An All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council member, Alwan Hassan, has suffered public embarrassment after Nigeria’s national emergency number, 112, failed to connect during a live demonstration on Channels Television.
Hassan appeared on Tuesday night’s edition of Politics Today, hosted by Seun Okinbaloye, where he praised President Bola Tinubu’s administration for introducing the emergency number, describing it as a major achievement of the government.
During the programme, Hassan compared Nigeria’s 112 emergency service to the 911 system in the United States, arguing that many Nigerians were unaware that the country had a dedicated toll free emergency number.
To demonstrate how the service works, Hassan challenged Okinbaloye to dial 112 immediately and put the call on speaker so viewers could hear an operator respond and ask about the nature of the emergency.
However, the demonstration quickly turned embarrassing when repeated attempts by the presenter to reach the emergency number failed to produce a connection.
Okinbaloye subsequently stated that the number was not working, putting Hassan in an uncomfortable position after he had confidently presented the service as one of the administration’s achievements.
In response, Hassan suggested that the failure could have resulted from a network problem at the television station. He insisted that the emergency number was operational, claiming that he had successfully used the service on previous occasions.
The presenter, however, maintained that other telephone calls were going through from the same location. He also disclosed that viewers were sending messages reporting similar difficulties connecting to the emergency line.
Hassan went on to explain how the 112 emergency system is designed to operate, saying calls are supposed to connect users to emergency communication centres within their respective locations.
According to him, operators at the centres assess the nature of each emergency and alert the relevant authorities, depending on the situation.
He explained that security emergencies would be referred to the police, medical emergencies to ambulance services, while road accidents would be handled by the Federal Road Safety Corps.
Hassan further revealed that the government was developing a dashboard system that would allow emergency centres to identify callers’ locations without requiring them to provide an address.
He disclosed that the emergency centre in Abuja was ready but explained that President Tinubu had directed that it should not be formally launched until emergency centres across the country were fully aligned.
According to Hassan, the process is expected to be completed by March 2027.
He also acknowledged that some government promises would require additional time before they could be fully delivered.
Nigeria’s adoption of 112 as its single national emergency number followed an earlier approval by the National Economic Council. The initiative is designed to replace the multiple emergency telephone numbers previously operated by different agencies.
In September, the Federal Government also directed the Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigeria Police Force, National Emergency Management Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps and other relevant agencies to prepare a nationwide implementation roadmap for the service.
However, the failed television demonstration has raised fresh questions about the readiness, accessibility and reliability of the emergency response system, particularly at a time when Nigerians are being encouraged to rely on the number during life threatening situations.
The controversy took another significant turn just hours after the broadcast when the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, announced changes to the communication structure of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
Gbajabiamila, who also serves as the council’s Deputy Director General for Administration, announced that only three designated officials would henceforth be authorised to speak on behalf of the campaign council.
The approved spokespersons are the Director General, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, Minister of Solid Minerals Dele Alake, and Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammed Idris.
Hassan and three other previously designated spokespersons were removed from their speaking roles and reassigned to other responsibilities within the media directorate.
The council described the decision as necessary to improve coordination, communication and discipline within its media operations.
Meanwhile, opposition figures have described the failed live demonstration as a national embarrassment, arguing that the incident exposed serious gaps in the country’s emergency response arrangements.
The incident has since placed renewed attention on a critical question: If Nigerians cannot reliably reach the national emergency number during a crisis, how can they depend on it when lives are at stake?
