INVESTIGATION: Despite Ministerial Directive Nigerians Suffer To Get Passports

More than four weeks after the minister of interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo declared that a national passport is a right and Nigerians should not wait for long to get it, many Nigerians still suffer to get their passport, an investigation by THE WHISTLER has shown

The minister in his inaugural meeting with the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Caroline Wuraola Adepoju condemned the bottleneck and delays in the issuance of passport documents to Nigerians.

“It is unacceptable and I’m Unapologetic about this. I’m very passionate about it, it is unacceptable for Nigerians to wait for months to get a passport for anybody who is interested in the passport and can afford it.

“It’s a right not a privilege to Nigerians, we must look at the whole ecosystem we must look at the whole walkthrough and be able to fill all loopholes making sure that once again the Greenback the green passport becomes a document of pride,” he had said.

However, when our correspondent visited the NIS headquarters located at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Road Sauka, Garki, Abuja posing as an applicant intending to obtain her passport, she observed that the ministerial directive is yet to be complied with.

A racket involving NIS officers and collaborators from the National Identity Management Commission, an agency in charge of issuing National Identity Numbers (NIN), actively solicited applicants to use back door channels to obtain their passports.

THE WHISTLER learnt that obtaining a passport through back door channels could cost as much as N50,000 for 32 pages (5 years validity) and N100,000 for a 64-page booklet (10 years validity)

On the official website of the NIS, a 32-page booklet cost N15,000 while 64 pages cost N20,000. Recently the service introduced an additional N1000 NIN verification fee bringing the total cost to N16,000 (32 pages) and N21,000 (64 pages)

An NIS official who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said, “The official price for 32 pages is N27,500 but N50,000 can get it for you on express. For 64 pages, the official price is N72,000 (10 years validity) while N100,000 can work it on express.”

When asked about the disparities between the official price he gave and what is on the website, he said, “The price on the website is not the actual amount, there are additional charges.”

He however failed to name the additional charges despite repeated probes by our correspondent.

Passports Still Take Forever To Get

The interior minister, Tunji-Ojo, ordered that the process of obtaining a national passport should not take more than two weeks

“Nigerians should not have to queue endlessly to get passports. No, this must stop. This is not the Nigeria of our dreams. I need to know the challenges the agency is facing.

“The scarcity and delay around fresh passport issuance and renewal fuelled corruption in the sector. No Nigerian should wait for more than two weeks,” he had said.

However, our correspondent learned that applicants still wait more than four weeks even after paying above the official price.

At the data capturing unit, some applicants stated that they had been coming for days without being successfully captured, attributing the delay to network problems and other issues.

Chibuzor, an applicant our correspondent met at the NIS headquarters said he has been in the process of obtaining his passport for a long time.

The 35-year-old while expressing his frustration about the process said, “These people are not trustworthy, if you go through online, they will bring one thing to stress you, if you decide to process with them still a problem. In fact, a friend advised me against applying through their website.

“Just imagine the officer who is handling my file asked me to come today for capturing, I’ve been here since morning but I can’t get him on the phone. This is someone who insisted I come today after I made payment two weeks ago.”

Another applicant, Judith said she has been on the process for more than three weeks and has visited the agency more than four times despite paying a huge sum.

She said, “I’m not happy with the way the officer handling my passport is stressing me. This is the 4th if not 5th time that I’m coming here for my passport, and this is something I paid over N50,000 for plus transport every time.

“After they will say the minister gave a maximum of two weeks for the passport to be processed. Honestly, I’m tired, if not that I have put in much I would have just abandoned it.”

Why Applicants Prefer Backdoor Channels

THE WHISTLER interacted with several applicants at the data-capturing area in the headquarters, most confirmed that they processed their passports through third-party agents and Immigration officials.

On their reasons for jettisoning official channels for much more expensive agents, the applicants said NIS officials frustrate efforts to obtain a passport through official channels.

Nelson who came to renew his passport said he preferred the backdoor process due to the complicated nature of his case. He explained that there was an error when he obtained his previous passport, adding that going through the official process will delay it.

“There was an error in my date of birth in 2016 when I first applied for passport. I came now to renew and make the correction because I need it. I paid N350,000 to an Immigration officer for the correction of my name and age and he said I should come on in three days.”

Nelson who plans to emigrate to the United Kingdom further said, “The error has cost me over N400,000 because I started the process at the Immigration office in Enugu where I first paid N60,000 before I abandoned it and came to Abuja.”

For Michael who applied through the official route, “The prices for official and express are different. I actually paid N72,000 for my 64-page booklet (10 years) but I gave the officer who fast-tracked it for me N15,000, and I collected it today which is three days after I captured. So, it’s about 10 days from the time I paid and now that I have collected it.

“This is because I know so many of them here. It’s better to go through an officer because some people experience a lot of challenges after applying online, they go for capturing but when they come back for their passport, you will hear things like no record found.

“At that point who will you hold? And when you push, they will tell you to go to SERVICOM. So, if you go through an officer, it’s better,” he said.

Also, Omowunmi who was processing her passport for an excursion outside the country said, “I applied two weeks ago, I came for capturing today but it was my dad who arranged for everything. We went through an officer not online.”

The undergraduate of World Global Institute added “Getting your passport after capturing depends on connections because they are people that will have to wait like a month or even more after they have done capturing.”

Ministerial Directive Unrealistic – Immigration Source

A top source in the Nigeria Immigration Service said the directive of the minister that passports must be produced within 2 weeks was unrealistic as the minister does not fully understand all the processes involved in the exercise.

The source who described the minister’s directive as the “mere opinion” of a politician said the process takes longer in most countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

“The minister said Nigerians have to get their passport in two weeks, he didn’t say they must get it in two weeks, so it’s not a law, just an opinion. Do you know how long it takes to check people’s documents and verify them? Do you know how long it takes to get a passport in other countries?

“A passport takes between 3-6 weeks to be issued, that’s the rule, but in most countries of the world, it takes more. Nobody complains in Italy, it can take three months, In Italy, the US, and the UK. Do you know that all the British citizens in Nigeria can’t get passports from the UK embassy in Nigeria? They have to wait until it’s sent from London for them to renew their passport.

He added that oftentimes, passport delay is caused by the irregularities in applicants’ biodata adding that the introduction of a National Identity Number verification has further extended the wait time.

“As I said, a passport can be issued between 3-6 weeks it depends, and no two applications are the same. If somebody applies for a passport, sometimes you will find out that the name on the NIN is different from the name on the passport, we can’t continue, we will stop at that point and get in touch with you, and you will go and correct it. It must synchronize, this is a new rule, NIN was not there before but now it’s part of the passport application process.

“We have a lot of issues to contend with. Some people who are complaining about delays in their passports have applied to change their name either due to marriage resolution or religion. They won’t tell you that, and change of data is not as easy as a regular passport, it involves other processes. But if somebody does not have any issue at all, a passport should not last more than 3-6 weeks to be reissued.

“The minister has given his opinion or what he desires. Don’t forget that the minister is not an immigration officer but a politician, so we guide him,” the source added.

Japa Culture Putting More Pressure On Passport Centres – Immigration Responds

Aribegbe Dotun, the Public Relations Officer of the NIS told THE WHISTLER that public outcry on passport delay is blown out of proportion, adding that the agency had been working round the clock to clear existing backlogs of passports.

“Nigerians can blow things out of proportion. A lot of Nigerians will not even try to apply themselves, they will go through third parties, and that is what we have been discouraging.

“Sometimes they have issues with their NIN, and when you have this issue with your NIN the system will not accept your application. To be fair to us, officers have been working day and night to clear backlogs, so I’m not aware if there are genuine reasons for passports to last more than two weeks except if that person has an issue,” he said.

The service PRO added that once an applicant provides the necessary information and documentation, passport collection will not be more than the 2 weeks that was quoted.

“I would like to stress this; the 2-week period starts from the moment you are captured and there is no issue with your NIN.

“One challenge we encounter is that when passports are produced Nigerians won’t come for collection. The service is working tirelessly, there is no passport office you go to today that you won’t see them working to ensure that passports are issued seamlessly.

“Another challenge is third-party agents, when information is given to a third party and you didn’t do it yourself, you might encounter problems,” he added.

On the disparities in the official price paid at passport centres and the price list on the immigration website, he said “Very soon we are going to update the website, I wouldn’t want to go into the price issue. I know they are working on the website so we can easily access it. I will advise Nigerians to ensure their information are correct when paying the official price and their passport will be issued to them seamlessly.”

On his part, Anthony Akuneme, Special Adviser (Media) to the Comptroller General of the service told our correspondent that the recent spike in the number of applicants has overburdened the NIS.

According to him, the delay in passport issuance is only experienced in certain ‘hotspot states’ with more applicants.

“If you go to Nasarawa you can get your passport even in one week, if you go to Zamfara you can get it even in two days, so the delay is not everywhere. Out of the 36 states in this country, passports are not being delayed in about 33 states.

“This cry about passports being delayed is majorly in Lagos and a bit of Abuja, and it is peculiar because of the crowd.

“Lagos deserves 10 passport offices to control the crowd and turn around the delay for us to issue passports with speed as desired, Lagos should have a minimum of 10 passport offices but right now we have four. So, with four offices, they are inadequate for the 20 million population in Lagos and almost everybody wants to travel.

“Abuja deserves 6 passport offices to control the crowd. We are looking at increasing the number of passport centers so that we can reduce the delay.

“Our technical providers have increased the number of machines so that production can increase in most of the hotspots like Lagos, Abuja, and Benin because the crowd in Lagos has spilled up to Ibadan.

“So, in the last few weeks, based on the minister’s directive, we have increased production lines in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, and Benin. Our workforce has also doubled their efforts across the major places, we’ve been working Saturdays and Sundays to meet up with the directive of the honourable minister to clear all backlogs.”

He added that post-COVID-19, the number of Nigerians intending to leave the country tripled as Western nations targeted their recruitment at Nigerians.

“The desire of Nigerians to travel has tripled more than before because the workforce of Western countries were decimated by COVID.

“All over Europe, America, and Canada, they lost human resources. Don’t forget they don’t have a lot of young population abroad, most of the population are old people and they died a lot during COVID. So, they are even sending agents to come to Abuja and Lagos to recruit people to come and work in London, Canada, and America.

“This was not happening before Covid, so the pressure on passport offices tripled not even doubled.

“Between 2019/2020 we issued 750,000 passports, then in 2020/2021 because of Covid, we issued 500,000. In 2021/2022 we issued 1.7 million passports because immediately after COVID-19, there was a desire from a lot of people to acquire passports as a lot of countries lowered their visa regulations.

“A lot of countries offered people to come and they lowered their rules. U.K, US were even offering visas for families, and Canada said if you came with a visitor visa you could even work things, that never happened before.

“There were a lot of opportunities that were provided post-Covid for the Nigerian workforce, and Nigeria is a place for people to find good doctors, nurses, and teachers. So those are some of the reasons.”