On Tuesday, news became public that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had given a directive to all telecommunications companies to block SIM cards not registered with the national identity number (NIN) in 14 days.

The development was announced after a meeting of key stakeholders in the communications industry, convened by Isa Ali Pantami, The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

“​The submission of NIN by subscribers to take place within two weeks (from today December 16, 2020 and end by 30 December, 2020). After the deadline, ALL SIMs without NINs are to be blocked from the networks,” the statement read.

Because of the directive, Nigerians would be thrown into a helter-skelter desperation to get this registration done; queuing on never-ending lines and wasting precious time. This is a particularly precarious time to have people queuing up in clumps as there’s word of a second wave of the coronavirus in the air. Shouldn’t the government be employing strategies that would reduce the chances of the spread of the virus?

To draw an even bigger picture, over 300 students were kidnapped in Katsina recently, and we are yet to hear or see any notable success in rescuing the boys. Yet the government is concerned with inconsequential things like SIMcards.

What do we call that? Misplaced priorities.