Nigerians lament passport delays over website failure

By Seun Ibiyemi

Thousands of Nigerians in the overseas are facing persistent difficulties in obtaining international passports at the Nigeria High Commission in London, prompting fresh appeals for urgent intervention by the Federal Government.

In a public appeal on Twitter space addressed to the Honourable Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, affected applicants expressed frustration over prolonged delays and an inefficient application process at the London mission.

Many applicants reported that securing appointments and completing passport processing has remained a major challenge for years, with little improvement.

Applicants also decried the poor state of the Nigeria Immigration Service passport application website, describing it as outdated, unstable, and prone to frequent disruptions.

According to them, the faulty platform has compounded the challenges faced by Nigerians abroad who rely heavily on online services to complete passport applications.

The situation has left many Nigerians stranded, unable to renew expired passports or obtain new ones for travel, employment, and residency documentation, raising concerns about the welfare and rights of citizens in the diaspora.

Stakeholders are now urging the Ministry of Interior and the Nigeria Immigration Service to urgently overhaul the passport processing system at foreign missions, particularly in the United Kingdom, to ensure seamless service delivery and restore confidence in Nigeria’s consular operations abroad.

@ogbenidipo in his tweets wrote: Honourable Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (@BTOofficial), please we need help at Nigeria High Commission in London. Thousands of Nigerians are still struggling to get a passport seamlessly at the embassy. The website is also tacky; it has been so for many years. Thank you.

He also tweeted: "Unorganised passport renewal process

• Logging into the portal is an issue; password reset button doesn’t work
• Shabby and disjointed website
• Delay in passport renewal due to non-availability of dates (wait time is rather too long)
• Phone rarely answered cc @DJABASS".

In another tweet by @DonempireMUFC also wrote:

"Honourable Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo,
I write this with a heavy heart.
I have long admired the work you are doing at the Ministry of Interior. Even as someone who does not align with the government you serve under, I have never hesitated to acknowledge your dedication, your visibility, and the clear effort to reform and restore trust in a system many Nigerians had given up on. I have spoken well of your work, defended it in conversations, and truly believed that things were changing.
Yesterday, that belief was shaken in a way I am still struggling to process.
With excitement and trust in this renewed system, my wife and my sisters-in-law took our six-month-old babies to the Nigerian Passport Office in London to obtain their very first Nigerian passports. This was meant to be a proud and joyful moment. Payments were made properly, and we received official confirmation directly from the Nigerian Immigration Service two days before the appointment. With that assurance, they set out at 4am on the morning of 15 January 2026, travelling to London with infants in their arms.
From the moment they arrived, the experience was one of quiet suffering.
There was no priority or consideration for babies. No allowance for their vulnerability. No system that recognised that infants cannot endure long queues, confusion, and hours of waiting. When it was finally their turn for biometric capturing, they were told the payment had to be “confirmed from Abuja”. I ask this with genuine disbelief and pain: how, in this century, does a payment made and confirmed in London require manual verification from Abuja?
They waited. And waited. And waited.
Six-month-old babies, already exhausted from early travel, with no proper place to rest. No access for buggies because there is no wheelchair or buggy-friendly access in the embassy. Mothers were forced to carry babies in their arms and on their backs for hours on end. No space to lay them down. No system built with human beings in mind.
The confirmation from Abuja did not come until almost 5pm.
By then, train tickets purchased for specific times had expired, forcing them to pay again at significant extra cost. The babies were visibly distressed, overtired, and unwell. At some point, one of them looked frighteningly ill. As a father, imagining my child in that state because of administrative delays breaks something inside me.
When they finally returned home, I felt shame. Shame that I could not defend my country. Shame that I had spoken so confidently about reform and progress. Shame that I had encouraged trust in a system that placed six-month-old children in such conditions.
One of the babies had to be taken to A&E later that night after developing symptoms of a possible chest infection, likely from prolonged exposure and exhaustion.
Honourable Minister, this letter is not written in anger. It is written in grief.
Every person working within these systems must understand this: a task that feels routine, delayed, or unimportant to one official can deeply harm another human being. Behind every application is a family. Behind every “pending confirmation” is a child, a mother, a tired body, and a breaking heart.
Reforms are not only measured by policies announced or systems renamed. They are measured by lived experiences, especially for the most vulnerable among us.
I still want to believe in the work you are doing. I still want to believe that this ministry can truly become humane, efficient, and worthy of the trust of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. But experiences like this make belief difficult.
I write with deep sadness, not just for my family, but for the many Nigerians who quietly endure similar treatment and have no voice to write.
Please let this not be dismissed as just another complaint. Let it be a reminder that dignity, compassion, and basic human consideration must sit at the centre of any true reform.
Respectfully,
A heartbroken father and a disappointed believer in change".