Ayodeji Aladejana, a research scientist from Ibadan, needed to access the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)’s mobile application on July 28 when he found that his National Identification Number (NIN) had been suspended.

Aladejana said he got a notification that read: NIN SUSPENDED, KINDLY VISIT A NIMC CENTER FOR MODIFICATION when he tried to log in to the mobile app.

He told FIJ that he thought it was a glitch. So, he reached out to the commission on X with a screenshot of the perceived error.

“The response I got was that they had escalated my complaint and would give feedback later. The feedback never came,” said Aladejana.

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The Ibadan resident’s X message to NIMC on July 28. Source: Ayodeji Aladejana

NIMC’s response. Source: Ayodeji Aladejana

Two days later, on July 30, he got a text message from NIMC notifying him of the suspended NIN. The text also urged him to visit one of the commission’s centres for modification.

He got NIMC’s text message at 6:51 pm on that Tuesday in July. Six hours before that time, NIMC had responded to his direct message on X and told him that his complaint had been escalated to the appropriate department for resolution.

Nearly three months later, with five visits and an email to NIMC, the suspension on the researcher’s NIN has not been lifted.

The July 30 text message. Source: Ayodeji Aladejana

“When I received the text on July 30, I couldn’t go to their office until after the #EndBadGovernance protest,” Aladejana told FIJ.

While sharing his plight on X via a post he shared on Thursday to get the attention of the appropriate authorities, he noted that he first visited the NIMC centre inside the Ibadan North Local Government Secretariat in the Agodi area of Ibadan in August. There, he was informed that the “portal” was down and that he should return in three weeks.

On September 6, MTN, his network provider, sent him a text notifying him that his SIM card would be blocked within 24 hours because some of the registration details did not match his NIN. His line was blocked the following day.

The message from MTN. Source: Ayodeji Aladejana

“I visited the Ibadan North NIMC Centre again and was told that the portal was down. Not satisfied, I emailed nimcmodification@nimc.gov.ng on September 18, seeking guidance on how to resolve the NIN suspension issue,” Aladejana recounted.

He did not get a response until September 23: We apologise for the inconvenience. Kindly note that we do not attend to suspended NIN modification on self-service and enrollment centre for now. We will communicate to you for further details in due time.

NIMC’s response to his email on September 23. Source: Ayodeji Aladejana.

“Because I was shut out of my primary means of communication with my loved ones, I was forced to go to the NIMC Oyo State Office in New Garage, Ibadan, where I witnessed first-hand how Nigerians were treated with such disdain and disrespect you’d never expect from a government parastatal established to serve the interests of the citizenry,” Aladejana explained.

FIJ understands that in addition to the previous two visits to the NIMC office in Agodi, Aladejana also visited the NIMC state office three different times: September 19, 20 and 24. And no one attended to him until his last visit.

Sharing his experience on X, he wrote, “First, they don’t start attending to anyone till around midday (even though people come in as early as 8 am), and they close around 2 pm. There aren’t enough seats for people to sit, so you’d either stand or sit on the bare floor outside their office.

“In my first experience, I arrived around 9:30 am and was handed the number 48. I waited for my turn until around 1:27 pm when the light went off, and we were informed that they’d run out of fuel and we should come back another day. There were hundreds of people waiting that day!

“It was my third attempt at going to that office that I was eventually attended to. The woman who attended to me checked my NIN on the portal and said there was nothing wrong with my NIN and I should leave.

“I tried explaining to her that I got a text that it was suspended, MTN had blocked my line and that if I try to access my details on the NIMC mobile App, I’m usually greeted with the “Your NIN has been suspended” message. She shut me off and said that “I was wasting her time” to which I responded that I wouldn’t be there in the first place if everything were fine.

“One man eventually asked me to explain what happened and directed me to another office to write my NIN and alternate phone number so that I could be reached. That list, compiled by a staff member who was busy watching TikTok videos and made us (me and others with similar issues) wait for several minutes before attending to us, has hundreds of names. It’s been two weeks since I’ve written my name and details on that list, and my NIN remains suspended, and I have not been contacted by NIMC.”

The research scientist also observed that some of those with similar experiences whom he met at the state office of NIMC were old people, retired people and others just trying to get by.

There were also variations of the impact of their suspended NIN on their lives.

“Some of them have PND placed on their bank accounts, and their SIMs are blocked by their network providers. They can’t communicate with anyone and can’t even access the money they saved in the bank. This has been happening for months!” he lamented.

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Aladejana told FIJ that his blocked SIM and suspended NIN affected communication with his family, especially his parents living far from him.

He has turned to a MiFi device or a router to access the internet and contact anyone.

While responding to his post on Monday morning, NIMC asked him to contact its support team via email for resolution.

The research scientist is, however, sceptical of NIMC’s public response, considering that his previous messages via X and email as well as visits to their Ibadan offices have not been fruitful.

In the comments section of the X post, FIJ discovered that others faced similar struggles, including @Ladykhair1 who lost customers due to a similar issue, @aishaAdenike3 who experienced the same last year and @YFibro9383 who had to ‘bribe’ officers in Abuja to get assistance with a similar incident.

An X user @alamin_abubkr also wrote: “I had [the] same issue. I tried doing it online as they posted but…it couldn’t be done. I came to Twitter to complain to them, they said I should go [to] the nearest centre and when I went there, I had to pay again. Still unsuccessful.”

@teslim_ayobami added, “Your story isn’t different from mine. I’ve wasted a lot of money and my time in Ibadan also, yet my NIN still remains suspended. God will judge all those wicked, useless and incompetent people who make us pass through this suffering.”

Meanwhile, while responding to FIJ ‘s media inquiry sent to its email address on Sunday, the centre did not give a definite response on this prevalent issue confronting many Nigerians. It only requested an NIN or tracking ID.

When FIJ called the commission on Monday afternoon via the call centre line available on its website, a man who answered the call said: “Instead of saying it on air, why not come to the NIMC headquarters to get whatever details you need concerning this? What we do here is to hear complaints and give the necessary advice. It is not in our place to give out details [to journalists].”
The post NIMC Refuses to Lift 3-Month-Old Suspension on Ibadan Scientist’s NIN… Others Share Similar Fate appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.