The Senate has advanced efforts to overhaul Nigeria’s emergency response system by considering a bill that would introduce a single, toll-free national emergency number. The proposed legislation — A Bill for an Act to Establish the National Emergency Toll Service (NETS) — passed second reading during Tuesday’s plenary.
Bill sponsor Senator Abdulaziz Musa Yar’Adua (APC, Katsina Central) said the aim is to replace the country’s numerous emergency lines with one unified three-digit number, possibly 112, pending input from the public hearing. He argued that Nigeria’s current patchwork of numbers for the police, fire service, ambulance services, domestic violence desks, child protection units, and disaster agencies causes dangerous confusion in moments of crisis.
Yar’Adua explained that the new system would ensure that “calls and text messages are automatically routed to the nearest emergency response centre,” taking advantage of Nigeria’s roughly 90% mobile-phone penetration to improve access.
Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin called the proposal a timely initiative, saying it would “greatly enhance public safety once implemented.”
The bill has been forwarded to the Senate Committee on Communications, which is expected to present its report within four weeks.
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