The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, is one cabinet member of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who Nigerians can boldly say has been practically on a performance steroid. He took the Ministry of Interior by storm from day one of his inauguration on August 21, 2023.
The ministry’s most visible parastatals are the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigerian Correctional Service, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp and the Federal Fire Service. The Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, is however the one with the most unpleasant record of poor service delivery especially as it concerns one of their core duties – issuance of the Nigerian passport.
Tunji-Ojo, a man forged to tackle adversity, plunged straight into the NIS with the sole purpose of radically transforming the agency to provide seamless service to Nigerians. The usual story in the NIS was that of unavailability of passport booklets, which led to a backlog of more than 200,000 passports yet to be produced as at the time Tunji-Ojo assumed office.
Tunji-Ojo immediately signaled to the rank and file of the NIS that it is no longer business as usual and that unnecessary bottlenecks in the passport application process that encourage delays and corruption must be eliminated. He therefore gave a marching order for the backlog of 200,000 passports to be cleared within two weeks.
He did not stop at merely issuing ultimatum, Tunji-Ojo led from the front and practically set up a situation room that ensured the directive was implemented and updates given to Nigerians almost on a daily basis. In just weeks, the almighty 200,000 backlog was cleared! NIS for the first time in recent history was now calling applicants (who have resigned to fate) to come and pick up their passports. That is unprecedented!
The interior minister also restructured the entire passport application process to make it easy and stress-free for applicants. He pushed the ministry’s bureaucracy and that of NIS to set machinery in motion to fully automate the entire passport application process. Corrupt syndicates in the passport racketeering rely on the presence of manual processes and human interface in the passport application process to frustrate applicants, delay issuance of passport and create an avenue for corruption.
The drive by the minister for full automation of the passport application process was therefore a direct threat to the entrenched corrupt syndicates in the system. With every passing day that Tunji-Ojo shared progress reports on the automation process, they saw their business empire crumbling right before their very eyes. They therefore went in search of any strategy to stage a counterattack. Corruption always fights back.
It was therefore not surprising that they went fishing for skeletons that could be linked to Tunji-Ojo. Unfortunately, they could only stumble on a consultancy contract given to a company founded by the minister by the embattled suspended minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Poverty Alleviation and Disaster Management. They immediately enlisted the services of notorious cash-for-hire social media influencers and online tabloids to propagate falsehoods against the minister, alleging conflict of interest, which they claim is a violation of sections 5 and 6 of the Code of Conduct Act.
The company in question is New Planet Project Limited, which was founded by the minister on March 3, 2009. However on taking public office, Tunji-Ojo resigned from the company as one of the directors in line with the constitution. This has not been disputed by the purveyors of the smear campaign against the minister.
The question the angry vested interests have failed to ask themselves is: is there any law that mandates a public official to shut down his company simply because he has been elected or appointed to serve in government? The answer, of course, is no! After resigning as a director from his company, Dr. Tunji-Ojo was no longer a signatory to the company. The company is free to continue existing and doing business just like any other company.
Crucially, the said consultancy contract given to New Planet Project Limited was not from the Ministry of Interior where Tunji-Ojo presides as minister. It could have LOOSELY amounted to a conflict of interest if the company was awarded a contract by the Ministry of Interior or any of its parastatals, notwithstanding the fact that the minister has severed official links with the company in the eyes of the law. But in this case it was a contract from another entity entirely. So, the hues and cries emanating from the hirelings of the angry vested interests are just desperate attempts to get the minister out of their way so as to resume business as usual. The minister cannot be accused of any wrong doing whatsoever.
To these vested interests, I have bad news for you. Tunji-Ojo is not going anywhere. Already, he has launched an improved online application portal for international passport, which allows applicants to upload their photographs and other supporting documents from the comfort of their phones and devices without coming to the immigration office except to have their biometric capturing. By March 8, 2024, the digital infrastructure for online biometric capturing would have been incorporated into the online application system thereby eliminating the need for physical appearance at the immigration office. This is the Renewed Hope transformation that no smear campaign can stop!
Away from passport issues, Tunji-Ojo will continue to restructure the NIS to carry out its core function of monitoring and controlling migration across our borders, which is crucial to Nigeria’s internal security. He will also continue the restructuring of the Nigerian Correctional Service with the twin purpose of decongesting the prisons and rehabilitating the obsolete structures. The NSCDC and the Fire Service will equally feel the transformative touch of Tunji-Ojo. The angry vested interests want to reincarnate the Kemi Adeosun scenario but unfortunately, they misfired. BTO is going nowhere!
Chibuzo writes from Abuja
