Nigeria’s emergency number, touted by a spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Alwan Hassan, was not able to connect when it was tested live on national television on Tuesday night.
Hassan spoke about the availability of Nigeria’s 112 emergency number during a live interview on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television, when Seun Okinbaloye, the anchor, challenged him to demonstrate its effectiveness.
Hassan told Okinbaloye to dial 112 and put the call on speaker mode, boasting that the number could be used to request emergency assistance for health, security and other distress situations.
“Seun, let me tell you something that you don’t know: take your phone and call 112. Nobody knows about this; we used to hear it in America: 911,” he said.
“Call 112. Now put it on speaker, and they’ll ask you what your emergency is, either health, security, distress call, whatever. Call 112. Welcome to Nigeria. Call 112 and put it on speaker. Thanks to APC government.”
When Okinbaloye asked if the emergency number was an achievement, Hassan said yes and appealed to him to make the call.
Hassan said that calls would be routed to emergency response centres in the caller’s location, where operators would ask about the nature of the emergency and dispatch the appropriate responders.
The spokesperson said the system could connect callers requiring ambulance services with relevant agencies, while the police would be contacted in cases of robbery and other security emergencies.
Hassan also said the federal government is working to introduce a dashboard that would enable emergency response centres to identify callers’ locations without requiring them to provide their addresses.
However, when Okinbaloye dialled 112 several times during the live broadcast, the call failed to connect.
“Not ringing just yet,” the anchor said as he started the call.
Hassan insisted that the number was functional, saying, “It will ring. It will ring, and they will pick.”
After further attempts, Okinbaloye told Hassan: “This number is not working.”
Hassan maintained that the line was operational but suggested that a network problem at the television station might be responsible for the failed calls.
“It is working even without network,” he said.
Okinbaloye, however, said he had dialled other numbers from the same location, and they connected, questioning why the emergency line was not working.
“Because you are APC?” the anchor asked.
“Not because I’m APC,” replied Hassan.
Okinbaloye asked if the failed test may give viewers the impression that Hassan was fibbing after the campaign spokesperson had touted it as an achievement of the APC administration.
Hassan denied lying and again attributed the failed connection to a possible network glitch.
Towards the end of the exchange, Okinbaloye asked viewers to test the number and send him messages on X to report whether it connected.
The anchor subsequently said he had received several messages from viewers reporting that the number was not working.
