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By Vivian Onyebukwa And Kate Halim
More than 72 million telecommunication subscribers barred from making calls on their SIMs are going through hell right now. They are unable to connect with loved ones and business contacts. This followed the order by the Federal Government to telecom service providers to have the lines of unregistered subscribers disconnected as from Monday, April 4, 2022.
According to a joint statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, and the Head, Corporate Communications at the Nigeria Identity Management Commission, Mr. Kayode Adegoke, such affected subscribers are being advised “to link their SIMs to their NINs before the Telcos can lift the restriction on their lines.”
Subscribers’ protest
But investigation by Saturday Sun shows that with the kind of crowd seen at designated registration centres of people trying to link their SIMs to their NINs as instructed in the public statement, doing so could be as tough as forcing a camel through the proverbial eye of the needle. In fact, many of those interviewed confessed that linking the SIMs to their NINs has been quite herculean, noting that they might not accomplish the task anytime soon. But then the check also revealed those affected fall into two categories: those who did not bother to register their lines or link their SIMs to their NINs at the initial time, and those who claim they did all that but were still disconnected owing to reasons they cannot explain.
Belonging to the second group is 42-year-old Johnson Nwadike. His countenance while talking to Saturday Sun showed that he was not happy that his service provider frustrated him and his business. He said he was being persecuted for no just cause by the telecommunication company, which he said blocked a line he had been using in the past ten years. He said his anger was justifiable, since he had linked his SIM twice to the National Identity Number (NIN). On each occasion, he was assured that he was successful, he recalled.
“I don’t understand why I can’t make or receive calls for days now,” he said. “This has cost me money as my customers can’t reach me.”
He is not the only one complaining about what he sees as an unfair treatment by both his service provider and the Federal Government. Others include Mrs. Augusta Oluoma-Njoku, a businesswoman who sells children’s wears, and Oscar Ubani, a businessman. They all insisted they got the same message of a successful linkage like Nwadike did. They were, therefore, baffled by what happened.
Hear Oluoma-Njoku’s account: “I used the link that MTN provided last year to generate my NIN and linked it with my phone number. I got a response that it was successful. You can imagine my shock when I got a message from MTN two days ago telling me that my attempt at linking my NIN to my SIM was unsuccessful and that my line had been barred.”
She said when she went to an MTN office with the hope of getting the error rectified, the crowd she met there made her return home in frustration. Right now, she had no idea of what she should do, she informed Saturday Sun.
Ubani also claimed to have linked his NIN to his Glo line last year and was assured that the process was successful. But he was shocked when he discovered that he couldn’t make calls following the Federal Government’s directive. He added with a sigh: “The only thing this government knows how to do is to frustrate Nigerians from different angles. How come we have the national identity card registration, driver’s licence registration, bank verification number from banks and now, we still have to link our NIN to our SIM? Honestly speaking, I find it tiresome living in this country.”
Guilty as charged
But subscribers in the first group confessed that they had no one to blame but themselves. Ebube Ewuzie, an 18-year-old school leaver falls into this category. According to him, he felt that it was not necessary to link his NIN to his SIM initially when the government gave the directive. Now, he can only receive calls and browse the Internet. For days, he has been unable to make calls.
Admitting that the present state of things has made him uncomfortable because he has been unable to call his friends when he wants to, he said he had yet to make any effort to link his NIN to his SIM even now, stating that he lacked the time to do that. He said he was also scared of the crowd that he saw at the office of the telecommunication company in their bid to sort out the issue.
Ndidi Okezie, 35, a makeup artist is also in this group. In her words, she actually generated her NIN during the period of grace given by the government for citizens to carry out the process. But she did not link it to her SIM.
“I felt nonchalant about it until the government’s recent directive to block the lines came into effect,” she said. “So what I did was to quickly get the code and link it to my line. Unfortunately my line is still not working.” But she revealed that her service provider has promised to link it with her phone. At the moment, she is only able to receive calls but can’t make calls. And, she confessed that this has affected her business and life generally.
Bolaji Akinwumi, 40, a taxi driver, also told Saturday Sun that like Okezie, he actually generated his NIN last year, but did not link it to his SIM. But he said since the telcos began to implement the Federal government’s directive, he has tried to use the link code to link his SIM with his NIN but his SIM is still blocked. He added that he had become frustrated at the moment because of this.
“I would have been in trouble if I had only one SIM. My business would have suffered if I don’t use other service providers,” he told Saturday Sun.
Anthony Chidi, 45, who sells drinks in his neighbourhood, said he has resorted to using his wife’s phone to make calls. He said that as things stood at the moment, he was not ready to go to the service provider’s office to sort out the issue as he was too busy. He confessed that he didn’t take the directive seriously. “Our government is not serious at times, that’s why I ignored it initially,” he explained. “Now, I don’t have the time. I might do it later but not now. I will wait until the crowd is reduced.”
Chiamaka Onyebukwa, an apprentice, also gave the same reason as a stalling factor to her willingness to get her SIM linked to her NIN. She said she was scared of the mammoth crowd waiting to be attended to in designated centres for the exercise.
“I will not like to spend the whole day there,” he told the reporter.
WhatsApp to the rescue
Although subscribers were told initially that they would not be able to make calls nor use the Internet, affected ones are somehow managing to get by, by using call facilities provided by owners of Whatsapp and Facebook. Oluoma-Njoku, one of those using WhatsApp, claimed that she was not such a frequent caller. This, she said, explained why she didn’t notice on time that her SIM was barred. But now, in the absence of provision of call-facility by her service provider, she said she’s contented using WhatsApp to make calls until the problem is rectified.
Emmanuel Odu, a businessman based in Lagos is in the same league with Oluoma-Njoku. He said he also has ben using WhatsApp to make calls. But he admitted that the situation had been so frustrating for him because he’s used to running his business with his service provider-enabled phone. He promised to create time out of his busy schedule as soon as possible to go to the office of his service provider and get the problem fixed.
