By Dr. Joel Ademisoye
President Tinubu’s creativity for service improvement and the promise of the delivery of more passports to Nigerians are yielding fruits at the Federal Ministry of Interior, Department of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), under the strong leadership of the Minister of Interior, Hon Olubunmi Tunji -Ojo. The good news is, the NIS has cleared “60,000 Passport Backlogs in 4 Days”, (Source: Social Media), this figure, if it is accurate and valid, the Ministry of Interior and its Department of NIS deserve the recognition and commendation for an improvement in performance and the delivery of services to the Nigerian citizens, who are seeking to obtain a new or to renew the old passports.
In Nigeria and abroad, obtaining the Nigerian passports is a perennial and chronic problem attributed to many factors to the inefficiency of the government bureaucracy at NIS over the years. This writer has been exposed to and experienced this historic problems at NIS, which must be of serious policy concern to the new minister. Other factors might be attributed to structural, government policy, violation of professional ethics and corruption and bribery practices by the officials of NIS. Trust me, as a Nigerian, a resident in the United States, I have experienced a ‘tug of war’ in my attempts at renewing the old Nigeria passport.
At one time, the processes of obtaining a new or renewing a old passport were ambiguous, chaotic, problematic and dysfunctional. For example, the NIS official at the Nigerian Embassy or Consulate might have lost the applicant’s submitted documents for the passport renewal. Another story is the statement of no supply of passport booklets at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, therefore, the official at the passport office, is awaiting a supply of new passport booklets from the nation’s capital of Abuja.
Nigerians came to the embassy in Washington, DC and consulates in New York or Atlanta, with frustration and disappointment, it was the same old story, – the loss of the applicant’s documents or a shortage of the supply of passport booklets. I even read in the newspaper/online or heard about the allegations of corruption in the realm of the Nigerian citizens’ efforts at securing the Nigerian passports. I vividly recalled that the past immediate Federal Minister of Interior, Hon Rauf Aregbesola, struggled to reform the Nigerian immigration policy, improved and eased the application process for the Nigerian passports. But, unfortunately, the minister was not achieving his stated goals and objectives at the NIS. I think that the new Sheriff in town at the Ministry of Interior, Minister Ojo, needs a further action at reforms at the agency level and should take a stronger enforcement approach of the immigration laws of Nigeria, by eliminating the ubiquitous corruption and bribery practices perpetrated by the officials of NIS.
In June 2022, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the officials of the NIS were boldly, with impunity, putting pressure on this writer to give bribes to the officers on duty in a plain view of other passengers. I think that the new leadership at the Ministry of Interior needs a draconian, aggressive approach to hold the feet of the immigration officers to the fire in terms of the playing by the government rules and to eliminate the corruption in NIS, such as the purging of the corrupt officials from the agency. Also, I believe the use of technology, particularly the use of the surveillance CCTV cameras at the Nigerian airports, especially at the arrival and departure sections of the airport might be helpful in reducing the colossal corruption tendency of the immigration officers.
Moreover, the use of regular intelligence gathering and undercover operations could help to drastically reduce the corruption practices at the airport. To further push the envelope of transparency, accountability and credibility among immigration officers in Nigeria, it is incumbent on the minister of interior to leave no stone unturned by creating, organizing and establishing an awareness campaign/program through the radio, television, print media, religious and social organizations- churches and mosques, etc for and educating the Nigerian citizens about their rights in obtaining the passports and government’s goal to eliminate corruption in the NIS and how the citizens could play a role in collaborating and working with the federal ministry of Interior to fight and eliminate corruption at the agency.
In August 2023, I had the opportunity to visit other airports in the foreign countries like Heathrow in United Kingdom, Athens in Greece and Rome in Italy, the airport environment is more conducive, convenient and comfortable in accessing the airline services and the processing of the passenger’s check-in and traveling documents at the counter. Without any doubt, the standards of delivery of services to passengers in comparison to the poor conditions, unprofessional treatment of official service and the dysfunctional security arrangements at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. For example, the culture of traditional patronage /nepotism or a personal contact or the Nigerian cultural factor of ‘man-know-man,’ is the order of the day, a mode operandi and it is still flourishing, subjugating and undermining the government official laws, rules and regulations at the Lagos airport.
In addition, the problem of unruly touts or unauthorized and unwarranted solicitation of assisting the passengers remains unabated at the airport. The condition of the international airports in Nigeria in comparison to their peers in the developed countries, is poorly administered and managed. Therefore, I likened the Nigerian international airports to the ‘Wretched of the Earth,’ which is technologically ill-equipped and underserved below the international standard, no quality personnel service, the facility is with no air conditioner, the escalator is in the perpetual non-functional mode, unbelievably noisy, overcrowded and congested with the overwhelming non travelers or passengers.
I vividly recalled in my last visit to the Murtala Muhammed Airport in 2022, a woman seller of a phone cards approached and hassled me to buy phone card from her. I think the FAAN Authority in charge of the Nigeria’s international airports need to clean out a lot of nuance and menacing informal business activities at the airport. The introduction and use of a modern technology and a strong enforcement of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) laws, rules and regulations, in order to decongest the overcrowded population and to offer an adequate security at flight time.
The overcrowded and congested population at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos poses a security risk for and danger to the aviation facility, users and the traveling passengers alike (Source: ——“48 hours after attacking Kaduna Airport, terrorist blow up Abuja -Kaduna train,” This Day, March 29, 2022.). This writer sees the airport security as a part of the comprehensive security strategy for or a holistic approach to the Nigeria’s National Security Architecture. So, it is important and imperative that the Federal Minister of Interior, Hon Ojo, works in concerted efforts in collaboration and cooperation with his counterpart at the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace to focus on and give priority to the repair, upgrade of the transportation infrastructure and its security of the Nigerian airports.