Niger Republic Citizens, Others Holding Nigerian Passports – Interior Minister Tunji-Ojo Reveals At NBA Youth Summit

Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has revealed that some foreigners who have no business holding Nigerian passports have the country’s passport.

The minister spoke as a keynote speaker at the ongoing Youth Leadership Summit of the Young Lawyers Forum of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) themed “Breaking the Old Order of Governance and Advocacy”.

The event is aimed at bringing stakeholders together to brainstorm on issues revolving around good governance and advocacy.

He said there were people from Niger Republic, and the rest who hold Nigerian passports but added “What we have been able to do is to introduce a verification system into passport” application and issuance.

The minister assured that the government is doing everything possible to correct it.

He further assured Nigerians that with lawyers in President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the government would succeed.

Tunji-Ojo listed lawyers advising Tinubu to include the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, Chief of Staff To the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Principal Secretary to the President, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola.

The minister told the audience that he was confident that with the caliber of lawyers in Tinubu’s government, the administration was on track to getting things right in the country.

He said, “…this administration has no reason not to get it right. I say this emphatically (because) we have one of the most celebrated lawyers today, the Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Chief of Staff To the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, Principal Secretary to the President, Mr. Hakeem P. When we look at the people advising the president, they are lawyers.”

The President of the NBA, Yakubu Maikyau, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, maintained that the country remains the greatest country on the face of the earth potentially saying potential makes no meaning until one converts it to an experience.

“If you have 10,000 naira in your pocket, you will die of hunger unless you convert it into an experience of getting food which you will eat to deal with that hunger. That is the case in Nigeria,” Maikyau said.

The NBA president however admitted that the generality of Nigerians are unhappy with the results the country has gotten so far despite various processes of governance and advocacies.

He agreed with the lawyers on the need to break from the old order of governance and advocacy.

He said he was committed to adjusting to any changes that would occur in the course of interaction between lawyers of the older and younger generations.

On that note, Maikyau announced a mentorship program for young lawyers saying young lawyers would be assigned to law firms, to learn the “attitude and approach to work” among other things.

According to him, two young lawyers from the three zones of the NBA would kick start the pilot program and would spend six months at different law firms learning the rudiments of the legal profession.

Speaking to newsmen, the Chairman, NBA YLF, Governing Council, Abdulrauf Tijjani Aboki said the youth wing’s objective is to promote the rule of law and break from the norm, especially on how to do this right.

Responding to the recent insecurity challenges, Tijjani said the NBA would continue to support every effort aimed at promoting the rule of law.

“The issue of insecurity does not know lawyer, doctor, or journalist, if it happens, it happens. But the NBA as an association can do what it can, we can lend our voices, we can prosecute cases Pro-bono(free of charge),: he said, explaining that the Executive and Legislative arm of government has alot to do regarding addressing insecurity.