The staff shut down operations and suspended enrolment of
NIN in all their branch offices nationwide.
Head of Communications at NIMC, Mr. Kayode Adegoke, who
confirmed the strike, however, said NIMC would issue a statement in response to
the strike.
But NIMC, on its official twitter handle yesterday, said:
“NIMC wishes to assure members of the general public that glitches experienced
in the enrolment process were being resolved and normal enrolment would resume
shortly. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and wish to assure you of
our continued excellent service.”
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa
Ibrahim Pantami, had in December last year, directed the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC), to enforce the implementation of the
integration of all registered SIM cards with NINs and gave a window of two
weeks to complete the exercise. The deadline was later extended by six weeks to
end January 19, 2021, for those who have already registered for NIN and
February 19, 2021 for those who were yet to register for NIN.
Pantami warned that subscribers who failed to integrate their
SIM cards with their NINsp would risk outright disconnection of their SIM
cards.
The fear of being disconnected compelled Nigerians to throng
the offices of NIMC nationwide, to enrol and obtain their NINs, a situation
that led to unprecedented crowd at all NIMC’s branch offices nationwide.
Worried about the crowd, which became difficult to manage,
NIMC staff demanded better welfare package and additional work tools to manage
the situation.
However, the inability of government to meet their demands
led to the strike action.
The NIMC unit of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of
Nigeria (ASCSN) directed members to embark on the strike, after its congress
held on Wednesday.
In a communiqué released at the end of the congress and
signed by the union’s Secretary, Mr. Victor Odia, and representative of ASCSN
NIMC unit, Mr. Micheal Asekokhai, the workers said the strike became necessary
to address issues of poor welfare package, lack of tools and risk of exposure
to coronavirus during enrolment.
“The meeting was convened to discuss the state of the
exposure of staff members to COVID-19, the salary structure, its representation
in the annual appropriation, the irregularities in the conduct of promotions
and the personal protection and safety in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the
communiqué stated.
The workers are also demanding a review of the ‘lopsided and
irregular’ promotions done in 2017 and 2020, implementation of the approved
salary structure and its appropriation in the 2021 annual budget as well as
adequate provision of work tools for civic data enrollment.
They are also demanding the provision of adequate monthly
operational stipends, work tools necessary for the process of enrolment of
civic data. The work tools include power and connectivity (airtime and data
connectivity), enrolment systems and peripherals, stationeries and consumables
such as NIN slips, enrolment forms, and A4 papers.
The union asked all NIMC staff to suspend all enrolment
activities with immediate effect pending when their demands are met.
“Consequent upon the just-concluded congress of the
above-mentioned association that took place on January 6, 2020, the unit
executive directs all members on grade level 12 and below in the head office
and state offices to report to their respective duty posts from 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.”
Meanwhile, thousands of applicants who went for enrolment
yesterday, were locked out and were not attended to.
In Lagos and Ilorin in Kwara State, hundreds of applicants
who went for enrolment were locked out at various NIMC offices, following the
strike.
During a visit to NIMC offices in Ilorin yesterday, many
applicants who had arrived as early as 7am were disappointed as the gates to
the entrance of the office were locked by security officials.
Also, reports from the NIMC offices at the University of
Ilorin, Offa, Share, Unity area of Ilorin, among others, showed that the
workers were not available to attend to the applicants.
Some of the applicants appealed to the federal government to
meet the demands of the NIMC workers, in order not to truncate ongoing
registration exercise.
They said a positive government response to the demands
would go a long way to help the workers meet all set deadlines for NIN.