Thumbs up to Tunji-Ojo for smooth Passport application, issuance mandate
The nightmare surrounding the Nigerian international Passport application is gradually fading out with the drastic measures taken by the President Bola Tinubu’s adminstration in appointing a young vibrant and workaholic minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo the headship of that sector.
Prior to this administration, some cabals in connivance with top personnel from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) had hijacked the process to make brisk business by extorting citizens that apply for passports.
So, possessing a Nigerian passport is a huge privilege for the citizens, and whatever reason that impedes obtainment of the national passport violates that right. Notwithstanding that there have been some challenges regarding the processing of the Nigerian passport; it is gratifying to state, however, that the narratives are fast changing positively.
Though the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), whose mandate it is to make passports available to Nigerians, acknowledges the pains and empathises with citizens, home and in the diaspora for the unintentional stress they encountered while processing their passports in recent times, each time Nigerians express their anger and frustration on the government over the inability of the passport offices to process their passports as quickly as required.
As part of a measure agenda, the Minister set a two-week timeline for the processing of passport applications, saying the era of waiting for months is over.
While reviewing his directive to the Nigeria Immigration Service to clear over 204,000 backlog of passport applications, he said, “We want to ensure that nobody waits for more than two weeks to get their passports.”
According to him, “As at October 1, we had cleared all the 204,332 backlogs and from the records produced by NIS, the number of passports already collected is 91,981. Outstanding but available is 112,351. We are pleading with Nigerians to please go and collect their passports.”
The minister warned Nigerians applying for passports application not to give money to anybody, and directed them for passport to lodge their complaints via the following; 0802 375 3414, preferably SMs, if there is any passport office where they have done the capturing and are denied their passports.
According to him, while procurement of visas is a privilege, acquiring international passports is a right. He also expressed the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to not increase the cost of passport application despite the foreign exchange volatility.
The minister further said he has perused all the contracts and agreements the ministry and its agencies had entered into with service providers, saying in the next couple of months, passport applicants would be able to upload their passport photographs via the immigration portal, rather than going to passport offices for such capture.
Tunji-Ojo revealed that applicants would only be required to visit the passport offices for their biometrics enrolment.
He noted that hopefully by December, people will not need to go to passport offices.
“People will be able to upload their passport photographs online with specifications. When you apply for a visa, you do that and we are advancing in that line.
“Also, your supporting documents should be uploaded online so that when you go to the passport office, it will just be for biometrics and within five minutes you have left there. We don’t want the past situation whereby people spend the whole day at the passport offices. So instead of the offices capturing maybe 400 a day, they will be able to accommodate more people,” he said.
“These are some of the innovations we are bringing. Even though we know what the exchange rate is, we are not increasing passport fees. The government of President Tinubu understands the needs of the people. As a person, I do not want anybody to go and stay in a passport office for more than 10 minutes.”
It important to applaud the Minister for succeeding to uproot the fraudulent activities in the issuing of international passports which was unable to be executed by the previous Government.
It is appropriate to put the issues in proper context and understand how the government through formulation and implementation of strategic reforms by the NIS in conjunction with the ministry of interior is bringing that commitment to life.
The issues with passport administration are way beyond what anyone could limit to the prism of undue politics game-playing. The destiny of Nigerians who need the passport as a requisite document to travel outside the country for whatever genuine purpose, is much more important at this point. The course of evolving a smooth passport administration and efficient migration management system for the country is certainly work-in-progress.
The Minister’s new team in collaboration with NIS is demonstrating commitment to the reforms of the immigration sector, especially passport processing, and already yielding positive results. With the marching order from the minister all relevant stakeholders should support the current government to clean the mess masquerading application and issuance of passports to Nigerian citizens.
