Today, 21 December, 2020, frustration was written on every face of people who came to register at the Ikeja, Lagos office of National Identity Management Commiss,ion (NIMC), a statutory Nigerian organization that operates the country’s national identity management systems.
As at 11.30 am when this medium visited the place, opposite the Ikeja Shopping Mall, all activities had stopped. People loitered around, hopping that registration would soon resume.
Before then, people were agitated, shouting on top of their voices to be attended to.
Mr. Olanipekun Uthman told this medium that he reported at the office as early as 6 am and they (he and others) were over 400 people, trying to register and collect their National Identity Numbers (NIN).
“I was number 184 on the line. They called us in to fill in our forms. The number on mine was 162. I went out to make some photostat copies. Unfortunately when I came back, the officials stopped attending to us, he said.
Mrs. Olanrewaju Bukola did not come for registration. She wanted to renew hers (the plastic type, the permanent one issued a long time ago. In her words: “I received a message that my ID card had expired. On getting here, the officials stopped attending to us.”
Akeem Ladejobi also said he landed at the registration office as early as 7 am to meet over 500 people. “Officials stopped attending to us at 11 am.”
All the officials clammed up when approached to explain why they stopped.
However, one of them who craved anonymity said people were no longer keeping to Covid-19 protocols and “we had to stop.” By the time this medium visited, 80 percent of the crowd had left in frustration.
The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently directed that all SIM cards must be linked to a National Identification Number (NIN). Failure to do this, according to by December 30, 2020 will, according to the Federal Government, result in the line being blocked.
Meanwhile, in order to minimize crowd and reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmissions at their offices, the GSM service providers came up with what subscribers can do without sweating.
Below are few steps to link your phone number with your NIN, according to The Nation report:
“For MTN users, simply dial *785# and get it done in few seconds or
Visit https://mtnonline.com/nim/ using your phone or computer
Complete the NIN linking form by entering your name, phone number, NIN, and email address.
Submit the form as soon as you’re done.
Wait for feedback from the network.
Read Also: How to link your phone number with NIN
Airtel Users
To link your NIN to your Airtel phone number, follow the steps below:
1. Dial *121# on the Airtel line you wish to link.
2. Type 1 for “NIN Capture” and send.
3. Enter your 11-digit NIN and send.
Wait for the message confirming your submission. If you get an error, just wait for some time and try again.
Other networks (Glo and 9mobile)
For other lines, simply visit the nearest office of your service provider (be it Glo, 9mobile) to register/link your NIN.
Just go along with NIN and your SIM pack. If you do not have your SIM pack, you probably should be prepared to swear an affidavit.
To be on the safer side, you can call your service provider’s customer care.”
