Group Urges Reps To Pass SIM Registration Budget

A GROUP, Leadership and Role Model Foundation, has urged members of the House of Representatives to pass the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Cards registration budget so that the exercise could kick off.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos yesterday, the group said passage of the budget would bring about enhanced national security and therefore serve the interest of Nigerians.
President of the group, Mazi Omife I. Omife wondered why the House was reluctant to sign the budget when the Senate had done so expeditiously.
“Assuredly, a lot of benefits will accrue to Nigerians if we do things right. Conversely, intractable problems may arise if we fail to do the right things. And one of the right things to do in our national space right now is for all people of goodwill to urge the House of Representatives to follow the good example of the Senate and expeditiously pass the SIM Cards registration budget. By so doing, the revered chamber of the National Assembly will set the stage for the proper commencement of the exercise,” Omife said.
He noted that asking the GSM operators, instead of the Nigerian Communications Communication (NCC) to handle the exercise would not only ensure the passage of the cost to subscribers, but also undermine the country’s security.
“If the mobile operators are mandated to take on the burden of carrying out the exercise, they will ultimately pass on the cost to the subscribers in form of high tariff and charges. Also, it will amount to the Nigerian government abdicating its vital institutional role of being the sole custodian of security sensitive database and managing citizen identity information. That will be a very humiliating and damaging turn of events for the country as anybody could be blackmailed by the private companies,” he argued.
Omife faulted claims that the amount demanded by NCC for the exercise was too high, saying: “This line of argument is ridiculous when juxtaposed with the amount which was approved by INEC which is targeting about the same population size of 70 million and capturing the same basic personal information, photograph and biometric as the SIM cards registration project.”
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