By Adekunle Adekoya

LAST week, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), announced that it had apprehended three agencies “using computers allocated them by the dealers to fraudulently register SIM Cards which are offered for sale to unsuspecting subscribers.”

NCC said further in a statement signed by its spokesman, Reuben Muoka, that four offices belonging to mobile phone dealers – Correspondence Ltd, Zeph Associates, Glovic Communications, and Connect Ground Towers, all located in Abuja, were identified as the source of some of the offending machines being used by some of the agents to pre-register SIM cards that are being sold in the streets.”

I was not surprised at the development, being a citizen of this country and knowing my people. Let me clarify that; my people (Nigerians) are good people, law abiding, and easy to lead. The problem of my people is that they have not had good leaders, 52 years running. Now that is another matter for another section of this paper, another day.

Why would anyone want to pre-register a SIM card for sale? Did that person not know that more than 10 years after the coming of GSM, phone numbers have more or less become part of our identities?

More questions: In whose names were these SIM cards being registered? Fictitious names, abi? Whose fingerprints? That of their staff or anybody that just walks into their offices? If, subsequently, any of the pre-registered lines are used to commit any crime, do those dealers know that the they have, ab initio, aided and abetted a crime? Do they also realize that they might have obstructed the course of justice? With biometric properties, wouldn’t the wrong persons be arrested if crimes were committed?

I am sure the dealers and agents know that one of the reasons we are registering SIM cards is that the database will be used to assist the administration of law and order in our society. Did they also consider what threat a pre-registered line constitutes to the e-payment and cashless initiatives? We can go on and on.

Pre-registering SIM cards for sale complete with the data required, is, to my mind, deliberately giving wrong information under oath, the judicial equivalent of perjury. It is also like driving a car using another man’s license. In like manner, only God knows how many people have flown on how many flights under other peoples’ names, all in a bid to have their way.

Then, who are these fellow countrymen and women buying pre-registered SIM cards? I make haste to aver that it is a very dangerous thing to do, and anybody who does it may not have the best of motives in mind. NCC and the law enforcement agents would do very well to track down the lines sold in this manner and apprehend the users.

Two days ago we celebrated the 52nd National Independence, and the song all over is that Nigeria should be better than what it is at the moment. If Nigeria is to be better, we need to change. We need to be more law-abiding, refuse to cut corners even when it seems expedient to do so.

We need to drop all kinds of habits which used to be the norm, but which are no longer acceptable as we march on into the information society. Let those pre-registering and selling SIM cards, and others who are into such activities in various sectors of the economy stop NOW, in the interest of our country.