Oh Gosh! FG Has Barred My Line

By Barrister Monkey Jacket

Remember the old rhyme when we are about to eat and we sing ‘some have food but cannot eat, some can eat but have no food’, well, with the new directive from the Federal Government instructing all telecommunication companies to bar all subscriber identity module (SIM) card not linked with National Identity Number (NIN), now ‘some have sim and cannot call’.

The problem with we Nigerians is that we like ‘fire brigade’ approach to things, first when the Government brought the Bank Verification Number (BVN), it took Nigerians till the deadline when all accounts were to be closed, before the banks started overflowing with people trying to get their BVN, the same with the NIN and now with the linking of sim cards to NIN.

It has now become a tradition of ours to sit idle and cross legs when a policy is implemented, and then start running kitikiti when there is sanction for defaulting Nigerians. This attitude has also contributed to the reason why the country is at the state it is, we the people have a lackadaisical approach to factors that actually influence the development of the country.

An example is our voter cards, many Nigerians complain about the government but have no voter card that gives them the franchise to choose who our leaders ought to be, but when we hear that money is being shared to citizens with permanent voter’s card, you will see how the INEC offices will be flooded with Nigerians.

In my humble opinion, we cannot continue to blame the government of the day, without paying our own little role as patriotic Nigerians. Many a times, most policies don’t realize their full potential effect on the country because we as a people don’t play our role in ensuring the success of such policy, we take too long to actualize a policy, is like there is something in our blood that makes us act only when a sanction is imposed or a deadline is fixed.

We should be patriotic enough to trust the government and act as a result of love for country, and not for fear of sanctions. Now majority of Nigerians have sims but cannot call, not because there has not being opportunity and ample time to get the NIN and SIM linked, but because we just like being Nigerians, now there are queues at the NIN and telecos centers because of the rush to make calls and yet, we expect to get satisfied service in this rush hour.

We cannot continue to sit idle and put all responsibility of the nation on the Government only, true, the government must do their part to alleviate the plight of Nigerians to encourage patriotism, while we play our part as citizens who mean well for the country. Just imagine if 90% had enrolled for the NIN before now, don’t we think the country’s security agencies would have had a better database to come up with security parameters to curb the prevailing insecurity in the country.

God go help us to get am right!

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