Minister of communications and digital economy Isa Pantami has alleged that his life was threatened over his insistence on the linkage of the National Identity Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).
Pantami said on Friday at the fourth annual Identity Day commemoration organised by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Abuja that most of the critics of the NIN-SIM policy are now silent.
Pamtami said, “We can only get our digital economy right when we continue to improve and encourage our citizens to enrol in our national database. When we commenced the process, many people turned against me. My life was threatened because of the introduction of the NIN and SIM registration on BBC radio and many more, and I resisted, believing that nobody can control my life in this world, only almighty God.
“We resisted, and now, the process is working. Sometimes, I can stay for one month without speaking to the NIMC and there is no problem. Today, most of our citizens that were fighting are now silent. Looking back from three years ago, the NIMC had managed under challenging conditions, to achieve an enrolment figure of nearly 90 million enrolments for the country.”
Pantami added that at the time he took over supervision of the NIMC the commission had less than 1,000 registration centres.
“But today, we have over 50,000. Today, our national data base is on auto drive. We have established over 19 national policies and all of them are being implemented. This has never happened in the history of Nigeria,” he said.
