A non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Leadership and Role Model Foundation (LRMF) has advised the House of Representatives to take immediate steps towards ensuring a speedy passage of the SIM Card Registration budget before it to herald the total commencement of the now still born Sim Card registration exercise.

Speaking in Lagos, the Foundation’s President, Mazi Omife I. Omife, noted that the passage of the budget would ensure proper registration of SIM cards to help ascertain national security and data protection in Nigeria.

Omife emphasised that the LRMF has reviewed the events leading to the conception, facilitation and execution of the SIM Card Registration exercise and had, therefore, resolved to respectfully implore the honourable members of the House of Representatives to pass into law, without further delay, the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Card budget. He opined that such a passage would also help in the creation of a database of Sim Card subscribers thus, providing a unified and seemless access of sim data to such stakeholders as the national security and law enforcement agencies.

Omife observed that over the years, the use of mobile phones in Nigeria has helped in the development process of the country. He, however, warned that a development process that is not well-managed by the appropriate authorities could lead to serious problems.

Reviewing the prevailing security situation in the country, he posited that the SIM card registration is indeed a serious national issue that ought to be handled by the appropriate Federal Agency, in this case the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). “This,” he noted, “is because the exercise involves gathering personal data of Nigerian citizens, including photos, names, addresses and finger prints of the SIM card subscriber and can best be handled by the NCC, which has an enviable track record as well as the expertise in terms of the capacity and capability to undertake such a sensitive task.”

In view of the intricacies and high-level security involved in gathering a country’s citizens personal data, the Leadership and Role Model Foundation’s president, stated that matters of this nature could not be left only to private telecoms operators. He reasoned that data, which pertains to mobile phone users, could be used as easy channels to perpetrate crimes, such as kidnapping, fraud, murder, embezzlement of people’s money and terrorism.