A senior officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has challenged Minister of the Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, over his recent directive to Nigerian Immigration officials across the world to allow Nigerians with expired passports to return to the country whenever they pleased with their expired passports.
The Abuja-based officer said that Aregbesola could not have been well briefed concerning the issue he spoke on, stressing that the Minister should be told exactly what to do if he wanted to address the needless sufferings of thousands of Nigerians who are stranded abroad because they cannot have their international passports renewed due to no fault of theirs.
In virtually all nations of the world, Nigerian Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates are said to be in severe short supply of passport booklets, a situation that has resulted in backlogs of applicants who are seeking to have their passports renewed.
Many of these applicants have paid the necessary fees and have had their biometrics captured, but due to the scarcity of passport booklets, they have not been able to have their passports renewed for collection.
In some instances, Embassy, High Commission or Consular officials have been beaten up by frustrated applicants, especially those who had urgent need for their travel documents but could not get them due to no fault of theirs. Many of the applicants took their frustrations out on the Diplomats believing them to be the problem.
A Nigerian-American citizen, Mr. Jamui Kasumu, had complained bitterly to the Minister at the Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos Passport Office during Aregbesola’s recent unscheduled visit to the facility. Kasumu had lamented that the Nigeria Immigration officials in America and Delta airlines prevented him from coming to Nigeria because of expired Nigerian passport.
Aregbesola had then, apparently on the spur of the moment, maybe playing to the gallery, as there was a crowd of people waiting, almost hopelessly to be attended to at the facility, directed all Nigeria Immigration Officers World-Wide to allow Nigerian travelers with expired Passports “to use such passports to return safely back home henceforth.”
The Nigeria Immigration top shot, who pleaded anonymity, said that Aregbesola did not know what he was saying, because it is not the duty of Immigration officials to allow travelers to board aircraft with expired passports.
According to him, the responsibility for such action lies squarely with the Immigration authorities of the host countries and especially the airlines on which each traveler is to fly.
Rather than directing NIS officials, who do not operate at airports outside the shores of Nigeria, to allow Nigerians with expired passports to travel, the Minister, he said, should write to Immigration authorities in all the countries of the world to let them know that the responsible Nigerian authorities are not, for now at least, able to meet up with the obligation of renewing the passports of Nigerian citizens and that they should allow those with expired passports passage out of their countries to return to Nigeria whenever they wanted to.
Aregbesola, he said further, should also quickly write to all the airlines and notify them of the same challenge being faced by Nigeria with respect to making available passport booklets and direct them to, likewise, to allow on board their flights Nigerian citizens with expired passports.
“It is the airlines that refuse to accept expired passport holders not Nigeria Immigration. Aregbesola should cause a government paper or circular to go out to foreign governments and specifically to the operating airlines that they should carry Nigerians with expired travel documents back home, if he is serious about addressing the plight of Nigerians.
“The Minister should do the needful by directing his so-called order to the bodies concerned as quickly as possible because the Yuletide period is around the corner and Nigerians will face difficulties returning home. The airlines operating to Nigeria should be issued with a circular to that effect on expired passport holders.
“It is practically impossible for Nigerians in diaspora to renew their passports before returning home this Christmas, as the government is unable to supply adequate passport booklets to meet demands, home and abroad. At the moment, there are thousands of backlog applications waiting for production. And with the current appointment system on applications, Nigerians are bound to have challenges in obtaining their passports before the Christmas period and will fall victim of airlines’ refusal,” he stressed.
The officer emphasised that it is important for the Interior Minister to act fast as the Christmas and New Year seasons are fast approaching when many Nigerians would want to travel back to the country, pointing out that if he did not act fast, thousands of Nigerian nationals would still face untold difficulties and be subjected to terrible experiences including extortions and dehumanization by Nigerian and other countries’ officials at exit and entry points as well as embarrassments and disappointments by airlines.
Acting fast on the part of the Minister could also save more Diplomats humiliations and possible bodily harm inflicted by desperate compatriots looking for how to travel at all costs, the Immigration top shot stressed, suggesting that the embarrassment that Aregbesola faced recently abroad, when a Nigerian identified him at an eatery and began to video tape and rudely question him, could be linked to the barely suppressed anger of Nigerians, especially those in the Diaspora.
The video went viral.
He official who, however, supported the Minister’s counsel that those who want their passports renewed should start the process well on time to avoid rush, wondered why it is so difficult to print enough passport booklets to go round, even if it meant making it available to those that need it at a marginal increase in fees charged.
