By Cecilia Ologunagba

New York, May 24, 2022

The Consulate-General of Nigeria in New York has started installing machines to produce passports with 10 years validity for its nationals.

The Consul-General, Amb. Lot Egopija announced this at the virtual 5th Town Hall Meeting with the Nigerian Community within the New York jurisdiction.

Egopija had during the February Town Hall meeting said that the Consulate had communicated with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and would soon start the process of issuance of the passports.

“In the last meeting, we informed you that the enhanced 10-year passport process would soon come to New York.

“The Vice Consul in charge of Immigration will inform you better when this will take off, but a team is already in the mission today.

“To this end, we have expanded the second floor and it will be the hub of our activities.  We are bringing all the biometrics machines to the same floor,’’ he said.

Egopija, however, urged the nationals who have not enrolled for National Identity Number (NIN) to do so, noting that without the number it would be impossible to get the passport.

“We have published NIN centres and those responsible should also inform the Consulate so that we can pass the information to our nationals,’’ he said.

The envoy said the Consulate was doing everything possible to ensure that the nationals get improved services.

He said the mission had just embarked on passport intervention in Michigan, noting that more than 450 applicants enrolled for the intervention.

On cultural matters, he said the Consulate had partnered with Bayelsa indigenes within its jurisdiction on cultural show as there were plans to combine trade and cultural events together.

In addition, Egopija urged the nationals to do diligent work before bringing their documents for authentication, noting that the Consulate still had record of some people bringing fake documents for authentication.

“We will always insist on doing the right thing. I’m encouraging Nigerians to do the right thing and any Nigerian in doubt, let them call and ask us.

“We are always available in rendering assistance in this regard. We want to be sure that documents presented or certified by this mission are authentic and that doubts are not cast,’’ he said.

Briefing on passport issues, Vice Consul in charge of Immigration, Mrs. Mosunmola Onilede, said the Consulate had cleared all the passport applications for January and had started with February applications.

Onilede said Immigration technical partner had started installing the machines for the 10-year 64 pages passport.

“The process is on, and the machines are in New York. The technical partners are working on the installation and once that is completed, it will be test run,’’ she said.

She reiterated the Consul-General’s call for the nationals to get their NIN before applying for the passport, noting that the condition attached to getting the passport is to get the number.

Similarly, Consul-Immigration and Community Relations Officer, Mr. Okechukwu Iroamachi, said the Consulate would continue to issue the 5-year passport and clear all the backlog before insurance of the 10-year passport.

He urged the nationals to take the 5-year passport, which is available now until the new passport would be available.

Iroamachi said the two passports were going to be operating on different platforms, explaining that the setup was different, prompting the installation of a new set of equipment for the new passport.

“It is not possible to migrate from old to new passport, it requires fresh application and until the old one expires, one cannot apply for the new passport,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian community leader, Mr. Francis James, has commended the Consulate-General of Nigeria in New York for good customer service, thanking the mission for excellent job.

James made the commendation at the virtual Town Hall Meeting hosted by the Consulate- General.

James, who co-anchored the meeting with Mr. Bobby Digi, the President of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), New York Chapter, appreciated the Consul-General, Amb. Lot Egopija and his team for the improved services at the Consulate.

“I have been in New York for 40 years. This is the first time in my entire dealings with our government officials that I can comfortably say that Nigerians are beginning to receive something that resembles good customer service experience.

“It is not happening by accident. I don’t throw praises around unless it is well deserved, and this development happened because of good leadership.

“It happens by leaders, leadership matters, when a leader is determined to do something, it is easy for followers to follow the tune of that leader.

“It is what a leader does that the entire community embraces. I am seeing the Consulate team coming together in such a beautiful way,’’ he said.

The official also commended the Consulate for collaborating with different organisations and entities in the U.S.

He, however, called on the nationals to support the good work done by the Consulate, saying,” if there is anything you can do to make the nationals coming for consular services comfortable, please do so.

“You can partner with the Consulate to provide furniture for the nationals at the waiting room or any other support will be appreciated.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that James, an official of Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN) had consistently praised efforts of the leadership of the Consulate.

At the Town Hall meeting in July 2021, James commended the Consul-General for his achievements in just three months in office, especially the transformation he had carried out to produce positive changes.

“When we see opportunities for change, we must work together and give whoever wants to truly make this change an opportunity to deliver.

“I have seen tremendous improvements over the last three months, much more than we have seen over the last five years. Ambassador Lot is a man of his words.

“He realised that in order to serve better, he needed to engage with relevant stakeholders and he started by engaging some representatives of Nigerian communities led by the Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians.”

James also commended the Consul-General for fixing the problems of Nigerians loitering around in Nigeria House, saying, “I am not taking these achievements for granted because Egopija can stay for five years and not do anything.

“I’m happy to tell Nigerians we have the opportunity to turn things around. We want what is happening in New York to be replicated in our other missions globally.

“Dialogue produces better and lasting solutions than protests,” he said.

Similarly, at a Town Hall Meeting in February 2022, James commended the Consul-General (CG) for his achievements, adding “the statement is from comments people posts on social media and make about the services rendered by the Consulate-General”.

“It doesn’t mean that we don’t have any issue, but the CG has acknowledged that and talked about areas of progress.

“To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Consulate in diaspora who consistently hold Town Hall to discuss with Nigerian citizens and I think the CG deserves a lot of commendation.

“We do appreciate you, your willingness to listen to Nigerian community and to continue to engage them,’’ he said.

Answering a question on why some nationals prefer to travel to New York for consular services, James said Nigerians would go to where they believe they would get quickest services.

“It takes collaboration, among Nigerian organisations and citizens with respective consulates to work together and get good services.

“We didn’t arrive here by accident, we happen to have a leader who is willing to listen to several voices of Nigerians.

“Our intention is that once we are able to fix New York, we will engage  with different organisations in other states to partner with their missions.

“New York mission is not yet perfect, but we can see a lot of improvement,’’ he said.

Earlier, the CG told the meeting that Nigerians had to travel from Indiana, Chicago and other far states to come to New York because it is within its jurisdiction.

He said the Nigerian Government was working to re-open the San-Francisco mission to provide consular services for Nigerians on the West Coast and to also reduce traffic from other missions.

NAN reports that the meeting addressed some issues raised by Nigerians on passport issuance, especially on the 64-page passport, Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC), information on where to register for BVN, among others.

The 6th edition of the Town Hall is slated to hold in August.