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Nigeria’s national emergency number, 112, failed to connect during a live test on Tuesday, despite an All Progressives Congress chieftain, Alwan Hassan, insisting that the service works.
The incident occurred during an interview on Politics Today when Hassan challenged the programme’s presenter, Seun Okinbaloye, to dial the number to demonstrate how Nigerians could reach emergency responders during distress situations.
Hassan, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, had described the emergency line as an achievement of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
He urged the presenter to put his phone on speaker so viewers could hear how the service worked.
“Take your phone and call 112. Nobody knows about this. We used to hear it in America, 911. Call 112 now, put it on the speaker, and they’ll ask you what’s your emergency…Thanks to APC government,” he said.
However, the test took an unexpected turn when the call failed to connect.
“This number is not working,” Okinbaloye said after attempting to reach the emergency line.
Hassan attributed the problem to a possible network failure, maintaining that the number was functional.
The presenter disagreed with that explanation, pointing out that other calls were going through from the same location. He also said some viewers had sent messages reporting that they were unable to connect to the emergency number.
Hassan, however, stood by his position, claiming that he had called 112 several times and successfully reached the service on previous occasions.
Explaining the system, he said calls to the number were expected to reach emergency communication centres in the callers’ respective locations.
He said operators would establish the nature of the emergency and contact the appropriate response agencies. Medical cases would be referred to ambulance services, while security incidents would be relayed to the nearest police station.
Hassan also disclosed that the government was working on a system that would enable emergency centres to identify callers’ locations through a dashboard, making it easier to locate people in distress without requiring them to provide their addresses.
According to him, the Abuja centre was ready, but Tinubu had directed that it should not be launched until centres across the country were aligned.
He expressed the expectation that the nationwide arrangement would be ready by March next year.
When Okinbaloye questioned whether the emergency line was among the administration’s promises yet to become fully operational, Hassan insisted that the government would deliver on its commitments.
“We’ll fulfil them. We’ll fulfil them with time. This is why we’re asking for more time,” he said.
Another attempt to call 112 by a correspondent also failed to connect.
