On 8 April 2022, more than 400 subscribers gathered at the National Identity Management Commission office in Alausa, Lagos, seeking to link their NINs to SIM cards after outgoing calls had been blocked. ICIR's on-site report found two outdoor queues—verification and card collection—converging on one window. Inside, numbered applicants were admitted ten at a time and divided into three lines: two for validation and collection, and one for new registration.
Some had been waiting since 6 a.m., after heavy early rain. The office converted a large exterior crowd into seats, number tags, and several shorter procedural lines feeding limited service points. Under the pressure of disrupted phone service, order was maintained not as one simple queue but as a staged movement through a waiting area and three distinct lines.