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A Nigerian court has ordered that the deadline for the compulsory National Identification Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration by mobile phone subscribers be extended by two months.
By the court ruling, this will be the fifth extension for the NIN-SIM integration deadline. The previous extensions were by ministerial interventions.
Justice Maurine Onyetenu of the Federal High Court in Lagos made the ruling in a judgement on a fundamental rights suit by a lawyer, Monday Ubani, against the federal government.
Other parties joined to the suit were the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Ubani prayers include that the court should compel an extension of the deadline: the initial two weeks timeframe now extended to April 6, 2021. He argued that allowing mobile phone service providers to block people’s SIM cards that are not linked to their the NIN is a violation of the constitutionally protected rights to freedom of expression, right to own moveable property and right to life.
The court agreed with his submission. It then ruled for a two month extension of the deadline.
The lawyer in his submission asked the court for a “declaration that the ultimatum given to telecommunications operators by the 1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents to block all Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards that are not registered with NIN, is grossly inadequate and will not only work severe hardship, but will likely infringe on the fundamental rights of the Applicant (and millions of other Nigerians) to freedom of expression as guaranteed by section 39(1)(2) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as violate section 44(1) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which prohibits the compulsory acquisition of right or interest over moveable property.”
He further asked for: “a declaration that in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rising cases in Nigeria presently, the deadline given by the 1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents to the Applicant and over 200 million Nigerians to register their SIM Cards with NIN, will lead to a rush, thereby resulting to clustering of the Applicant and other Nigerian citizens in a NIN registration centre, subjecting him to the possibility of easily contracting the covid-19 virus, and such will amount to a violation of his fundamental right to life as protected by section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).”
Deadlines and extensions
The National Task Force on NIN and SIM Registration continue to face an uphill task as government pushes for the all important SIM/NIN integration. The taskforce has had to fall back on series of extensions to work around deadlines.
30 December 2020
19 January 2020
9 February 2020
6 April 2021
