Applicants groan as int’l passport scarcity hurts travel plans

Applicants for the Nigerian inter­national passport are going through harrowing experience at all the pass­port offices in the country.

Some of them spend more than six months to get the travel docu­ment out of the Nigeria Immigra­tion Service (NIS).

The inability of the new appli­cants to secure their new documents has also led to the failure of some of them to pursue their education, em­bark on scheduled business, medical tourism and other necessary assign­ments outside the country.

It was learnt that some of them with educational pursuit had to defer it for the future, while some have missed the opportunity to join their mates in higher institutions of learn­ing outside the country, as ev­ery effort to secure the travel document proved abortive. ­

This is coming despite the assurances of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of In­terior, that applicants for the new Nigerian international passport could get their doc­uments within 24 hours or maximum of 72 hours.

Search indicated that NIS posted on its portal that new applicants could get their doc­uments within six weeks of application, but investigation showed that some of them have spent six months with­out getting their documents from the service.

Further investigation by Daily Independent showed that all the passport offices in Nigeria, especially those in Lagos and Abuja, are beehive of applicants who regularly throng to the offices for the collection of their new inter­national passport, but failed.

Further investigation revealed that no fewer than 100,000 international pass­ports of applicants are hang­ing in passport offices in La­gos alone since the beginning of the year.

The three passport offices in Lagos are Ikoyi, Festac and Alausa in Ikeja.

The over 100,000 applicants in Lagos alone, are those who have had their data, including finger prints, photographs and other details captured and are awaiting booklets for the issuance of the passports.

However, the reason for the scarcity of the document could not be immediately as­certained, but a source close to the Immigration told Daily Independent that it may not be unconnected with foreign ex­change, which has continued to rise in the last one year as the document is still being printed in Malaysia.

The Nigerian document is being printed by Iris Corpo­ration, a Malaysian firm, de­spite kicks by some Nigerians against such arrangement in the past.

Nigeria started the print­ing of its international pass­port document in Malaysia in 2007.

Some of the features of the electronic passport (e-pass­port) are produced in South Africa by SAPPI, while the chip on the passport is pro­vided by NXP, a Netherlands company that specialises in the manufacturing of secure connectivity solutions for em­bedded applications.

The printing and binding of the passport booklet, em­bedding of the chip as well as lamination for the data page are also done in Malaysia be­fore final delivery to Nigeria.

However, a source close to NIS wondered why the print­ing of the country’s interna­tional passport was still be­ing done in a foreign country, saying that Nigeria has the capacity to print it.

The source said that the printing of the documents could be carried out in the country by the Nigerian Se­curity Printing and Minting (NSPM) Plc, stressing that the firm also prints currencies for other countries.

The source attributed cor­ruption within the service to why the booklet was not print­ed in Nigeria.

The machine readable passport (MRP), formerly used by Nigerians, was pro­duced locally by the Nigerian Security Printing and Mint­ing Plc.

The source said: “The Ni­gerian Security Printing and Minting prints currencies of other countries. So, why is it difficult for them to print Nigeria’s international pass­port? Some people in posi­tions of authorities in the past had a deal with some foreign companies to print Nigeria’s passport and unfortunately, governments over the years have not been able to address the issue for almost two de­cades.

“The challenge is we don’t have these booklets in the country and they don’t know what to tell you. There are some people that have ap­plied for passports for over six months, their documents are still with us and they are not able to get them out. This is sad for our country.”

Also, Mr. Ifeanyi Obiorah, an applicant who spoke to Daily Independent at the Ikoyi office over the weekend, said he had been visiting the cen­tre for over four months with­out success.

Obiorah explained that he had applied for the document online and received an in­stant message that it would be ready for collection within six weeks, but expressed disap­pointment over the situation.

According to him, he need­ed the travel document to pro­ceed with his education in the United Kingdom, but all hopes to get it out as planned, he lamented, had failed so far.

He, however, attributed several factors, including scarcity of foreign exchange as some of the reasons for the scarcity of the booklet.

He said: “I have been coming here for almost four months. At first, I was told to return to my agent, but since I filled it online, there is no way I could have used any agent. The situation is bad as I con­tinue to come here almost on a weekly basis, without success.

“The painful aspect of it is that no one is providing you with any information. They will only tell you that it is not ready and you should contin­ue to wait for a message from them, which will tell you when to come for collection. This is sad. A lot of things have been truncated thus far.”

He alleged that despite the scarcity claim by the officials of NIS at the Ikoyi office, some applicants were still issued the documents.

Also, Mr. Adedayo Olufey­isan, in an interview with Daily Independent, lamented that he went through unpal­atable experience in the cause of renewing his international passport and that of his fami­ly members.

Olufeyisan explained that he had attempted to renew the passports at the Abeoku­ta office in Ogun State of the service, but it took the entire family about eight months to complete the exercise.

Recall that Aregbesola had promised sometime in 2021 that new applicants for the international passport would now be able to get it within 24 hours.

Aregbesola stated this during the commissioning of the Nigeria Immigration Service Passport Express Centre in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to him, the pass­port could be obtained from the centre within 24 hours at the high premium service and 72 hours at the ordinary premi­um service, albeit with added value and at an extra cost.

The minister also said that the government planned to have such a facility in every part of the country, saying it would further promote effi­ciency.

Besides, he stated the establishment of the office was in compliance with the international best practice and in conformity with the Executive Order 1 on the ease-of-doing-business in Nigeria, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Bu­hari in 2017.

“In essence, the Passport Express Centre has indeed come at the right time. The commencement of the oper­ations of this world-class fa­cility will not only offer Nige­rians services of convenience and pleasure by taking away the hitherto stress in the con­ventional passport offices. It will also afford Nigerians the opportunity of getting their passports within 24 hours…,” he had said. (Daily Independent)