The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has directed the service providers working with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to ensure that passport application backlogs are all cleared within the next 2 weeks.
The directive was reiterated by Tunji-Ojo on Thursday through a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) account, where he stated that he had to engage these service providers as part of the swift measures to remove all bottlenecks in the acquisition of passport and immigration documents.
The statement by the minister came some hours after he gave a similar directive to the Nigeria Immigration Service during a meeting with the acting Comptroller-General of the service, Caroline Adepoju.
What the Minister is saying
Tunji-Ojo in his post said,
- “As part of swift measures to remove all bottlenecks in the acquisition of passport and immigration documents, I engaged service providers to the immigration service to ensure the backlogs of applications are cleared within the next two weeks.’’
A passport is a right, not a privilege
The minister had a few days while featuring on a Channels Television programme, hinted that it shouldn’t take more than 2 weeks to clear all passport backlogs, adding that there is no excuse for passport delay in Nigeria.
The minister said owning the green passport is a right of every Nigerian and not a privilege.
He said,
- “It’s a right and not a privilege, Nigerians want that right to be theirs, not by somebody offering you your right.”
According to him, it is not excusable for any Nigerian to be treated with disrespect because of a passport application
Also, the minister had last week charged the NIS heads to speed up the process of application and collection of Nigerian passports.
The minister also noted that President Bola Tinubu had no interest in excuses, saying the agency heads must walk the talk as the country is at a critical point and in dire need of transformation.
We commend the minister for given this directives. However, in order to prevent another backlogs being generate again, it is good to re assess the operations of NIS and remove all the bottlenecks and processes that encourage delays and curruption in their system.
Sometimes these bottleneck are deliberately created to make people pay extra unapproved money that goes into individual pockets.
It’s a no-brainer! elongate all passport expiration to 10 years and halt the production of 5-year expiration passports.