By Cosmas Omegoh

Federal Government’s directives to telecommunication outfits to bar lines unlinked to the National Identification Number (NIN) many believed at the inception was a good idea. Then it was thought that the scheme would help in tackling the plethora of security challenges currently plaguing the country.

As the government begins to implement punishment against defaulters, security experts have taken a critical look at the scheme, saying it has not achieved the purpose it was meant for, insisting that poor execution and lack of will power to do the needful were the policy’s Achilles heel.

The Federal Government had directed the telecommunications companies (telcos) to bar outgoing calls from 73 million unlinked lines, beginning from April 4. This came on the sidelines of several postponements.

So far, the telcos have embarked on the execution of the directive, even when some subscribers have been complaining that lines they hitherto registered and linked had also been bared without any form of explanation. 

This action has seen many subscribers groaning in frustration, as they can no longer make calls.

But, security experts pointed out that the idea of linking lines with their owners is a global best practice, pointing out that the government lacked the will power to implement, as well as follow the idea to the letter, while outlining how politicians sabotaged the noble idea. 

SIM registration in other land

A security expert, Seyi Adetayo, has been explaining how telephone lines are appropriately registered and their owners identified overseas.

Adetayo who is the former regional vice president of ASIS International, West and Central Africa region, told our correspondent that “normally if you go anywhere outside Nigeria, you cannot even purchase a line without proper identification.”

According to him, “in the USA,  for instance, you must have US ID, or social security card or driver’s licence. As a foreigner, to get a line in the US, you must provide your international passport. Your line will not be activated until you provide any of these requirements. 

“What that means is that at any point in time, they know who is using every line, or at least they know who a particular line is registered with. And the person will be able to give an account of who was using the line at the point it was used for a crime.”

He is unhappy that the case is different in Nigeria, saying: “Now, it is a big issue in Nigerian when we cannot even give account of that. For instance, it took us several months to be able to build a data base and enroll the line on the NIN platform and then get to a point where we are still talking about line not being enrolled. It is a very big issue.”

Why final mandate to register SIMs

Speaking on why the April 4 deadline had to be given, he recalled: “Now don’t forget the fact that what brought about this is the issue raised by Senator Shehu Sani, asking what is the ado about NIN-SIM registration if the bandits are still making calls with lines to their victims’ relatives, yet nobody is actually saying who is behind the banditry?

“And that was what prompted the relevant agencies to brace up and say now all lines are going to be finally enrolled on the NIN, and all the outgoing calls should be bared. It is not complete barring of lines. The idea is to prevent the owners of the lines from calling out.”

While justifying the partial barring policy, he stated that “the idea is to enable owners of those lines to receive calls, and that gives them the opportunity to go out and do the proper thing. That is what the standard should be; and that is part of the things that ought to ensure national security.

“Security must be holistic in nature for it to be effective. It is not for us to do selective implementation of laws or policies around security.”

But an Internet security expert and an activist, Micah Ugala disagreed, arguing that partial barring of lines was not the right way to go, insisting only complete barring was good enough.

“When you bar outgoing calls and allow incoming calls, and also allow texts to be sent and received, access to the Internet with sims, and Whatsapp calls to line not linked with NIN, what have you done? Nothing!

“Now, people have been complaining that their sims are still being barred even when they have linked their sims. For me, it is either the subscribers comply with linking their lines or allow them to be barred.”

Similarly, Ben Okezie, a security analyst contended that “trying to see which line to bar and which one not to bar is a wrong approach.

“The idea of barring outgoing calls only is as good as not doing anything. It ought to be outright deactivation. The whole idea ought to be about knowing who owns the sim cards out there.

“The only time we can have a closure to all this is when each and every line that is activated has a link to an NIN, so that we can identify who owns what line.” 

How the linkage idea started 

Recalling how the idea to get SIMs linked started, Ugala claimed that he sold the novelty to the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), but afterwards, some officials of the agency took the idea away from him.

“This idea was based on my personal encounter with kidnappers,” he said, adding that “then I wrote to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2019, telling them I knew what to do about this menace of unregistered, pre-registered and fraudulently registered sim cards. Within one week they invited me for a presentation.

“In the course of that, I told them that one of the things we must do is to link people’s sim cards to their names.

“But along the line, they shoved me aside and started implementing my ideas.”

What inspired the idea

On how the idea occurred to him, Ugala revealed that “sometime ago, I was privileged to be in contact with some kidnappers arrested by the embattled DCP Abba Kyari. Among the gang members were DSS personnel.

“There was also this young boy averaging 20 years. The boy’s job was registering sim cards for the gang. They told me that much. 

“It was then it occurred to me that kidnappers use phones first to communicate among themselves before they can abduct anyone and then use their victims’ cards to call their relatives for ransom. It occurred to me that, that can be challenged; linking all sims to their owners was the answers.

“The criminals had told me that once they said ‘hello’ with a line, they never used the same line again.

“When I muted the idea to the NCC, they jumped at it. But there were some stuff that were to be put in place before the registration could be effective.

“They forgot that whenever someone shares his ideas with you and you run away with it, there is an extent you can go.”

Why Nigerians must have unique identifiers

To Nigerians who are miffed that they were mandated to link their numbers to their NINs, Adetayo said that is the right way to go, adding that every Nigerian ought to have their lines and accounts linked. This he called identifiers.

He told Sunday Sun that “there are unique identifiers which we must create to enable us identify who is doing what at a particular point in time, and one of those identifiers is the NIN. No two Nigerians should use the same NIN.

“Another unique identifier is the mobile line. It is something we can use to distinguish Mr A from Mr B.

“Another one is the BVN; that helps to identify the direction of, and link with accounts during financial transactions. These three are very key; because crime involves somebody using a line, and since a line is a proper identification number, it has to be properly enrolled. The person using the line must be a registered Nigerian, or if he/she is an alien, there must be a number that has been given to him/her.” 

He also added: “Therefore, if an individual is using a line to commit a crime or an offence, which involves finances, we should be able to trace where the money is coming from, and where it is going to as long as it is going to pass through our financial institutions. That is where the BVN comes in. So linking them together will help our law-enforcement agencies a lot to investigate crime. And if there is a chance of a criminal being caught, then there is a possibility that the motivation for crime will be reduced.”

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Govt lacks will to link SIMs properly

As good as the idea of having identifiers sounds, Adetayo, Ugalla, and Okezie, are united in affirming that there appears to be no strong will on the part of the government to get things done the right way.

“For me, linking the sims to NIN is the right way to go,” Okezie said, adding “but this government does not give anyone the impression that they have the will to carry out the exercise.

“It is the same government that will tell you they are confronting the bandits, yet the bandits are mustering more energy and doing more havoc, and now even surrounding Abuja.”

Ugalla shared similar sentiments, saying: “I don’t know whether we have the will or not. 

“But I know that the kidnappers have been making calls and getting away with them. 

“I know that when they kidnap a person, they use his or her phone, but that is not always the case.

“A friend told me that right now, one of their relatives is in captivity in Kaduna. When abductors reach out to the family, they don’t use the victim’s phone; they use theirs.”

While also underlining the essence of linking and barring unlinked lines he asked: “But before the kidnappers get to using the victim’s phone, don’t they communicate? We need to make communication among them a bit difficult.” 

For Adetayo, what he called “political intervention,” is the problem that needs to be resolved first, and wants a state of emergency on security declared.

“We cannot solve the problem in Nigeria today if a state of emergency is not declared on the situation at hand.

“Most importantly, we are calling for a state of emergency in the Northwest. But I think the whole of Nigeria ought to be in a state of emergency right now. And why do I say so?

“All what the politicians are thinking right now is election. They are not thinking of any other thing. And so, whatever policies or actions that will prevent them from getting their ballots, and getting their certificates of return, they will frustrate, and that is why the military is getting a lot of frustrations as it were. That is the problem.”

He revealed that “full implementation of the sim barring will affect a lot of politicians because they have the details of many registered voters in Nigeria, and the unique identifiers that are available to them on the PVCs are the phone numbers of the owners of those PVCs. And they are looking forward to using those numbers during electioneering to reach the electorate, and canvass votes, or whatever they want to do.

“Another part of it is that they will use that to move money around because they have already got some people’s BVN. You will be surprised at the amount of data in the hand of those politicians as we speak. And so, telling them that you want to shelve 70m lines off the telecom space, they won’t accept it. But in a state of emergency, the politician will have no say.”

Purpose of the emergency

Adetayo noted that “the emergency will now be supreme and above the desire of any politician in any locality. They cannot challenge the laws; they cannot frustrate them. If they do, they will be arrested.

“Even when government was clamouring for telecom services to be yanked off in certain areas witnessing insurgency, remember it took months before the political leaders in those areas agreed to that. And even when that was getting long, they were the ones who started mounting pressure on the government to restore network services to the affected areas.

“We understand that this will bring some discomfort, but those who were killed during the Kaduna trains attack: Dr Chinelo Magafu, for instance, would have preferred to be alive and not have network services. She would have preferred to be out of services waiting for the criminals to be cleared out.

“indeed, there are hard decisions to be made –  decisions that will bring back peace; even when businesses are lost, the telecom companies will come back to do business in an atmosphere of peace, and people will have a life to lead. That is part of the sacrifice we have to make to be where we want to be.”

How barring lines will solve security situation

To an extent, Ugala believes barring lines will solve the security situation in Nigeria.

He is insistent that “there is no crime that involves more than two persons that the telecommunication is not involved.

“In some other climes, when the government sets up telecommunication networks and tell citizens ‘you can make calls for free,’ the officials are not stupid. When they do that, people rush for it; and they use that to manage and monitor crime.”

How Nigeria got SIM registration wrong 

Ugala is sad that the challenge with NIN-SIM  linkage has its roots in the approach to the GSM revolution which started in 2001. “Then,” he said, “we were selling sim cards to every Dick, Tom and Harry without identifying whom we were selling to.

“When we woke up from our slumber, the system still allowed people to buy sim cards and register them. For instance, I could go to all the networks and buy as many sim cards as I wanted and register them with funny data and then sell them to people on the street.”

Okezie corroborating his assertion relayed his personal experience with some individuals he saw buying large numbers of sims for an unidentified purpose. 

“One day,’ he said, “I went to Jabi in Abuja; there I saw two young boys not up to 16 years buying sim cards in  packs. Then I asked the sales girl why she was selling to them, and she said she wanted to make her money.

“One of the boys bought five packets. And in one packet, I was told, there were 100 sim cards or so.

“Then something told me the boys were working for insurgents. Or they were buying the cards for some other purposes.

“Some people use to call me not long ago asking a link to some prominent security persons. Each time I tried to return the calls such numbers would always be permanently switched off. Afterwards, they would use other lines to call me. They never used the same line.

“We know of some prominent Nigerians who have contacts of the bandits. How did they get their contacts; how did the bandits tell them where they were in the forests in Niger and Zamfara states? How did they trace them if they were not using the telephone?”

While he continued to speak on the challenges associated with barring lines, Ugala noted that “when the call came for some unregistered sims to be removed, we forgot that the network providers are out for business. They bought those cards from the regulator. They didn’t get them for free. 

“From the beginning I recall, focus was only concentrated on making money, instead of doing the right thing. That is why we have this problem.

“When you build on a faulty foundation, you will continue to have problems with the building.

“When people keep asking me why they pick sim cards on the table when they travel overseas, I tell them, ‘it is because those people had done their homework well.’

“In Nigeria today, the government cannot tell you exactly the population of the country. You keep hearing 150 million, 190 million, 200 million people. We don’t have a data base for anything.” 

Current problem telcos create

Ugala also highlighted a problem he said is being created by the networks right now. “Again,” he said “we must have noticed that when you buy a sim, and don’t use it for a while, the networks reallocate it to another person without your knowledge.

“But it is wrong to transfer people’s identity in a Nigeria that does not have proper identity management; it is not done.

“Recently, people have been complaining of receiving financial transactions they didn’t know about. That means that the original owners of the line were using them for financial transaction alert. So, when they network eventually reallocated the lines to another person, they didn’t even do anything. Such financial alerts are now going to the new users of the line.”