Nigeria International Passport System and Allegations of Underhand Dealings

Nosa Alekhuogie

The trust deficit between the Nigerian youths and government agencies and parastatals has created forum for false information, largely disseminated through the social media.  Olufemi Emiloju writes that the distrust by the public has created fertile ground for the spread of false information about the Nigeria Immigration Service

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has been facing backlash on the social media, especially over issues that have to do with issuance of International Passports. 

While some claim Immigration Staffs are into Passport racketing others are spreading the information that NIS is hoarding booklets, all these were some of the issues that were clarified by the Passport Control Officer of the Ikoyi passport office Lagos, Deputy Comptroller of Immigration (DCI) Aiyegbusi Olugbenga Odunayo.

Mr. Ayegbusi quashed the notion that Immigration officials are into racketeering and described racketeering as “a myth and something that is not real”. The well-travelled Immigration Chief who had traversed the length and breadth of the country in the course of the service, had worked as a Personal Assistant to Comptrollers, as PRO to acting Comptroller-General, he also worked in Benin as a PRO to an Assistant Comptroller, also as PA to a passport officer in Ondo State, and at other times directing staff in training school and many more other duties assigned to him.

The Immigration chief who is talking from a place of experience especially on the e-passport because he was in charge of the Alausa Passport Office as he was acting as the PCO, as the substantive PCO was out for a course when the enhanced e-Passport was launched. He explained that the fact the he was the one coordinating the operations during this period exposed him to a lot and that the general belief that people could racket the passport was a lie.

The DCI further explained that the time to process International Passport in Nigeria is even faster than the time to do so in so many advanced countries.

 “Appointment is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. In the UK for instance, if you are not paying service charge to the UK government, if you are not on fast track by the government then you must queue for 10 to 14 weeks,” he explained.

He stated further that the many talks about having longer time to apply for passport in Nigeria is a normal practice all over the world and that it is not out of order to ask Nigerians to queue for the same process.

 “For Nigeria to say you have to wait for appointments it’s not an error, it’s not a new thing. It will give room for others because you are only welcomed to the office on the day you have an appointment. If you go there before your appointment, you will constitute a nuisance. You go on your day of appointment, your name and details are on the system and they check your facilities, open files for you and you do captioning,” he said.

According to him, “the new system is what they now call; Operation do it yourself. Which is that you can now start the process of securing your international passport at your own leisure; you can make payment for your passport online without any third party, where the system will give you date for capture and you will be able to print it out.

Mr. Aiyegbusi explained, “It’s on our website, you can Google it and pay yourself. There is no additional money; if you pay excess money the machine will not accept it because it is an error, it is already configured like that. We made sure we configured it that way to avoid stampedes in the passport offices.”

He further explained that the new system is the best obtainable globally and since its introduction Nigerians are saved from exposure to questionable individuals who may want to fleece them of their money. He also revealed that this has also helped to reduce the crowd that usually besiege passport offices since only the few that have genuine things to do are the only ones expected to be available.

On the availability of passport booklets, the DCI explained that passport scarcity has become a thing of the past.

 “Under the Minister of Interior,  Ogbeni Rafu Aregbesola and my hardworking Comptroller-General of Immigration, Isah Jere Idris, we have enough booklets. Let me use Ikoyi as a case study. When you come there, you will leave smiling. We thank God because things have normalized. Nigerians are good people; they only want correct information. 

“When you update them with correct information, they will follow you. When they find out that there is no discrimination, whether you are rich, poor or average, you are treated as a human being, the CG affirms that everyone is treated equally. So, there have been a lot of improvements, and people are happy” he stated.

Mr. Olugbenga Ayegbusi also explained that the works of the men of Nigerian Immigration Service is not restricted only to issuance of passport and that Immigration is an Act of Parliament. 

According to him, “It is entrenched in the constitution. We have a lot of laws, principles and conventions that guard and guide our profession such as Immigration Regulation and Act. All those things guide and guard our system and operation. We interpret the visa collected all over the world; we understand counterfeit visas when foreigners present one. We know our visa they have collected from consulates all over the world, we interpret them.

“Like the foreigners, seen on arrival, seen on departure, arrived; all these are fundamental technicalities entrenched in the operations of an Immigration officer and that is not what just anybody can do. Clarification and interpretation of visa, when you overstay, when you should not have arrived, like innards. 

“Mind you, Innards are people that want to move themselves to Nigeria without a proper visa, Immigration officers will be at the airport not to allow someone who is not from Nigeria to come into the country without proper documentation and reasons. This helps us to stop what we call internal subversion and then external inversion. An economic system needs a viable political system and a political system needs an economic base to survive.”

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It is entrenched in the constitution. We have a lot of laws, principles and conventions that guard and guide our profession such as Immigration Regulation and Act. All those things guide and guard our system and operation