Every Nigerian administration, particularly the Buhari administration, is quick in announcing policy directives without analyzing the impact the new policy would have on the citizens and the economy.
During Jonathan’s administration, all mobile networks in Nigeria were mandated to register their SIM card subscribers on their database.
The policy was instituted to fight kidnappings which were highs at that time. Well, if the kidnapping was high before 2015, today it has gone beyond imagination.
While enacting that law, they forgot that kidnappers use the victims’ mobile phones to contact their families for ransom. This policy failed before it started. Valuable manpower was wasted while trying to enforce a policy that would not work at the end of the day.
Well, after the #EndSars protests, it became clearer to the Nigerian government that their policy on SIM card registration was a sham. They couldn’t match the SIM card details of the ring leaders of #EndSars protests on their mobile network database.
To prevent a situation like that from happening in the future, they have mandated mobile networks in Nigeria to link every SIM card with the subscriber’s National ID Number (NIN). Again, they failed to consider the impact of this policy on its citizens, and on Nigeria’s economy.
For instance, I watched a video where an aged woman from Enugu stated that she wouldn’t bother to register for NIN. And if that means she loses her phone, that anyone who wishes to talk to her can come to her house. I am sure this sentiment is echoed amongst the aged from Katsina through to Oshogbo and beyond.
How about non-Nigerians who are not entitled to have NIN? How would a British man communicate while on a business trip to Nigeria, if he cannot buy a Nigerian SIM card? Some argued that he should roam his native mobile number.
Then, if that’s the solution, a Nigerian can obtain a British Pay As You Go SIM card and use it to commit the same crime that the government is trying to prevent by insisting on linking a Nigerian SIM card to the subscriber’s NIN.
In Britain, there is no mandatory SIM card registration. And these Nigerians who made the SIM registration policy are aware. They all visit London, and once they disembark at Heathrow airport they buy SIM cards, and off they start making calls.
Does that mean people don’t commit crimes in Britain with their Pay As You Go SIM numbers? They do, but British security agents deploy technology to fight communication crimes.
Your mobile phone is called a smartphone because it's smarter than you. It can even sell you out without your knowledge. For example, a hacker can remotely install an App that can turn on your phone speaker and start recording your conversations, etc.
For some people who live their lives and that of their children on Facebook, try the following experiment and see how far your lives can travel on the web. Now, make a Google search for a product using your mobile phone.
If you log in to your Facebook using your phone or your laptop, Facebook will show you advertisements for the product you search on Google. That means, if Facebook can monitor all your activities online, what do you think security agents do with your internet footprints? That’s one of the methods they fight communication crimes.
As the case may be, your mobile phone connects to the nearest base station once it is turned on. With specialized equipment, the authorities can accurately pinpoint the location of the user of that phone. An arrest would be made. Simple!
Therefore, without the deployment of appropriate communication equipment, Nigeria will be wasting its time with whatever SIM car registration policy it adopted. You fight communication crimes with communication equipment.
And so, even if a kidnapper uses his victim’s mobile number to demand ransom from the family, with the appropriate communication equipment you can track and identify the location of the victim’s mobile number. The same goes for cybercrimes, etc.
~liberate your mind.
~liberate your mind.
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