The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said by January next year, international passport automation would commence. KEHINDE OSASONA in this piece wonders if it would be possible considering past experiences.
Background
Many travellers had complained before now how stressful it was to procure the Nigerian passports from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). The lamentation has nevertheless continued despite repeated assurances by successive governments to ease the stress associated with obtaining the international passports.
From biometric capturing to procurement, it has been a tale of woes and depression by Nigerians who need their passports to travel out of the country for educational purposes, conferences or one engagement to another.
The immediate past minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, it would be recalled, promised that applicants for the new Nigerian international passport could get their documents within 24 hours or a maximum of 72 hours. But up till the time he left office, it was still an herculean as the story has not changed.
Searches by this reporter indicated that despite the NIS assurances that new applicants could get their documents within six weeks of application, many of them have spent six months without getting the same from NIS.
Further investigations revealed that Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and other passport offices across the country are usually a beehive of applicants who regularly throng the offices seeking to secure passports, but with no luck.
This reporter also gathered that despite owning a minting and printing company, Nigeria does not produce its own passport booklets thereby making availability difficult.
Not only that, there were cases sharp practices everywhere with immigration officials allegedly demanding bribes, hoarding booklets or even introducing arbitrary charges before applicant could get a passport.
Lately too, the inability of new applicants to secure their documents also led to the failure of some of them to pursue their education, business, travel for medical tourism and other important engagement outside the country.
Sadly too, due to the unnecessary delays experienced over time, some applicants have reportedly missed opportunities to join their mates in higher institutions of learning outside the country, just as others with educational pursuit had to defer it for the future as every effort to secure the travel document had proved somewhat difficult.
Past policy, government’s defence
In 2017, the NIS rolled out a new policy which among other reasons aimed at enhancing efficiency and discouraged middlemen in the procurement of passports.
Part of the policy, Blueprint Weekend recalls, was the prohibition of the use of cash payment to get a passport. But just a few years after the policy, it re-introduced e-passports which according to the NIS were to curb forgery.
Tunji-Ojo’s magic wand
While putting up a defence over the issue at a media parley recently, the new minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who had just cleared existing backlogs of about 204,000 under two weeks apologised to Nigerians, declared that it inherited 204,332 enrolments without passports being issued.
According to the minister, “We want to ensure that nobody waits for more than two weeks to get their passports.”
He said from the records produced by NIS, the number of passports already collected is 91,981 with an outstanding of about 112,351.
“We gave a marching order because the president was also on our necks to bring solutions and succour to Nigerians. We went into strategic meetings with the NIS and with the support of our service providers; we were able to increase printing machines to four in passport offices where we had two. Our service providers gave us the machines at no cost.
“The NIS personnel were doing three shifts, working 24/7 to make sure that we cleared the backlogs and to ensure that never again are we going to have backlogs of passport production.”
New devt
Further to rejigging of policy, the minister has also announced a two-week timeline for the processing of passport applications via automation, saying the era of Nigerians waiting for months to get their international passports is over.
“On September 7, we made a promise to sort out the backlogs in two weeks but we made it in three weeks and I sincerely want to apologize to Nigerians for that.
“The Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu is one that matches its words with actions. The issue of passports must be a fight and not a privilege. Visa is a privilege but passport is a right and we are happy that today, we have been able to hand over the rights of Nigerians to them.
“For us, we are assured that if it can work in NIS, it can work anywhere else. Nigeria is undergoing a process. We inherited 204,332 enrolments without passports being issued.”
Workability
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Blueprint Weekend, a public analyst, Onaolapo Alawusa, expressed sadness over painful experiences that travellers in Nigeria suffer before obtaining a passport.
Alawusa, who described the new minister as “a fresh breath” however, refused to hail him, saying “let’s still wait and see.”
Recounting a friend’s ordeal, Alawusa said, “Passport issuance for me has become something else. In fact, it looks as if some mafia has hijacked the whole process. In 2021 or thereabout, a friend wanted to relocate and he chooses Germany, where he has more friends.
“Did you know that travellers it took him about two months before he got that passport? It was not only frustrating and depressing because we were always going there together, you would not know who to speak to, and it was that bad.
“At the end of the day stories on printing materials, approval and all that started cropping up despite Mr. Aregbesola, former minister’s various pronouncements.”
Solution
Going forward, he advocated a proper implementation of any policy churned out by the government, saying unless that is consistently done, people would just give up and view such a government as being unserious.
“The new minister who just cleared some backlogs of passports deserves some kudos, but I believe strongly that his time just started.
“The question to ask at this juncture is why bureaucratic processes, under-staffing and paying little remuneration has continue to be stumbling blocks towards good policies of the government?
“As a way out, some other people have advocated the need for incentives by the government to encourage best practices or recommend proper punishments to dissuade unethical behaviours in immigration offices.”
