An attempt by a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council to showcase Nigeria’s national emergency number ended in embarrassment on live television on Tuesday night after repeated calls to 112 failed to connect.
Alwan Hassan appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today, hosted by Seun Okinbaloye, and cited the 112 line as one of the achievements of President Bola Tinubu’s administration. Comparing it to the United States’ 911 system, Hassan urged the presenter to test the number on air.
“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. Welcome to Nigeria. Call 112… Thanks to the APC government,” Hassan said.
Okinbaloye dialled the number. The call did not go through. “This number is not working,” the host said. Hassan insisted the service was operational and attributed the failure to possible network problems, claiming he had successfully called the line several times previously. He also dialled it himself during the broadcast without success.
Okinbaloye pushed back, noting that other calls from the studio were connecting normally and that viewers were messaging the programme to report similar failures reaching 112. Hassan maintained that the system routes calls to emergency communication centres based on the caller’s location—for instance, connecting a caller in Kano to the Kano centre or one in Enugu to the Enugu centre—and that operators would then assess the emergency (medical, security or other) and dispatch appropriate responders.
He added that the Abuja emergency centre was ready but that President Tinubu had directed it not be formally launched until centres nationwide were aligned, a process he expected to be completed by March 2027. When Okinbaloye suggested the non-functional demonstration reflected a broader pattern of unfulfilled promises, Hassan replied that the government would deliver “with time” and that this was why it was seeking more time.
The clip of the exchange, shared by Okinbaloye on Instagram, quickly circulated and drew widespread commentary, with many viewers reporting their own unsuccessful attempts to reach 112.
The National Economic Council, chaired by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, approved the adoption of 112 as Nigeria’s unified emergency number across levels of government in July 2026. Independent tests after the broadcast produced mixed results: some callers, including journalists, reported successful connections in certain locations such as Lagos, while others continued to encounter failures.
On Wednesday, hours after the incident drew public criticism, the APC Presidential Campaign Council announced a reorganisation of its communications team. In a statement signed by Femi Gbajabiamila (President Tinubu’s chief of staff and the council’s deputy director-general for administration), the party restricted official spokesmanship to three senior officials. Hassan was among those whose speaking roles were effectively curtailed; the council did not explicitly link the decision to the television episode.
The failed live demonstration has intensified questions about the reliability and readiness of Nigeria’s emergency response infrastructure at a time when the ruling party is defending its record ahead of the 2027 elections.
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