The abrupt downing of work tools by staff of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has halted the ongoing National Identification Number (NIN) registration with thousands of applicants locked outside of the NIMC offices. A communiqué signed by the President of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), NIMC branch, Lucky Michael, and Secretary, Odia Victor has directed members to embark on strike over poor welfare package, lack of tools and risk of exposure to coronavirus. “The meeting was convened to discuss the state of the exposure of staff members to COVID-19, and the salary structure and its representation in the annual appropriation, and the irregularities in the conduct of promotions, and the personal protection and safety in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the communiqué read.
“All members at the local government offices and special centres are advised to stay away from their various centres as task force and implementation committees would be on parade to ensure total compliance to the directive,” it added.
“It was agreed that all enrolment activities should be suspended with immediate effect pending when the aforementioned demands are met,” the union said.
“Consequent upon the just concluded congress of the above-mentioned association that took place on January 6, 2020, the unit executive directs all members of grade level 12 and below in the head office and state offices to report to their respective duty posts tomorrow January 7, 2020, and do nothing.
“All members at the local government offices and special centres are advised to stay away from their various centres as task force and implementation committees would be on parade to ensure total compliance with the directive.”
Some of their demands include a review of the “lopsided and irregular” promotion done in 2017 and 2020, implementation of the approved salary structure and its appropriation in the 2021 annual budget and adequate provision of work tools for civic data enrollment.
They also demanded the provision of adequate monthly operational stipends, work tools necessary for the process of enrolment of civic data: these tools are not limited to; power and connectivity (airtime and data connectivity), enrolment systems and peripherals, stationeries and consumables (NIN slips, enrolment forms, A4 paper).
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had asked all telcos to disconnect the SIM cards of persons who have not integrated their national identity numbers (NIN) with their phone lines by the end of January.
This made applicants throng NIMC offices across the country in large numbers.
The Nigerian Communications Commission had last month asked all telecoms firms to disconnect the SIM cards of all persons who have not integrated their National Identity Numbers with their phone lines by the end of January.
Currently, over 100 million Nigerians have yet to do so which has caused huge crowds to gather at the various offices of NIMC in breach of the COVID-19 protocol.
