SIM Registration, NIN, Data Privacy & FOI: What citizens should know about their data by Remmy Nweke - Telecoms Clinic @ITREALMS

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In this episode of Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS by REMMY NWEKE, he unpacks citizens’ right to know who accesses their identity data, linking Nigeria’s FOI Act with data protection and digital accountability.

Preamble:
Across Nigeria’s digital ecosystem, the intersection of identity management, telecommunications, and data governance has become both a foundation for national security and a field of contention for citizens’ rights. 

From the compulsory SIM registration and integration of National Identity Numbers (NIN) with telecom accounts, to the rising conversation around the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and data protection laws, a new question emerges at the heart of Nigeria’s digital society: who truly controls our data, and who has the right to access it?

For many Nigerians, the experience of data collection begins with necessity; linking SIM cards to NINs, obtaining Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), registering for voters’ cards, or enrolling in social welfare programmes. Yet, beyond these transactional interactions lies a broader narrative about trust, accountability, and the balance between state surveillance and citizens’ privacy.

Solemnity of All Saints: A call to holiness for all by Chris Uruakpa - ITREALMS

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Today, 1st November, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints, a feast dedicated to honoring all the Saints, both known and unknown, who have attained eternal glory. On this day, we remember not only the celebrated Saints but also those whose holiness may have gone unnoticed, yet whose lives continue to inspire faith and virtue.

These holy men and women are examples for us to emulate, their lives remind us of the beauty of living faithfully according to the Gospel. We also seek their prayers and intercession, trusting in the unity of the Communion of Saints, that great spiritual fellowship linking God’s people in heaven, on earth, and in the state of purification.

Innovation: How First Bank turned Lagos into Africa’s electric playground - ITREALMS

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The Lagos Lagoon glistened in shades of blue and gold as electric powerboats sliced through the water, cheered on by an ecstatic crowd that lined Victoria Island’s waterfront from Saturday, 3 October to Sunday, 5 October. 

For two unforgettable days, Lagos became Africa’s capital of clean energy, glamour, and innovation, all powered by First Bank of Nigeria, the sponsor of the continent’s first-ever E1 Lagos Grand Prix.

EDITORIAL: When hospitals become graveyards: The shame of UNTH, Enugu - ITREALMS

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The death of Mrs. Charity Unachukwu at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, after what her family describes as 12 hours of bureaucratic delay and neglect, is more than a personal tragedy. It is a mirror held up to Nigeria, reflecting the decay of our health system and the betrayal of citizens by institutions meant to preserve life.

Hospitals are supposed to be sanctuaries of healing. Instead, stories like Charity’s turn them into graveyards where negligence, incompetence, and indifference claim more lives than the ailments patients bring. It is telling and damning, that testimonies of other families quickly followed, each recounting a similar experience of abandonment at UNTH. This is no coincidence. It is a pattern.

RoW Waiver: The Hidden Backbone of Anambra's Digital Revolution by Chukwuemeka-Fred Agbata - ITREALMS

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Across Nigeria, one of the biggest hurdles to broadband expansion has been the prohibitive cost of Right of Way charges: the fees telecom operators must pay to lay fibre-optic cables across state-owned land, which drastically slows down digital infrastructure rollout.

In 2022, one of the earliest and boldest steps taken by Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, was the removal of the Right of Way (RoW) charges for laying broadband fibre across Anambra State.

Comfort Emmanson: A fragmented digital identity by Remmy Nweke - ITREALMS

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The chaotic aftermath of a viral event can splinter a person’s identity into a hundred different pieces, each one fighting to be the true narrative. No one embodies this digital fracturing more than Comfort Emmanson. Her life, writes REMMY NWEKE, was not only stolen by a moment of trauma but was then fragmented and commodified by the digital world.

Dateline, August 10:

Before the incident of August 10, 2025, Comfort Emmanson was a hopeful aspiring professional. Online, she curated a public-facing digital life as a “Digital creator” and an aspiring “Fashion model.” With a modest following of 238, she built an identity she wanted the world to see.

Then came the incident at the airport on August 10. A simple altercation over a faulty phone escalated into a public, humiliating ordeal.

Digital self exposed:
In her own words, she was pushed, dragged, and had her clothes pulled off, all while being recorded. Her physical body was exposed, but her digital self was about to be obliterated.

As the video of her trauma went viral, her identity was suspectedly hijacked. Suddenly, a new profile appeared, this one a "Public figure" with a staggering 29,000 followers. This was not Comfort’s page or is it; it was a public spectacle, a digital stand-in for the "missing Kirikiri neighbour."

Her own anguished words, "only God can fight my battle," were reduced to a tagline for this new, impersonal platform. 

Her plea to followers to follow her "only page" was a desperate and futile attempt to reclaim a narrative that was no longer her own.

Fragment online life:
The final, chilling fragment of her online life is perhaps the most telling. A social media post Facebook page on August 18 by 12:37am, attributed to her, carried the cold, cynical message: "If you no get money bro avoid me."

Our Missing Kirikiri Neighbour: Passenger or Conductor? by Remmy Nweke - ITREALMS

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Genuine case of air rage?
As the controversy surrounding the Ibom Air incident continues to unfold, many questions remain unanswered. 

The video of the passenger being dragged off the plane has sparked outrage, but some have raised concerns about the events leading up to the altercation. 

Nigeria's tech evolution: Senator Natasha's drones redefine capacity building by Remmy Nweke - ITREALMS

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In this edition of Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS, veteran tech journalist REMMY NWEKE vividly details how Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan's pioneering drone and digital skills program is revolutionizing capacity building across Nigeria, illuminating its potential to foster self-reliance, advance environmental sustainability, and usher in new era of tech-driven entrepreneurship nationwide.

 

Preamble:

In a nation where technological innovation is rapidly reshaping industries and empowering communities, a notable shift in capacity building is taking flight, quite literally.

Izuogu Z-600: Africa's first indigenous automobile deferred by Remmy Nweke - ITREALMS

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The Izuogu Z-600: Africa's first indigenous car, a symbol of innovation stifled. Its tale echoes the need for robust support for African ingenuity, writes REMMY NWEKE.

The Visionary Engineer: Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu

At the heart of this story is Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic Nekede in Imo State, Nigeria. Dr. Izuogu was driven by a vision: to design and manufacture Africa's first indigenous automobile.

Trending wrongly: Renaming of military institutions, public infrastructure after PBAT by Dr Moses Paul - ITREALMS

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It is profoundly disappointing to witness the alarming trend of naming public institutions, infrastructure, and military facilities after a sitting president. This act runs counter to established principles of honor, service, and public morality. The recent decisions to name critical institutions after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, including barracks, airports, and other facilities, reflect a troubling disregard for historical preservation, respect for our fallen heroes, and the collective legacy of the Nigerian people.

The renaming of a military barracks in Asokoro after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is particularly egregious. Military barracks are not mere structures; they are sanctuaries of sacrifice, discipline, and service to the nation. Naming such an institution after a sitting president, while Nigeria has countless soldiers who paid the ultimate price for our security, is a direct affront to their memory. It disregards the values of humility and honor associated with the armed forces and diminishes the legacy of those whose selfless acts secured our freedom.

Transforming sanitation in Nigeria's public spaces by Elvis Eromosele - ITREALMS

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I had the opportunity to visit a number of Nigerian cities in recent weeks, from Lagos to Bayelsa, through Benin, and Warri. Although these cities provided rich cultural experiences and stunning scenery, one prevalent problem that caught my attention was the condition of public sanitation, especially in motor parks and markets. The unpleasant stench, overflowing trash, and unhygienic conditions of many of these areas confirmed the urgent need for significant improvements in sanitation in Nigeria's public parks and markets. We'll discuss the roads another day.

In commemoration of World Toilet Day 2024, a global observance dedicated to raising awareness about sanitation, it is time to reflect on the need for cleaner, healthier environments in our communities, especially in places where large numbers of people gather. World Toilet Day, commemorated annually on November 19, highlights the critical issue of global sanitation and aims to ensure that everyone, everywhere, has access to safe and clean toilets. This year’s theme, 'Toilets – A Place for Peace', underscored the connection between sanitation and the broader goal of peace and well-being.

NNPC Ltd: An All-round Asset to Nigeria by Olufemi Soneye - ITREALMS

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In its editorial of 2nd August, 2024, the BusinessDay newspaper, characteristically, launched another scurrilous and baseless attack on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd). In the editorial entitled: “NNPCL: Liability or Asset to Nigerians?”, the newspaper set out to paint the picture of NNPC Ltd that is a liability to Nigeria instead of an asset that it should be. It chronicled a litany of issues which in its estimation have made the company to lose its place as an asset to the nation. As to be expected, all the issues it raised were either outright lies or unfair misrepresentation of facts. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

According to the newspaper, NNPC Limited's status as an asset is undercut by the opacity of its operations and corruption. The truth, however, is that this is a regurgitation of age-long allegations that have since been overtaken by the emergence of Mr. Mele Kyari as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the company and the transition of the old NNPC as a corporation into a limited liability company under the Petroleum Industry Act.

Open Letter To President Tinubu: Acute food shortage plunges Nigerians into severe hunger by Emeka Nwokocha - ITREALMS

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In this open letter to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Emeka Nwokocha, lamented the acute food shortage facing Nigerians with severe hunger.

Your Excellency, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, I am very worried about the current economic crisis our dear country is thrown into and the resulting acute hunger battering and killing innocent Nigerians everyday, mostly children.

Your Excellency, since you took the reins of governance, Nigerians have not known peace, poor Nigerians gnash their teeth, many are unable to afford food as they face torture from acute hunger.

State of emergency on education: Buni's vision by Hassan Gimba - ITREALMS

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In the past few months, there has been some incessant din over the plight of education across the country, how deplorable it has become and concerns over how to bring it out of the shambles it has been shovelled into as a result of long-term negligence by those who should nurse it after benefitting from it.

Many of us who were in this part of the world before 1980 knew what schools were and how governments went the whole hog to make them qualitative while making the academic environment so conducive.

Beauty of harmonised USSD code in Nigeria - ITREALMS

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The harmonisation of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) notch for the telecoms sector is timeous, handy, and memorizable, writes ITREALMS’ REMMY NWEKE, with applause for the Industry Working Group (IWG) and all other parties involved in signing off on this initiative as Nigerians await the 5G bouquet.

Prelude:

In a suburb of Lagos known as Bolade in the Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of the commercial city, a single mother identified as Iya Hannah Odewale operates an airtime kiosk. She deals in all manners of airtime; from phone airtime also called ‘credit’ in local parlance to providing top-ups for decoders, among others in the neighbourhood.

She also has a neighbour who works at a customer service centre of one of the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) known as Onyi Kachiukwu. One thing these neigbhours have in common is that they reside in same building at the neighbourhood and with the coming of the introduction of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) by mobile operators to conduct some services including checking of balances on airtime or data, Iya Hannah is sure Onyi has the precise code answer and from there, he became the help-line for Iya Hannah; giving her the needed and relevant codes so she can offer and fulfill customers request.

Was Pantami for telecom consumers?

Noteworthy is that towards the last quarter of 2019, especially on resumption of office, the current Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami took it upon himself to kick against and even later formally commenced jettisoning plans by MNOs to introduce new charges for USSD, more so upon realisation that USSD is largely now being used by bank customers for financial transactions.

Sagacity of a digital revolution - ITREALMS

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Taking a look at the digital revolution in Nigeria, REMMY NWEKE gave a pointer to a sagacious president under who the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication thrived.

Often sagacity is ascribed to the quality of being sagacious, especially of the political class and with all the historical perspectives to the entrance and realisation of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications in Nigeria, its obvious that the then elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was sagacious enough in his approach to the adoption of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and precisely telecommunications following his resolve to liberalise the nation’s telecoms sector in year 2000.

SMEDAN partners Google, Facebook on youth empowerment, trains 150 PWD in Lagos - ITREALMS

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The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has entered into partnership with Google and Facebook to train Nigerian youths on small businesses, especially on doing business online, reports ITREALMS.

This is coming as SMEDAN said it has trained some 150 Persons With Disability (PWD) as part of its empowerment for small businesses in Lagos State.

UK battles unfulfilled vacancies says Olivia Smith - ITREALMS

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For the first time there are more job vacancies than the number of unemployed people. But not all is positive for employees, writes OLIVIA SMITH.

An unprecedented event has occurred in the United Kingdom (UK). For the first time in recorded history, the number unfulfilled vacancies in the UK exceeds the number of unemployed people.

GCA: Senegal leads Africa’s path to resilient recovery - ITREALMS

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Senegal is on the front lines of the global climate challenge and will play a critical role in leading Africa’s response, Patrick Verkooijen – CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation said in closing remarks in Dakar, after meeting President Macky Sall on Friday.

Cutting climate finance risks stoking even bigger conflicts down the line. World Bank data indicates that internal climate migration could reach up to 1 million people in Senegal by 2050.

Beware! Hackers can unlock, steal your vehicles says NCC - ITREALMS

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…Warns of vulnerability to new Android trojan apps

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) wishes to alert telecom consumers and members of the public on an ongoing cyber-vulnerability that allows a nearby hacker to unlock vehicles, start their engines wirelessly and make away with the cars.

The fact that car remotes are categorized short range devices that make use of radio frequency (RF) to lock and unlock cars informed the need for the Commission to alert the general public on this emergent danger, where hackers take advantage to unlock and start a compromised car.