112 emergency line fails live test, APC chieftain pleads for time

Nigeria’s national emergency number, 112, failed to connect during a live television test on Tuesday, despite an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Alwan Hassan, insisting that the service was operational. The failure occurred during an appearance by Hassan, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, on Channels Television’s Politics Today, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye.

Hassan had listed the emergency number as one of the achievements of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration and challenged the presenter to dial it during the programme to demonstrate its functionality. “Take your phone and call 112. Nobody knows about this. We used to hear it in America, 911. Call 112 now, put it on the speaker, and they’ll ask you what’s your emergency… Thanks to APC government,” he said.

However, after Okinbaloye dialled the number, the call failed to connect. “This number is not working,” the presenter said. Hassan attributed the failure to a possible network problem, insisting that the emergency line was operational and that he had successfully called it several times in the past. Okinbaloye, however, maintained that other calls were connecting from the same location, adding that viewers were also sending messages confirming that they could not reach the emergency number.

Explaining how the system was expected to work, Hassan said calls to 112 would be received at emergency communication centres in callers’ respective locations, where operators would establish the nature of the distress and contact the relevant response agencies. He said medical emergencies would be referred to ambulance services, while security incidents would be relayed to the nearest police station.

Hassan also disclosed that the government was developing a system through which emergency centres could identify callers’ locations on a dashboard, eliminating the need for callers to provide their addresses during emergencies. He said the emergency centre in Abuja was ready, but that Tinubu had directed that it should not be launched until centres across the country were properly aligned.

According to him, the nationwide alignment was expected to be completed by March 2027. When Okinbaloye suggested that the emergency number was among the administration’s promises yet to become fully functional, and referred to what he described as a long list of unfulfilled promises, Hassan appealed for more time. “We’ll fulfil them. We’ll fulfil them with time.

This is why we’re asking for more time,” he said. The Federal Government had in September directed relevant agencies, including the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria Police Force, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), to develop an operational roadmap for the nationwide rollout of the 112 emergency number.

The directive followed the National Economic Council’s approval of 112 as Nigeria’s single universal toll-free emergency number, intended to provide access to assistance during medical, security, fire and other emergencies.