Senate Considers Bill for Single Toll-free Emergency Number Nationwide

The senate has begun consideration of a bill seeking to establish a uniform, toll-free national emergency number for citizens across all states.

The legislation is titled: ‘A Bill for an Act to Establish the National Emergency Toll Service (NETS) to Provide Uniform, Accessible and Rapid Emergency Response Through a Dedicated Toll-Free Number Nationwide, to Empower the Nigerian Communications Commission as the Regulator and for Related Matters, 2025 (SB 402)’.

Abdulaziz Yar’adua, senator representing Katsina central, led the debate on the general principles of the bill during Tuesday’s plenary.

He said the proposed law would harmonise Nigeria’s multiple emergency helplines into a single, easy-to-remember three-digit number, such as 112 or an alternative agreed after a public hearing.

The lawmaker noted that countries like the United Kingdom and the United States have improved emergency outcomes with 999 and 911, while India adopted a unified emergency number in 2014.

He said Nigeria currently operates several helplines for police, fire service, ambulance response, domestic violence, child protection and disaster management.

The legislator noted that Lagos alone has several toll-free numbers linked to different agencies, a situation he described as confusing and counterproductive during emergencies.

“Therefore, a toll-free emergency number would go a long way in ensuring that Nigerians in distress are just a call away from the relevant emergency institutions,” the senator said.

“The number would provide a one-stop shop for receiving distress calls from the public and dispatching the same to appropriate response agencies, who will respond to the needs of callers.”

He said calls or text messages to the national emergency line would automatically route to the nearest response centre, taking advantage of the fact that many Nigerians use mobile phones.

Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, supported the bill and described it as “timely, very important, and urgently needed”.

“If we do this, we will be enhancing our security architecture and contributing significantly to solving the criminalities affecting the country,” he said.

“One of the impediments we are facing during this security crisis is lack of communication by various security agencies.”

Tahir Monguno, senate chief whip and senator representing Borno north, also backed the proposal.

He said the country must provide a simple and obstruction-free channel for citizens to report suspicious activities.

“This bill gives muscular expression to the need for the general public to report what they see,” he said.

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Barau Jibrin, deputy senate president, who presided over the plenary, described the bill as a “wonderful arrangement to help the people of this country whenever it is implemented”.

The bill was referred to the senate committee on communications to report back in four weeks.

If passed, the bill will empower the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to regulate the system and ensure nationwide accessibility to emergency services.