the view of some of the platform users on this subject.
You better start blocking it. The centre for NIN is beside my area and we only have one. I once sat there with my dad for registration for two weeks consecutively +we get there by 6am in the morning. The reason why I endured sitting there was because my dad was going on a pilgrimage,” another user with the handle @Adekeye added.
