By Moses Okorie
Despite the rising cases of COVID-19 pandemic currently witnessed Nigeria with Lagos becoming the epicenter, a large number of people have jettison the social distance protocol and gathered at the Alausa office of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Lagos on Monday.
The rush for the National Identification Number (NIN) came as the federal government, through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy issued a two-week ultimatum to all telecommunications operators in the country to block all Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) without NIN.
The Monday rush is not unconnected to the ultimatum as Nigerians attempt to register for the NIN and beat the federal government’s deadline for SIM deactivation.
Though the House of Representatives has asked the NCC to extend the two-week ultimatum to 10 weeks but the Commission is yet to make a public reversal of its notice as of Monday.
The Lagos state government on Friday announced a slew of COVID-19 restrictions.
Although there was no blanket ban on public gatherings of people under 300, a minimum of two meters’ distance between seated or standing guests is required.
On Sunday, Nigeria recorded 501 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3 deaths.