TOLA ADENUBI, SUBAIR MOHAMMED and LANRE ADEWOLE write on sordid happenings at passport offices in Lagos.
MRS Victoria (no authorisation to use full name) planned to travel abroad last year, but her passport would have expired before the period listed by her country of choice for visa consideration due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. She decided to quickly renew her passport and was confident that the reform effort of then Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, especially the introduction of the electronic application method, would make things easier and faster.
Like thousands of other Nigerians who took the minister’s assurance for a new dawn in the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), she was dead wrong.
It took her six months and 21 days to have her passport renewed at the office of the NIS on 3rd Avenue, A Close, Festac Town, Lagos.
The documents she provided showed that she made appointment request on 25 August, 2022 at exactly 17.28.28 after paying the mandatory fee of N25,000 for 32-page passport renewal online, with a N1,000 commission.
Her online application, encouraged by Aregbesola’s encouragement to prospective applicants that it was the new way to go as patriotic citizens, also showed her appointment date for biometric capturing was 20 October, 2022 at 9.00 a.m., which was a little less than two months from the registration date.
On the said date, she honoured the biometric appointment and was promptly attended to, because the crowd was not big.
The first thing that struck her was that there was no collection date on the confirmation slip issued her.
Then her wait began.
For months, she tracked the application status, which kept showing “passport pending production”. Her dream of traveling last year was not only dashed, she said she almost lost hope of ever having the passport renewed again. The frustration of online waiting got her talking to many with similar experience, only to be told that it was a mistake taking the online route, when extra N20,000 could get the passport delivered to her in days. It wasn’t that she didn’t have such a proposition from some immigration officers through her husband, but the couple were resolute about doing the right thing and not bribe officers at the Ikeja office who promised to have the renewal done within days for N45,000.
Treading the path of the law cost her but she was determined to endure to the end. Finally, a miracle came her way after the ninth Senate began a last-minute probe of the delay being experienced by Nigerians. Her passport was eventually out. The document bore the date 11 May, 2023, meaning that she waited for six months and three weeks for a renewal that was supposed to be done in three weeks.
She said she would speak openly about her ordeal when the time is ripe. For her traveling, preparation is starting all over again.
Students not spared
Oreoluwa and Mosinmiloluwa have the blessing of their parents to continue their education abroad. They also needed to renew their passports (also known as reissue) and both had their biometrics captured at the Ikeja passport office on 10 January, 2023. Almost five months after, the status of the application on e-tracking says their passports are still being produced.
They also applied online and refused to patronise officers who demanded N45,000 instead of N25,000 to “fast-track” the process.
The collection date on the confirmation slip issued them after biometric capturing was 15 March, 2023. Their renewal request is now three months in arrears.
A journalist with a national daily is also a victim of the delay being experienced in passport issuance which Tony Akuneme, the NIS spokesperson told Saturday Tribune was as a result of racketeering at the Lagos passport offices.
After experiencing a long delay in getting gender correction done on his National Identification Number (NIN), a prerequisite for passport renewal, he eventually had his biometric capturing done on 15 March, 2023, with the collection date on his confirmation slip reading 18 May, 2023.
His tracking status remains “passport pending production”. His due date now ‘just’ 30 days in arrears. He also registered online and refused to pay a bribe.
“It is doubtful if corruption can ever be eradicated in passport procurement. Even with e-registration, the officers are way ahead of the so-called reform in cheating the system and applicants. I have a few names of officers who spoke to me about bribing them to fast-track the process. But it is not about individuals per se, it is about a rotten system where rotten intermediate officers of today go to become the head tomorrow. Maybe the system needs a crazy outsider who would come in with a tsunami. As long as the leadership keeps evolving from within, nothing will change,” he said.
A visit and encounters
On Tuesday last week, a Saturday Tribune correspondent was at the Ikeja passport office and, as usual, was confronted with hundreds of Nigerian citizens who defied the early morning downpour to converge on the office for passport application and renewal.
According to the Service and the information pasted on the wall of the lounge, renewal timeline is three weeks maximum and six weeks for new passport.
Some of the applicants who spoke to Saturday Tribune expressed frustration and disappointment about the passport processing and the shadiness of some NIS officers in handling the processing and issuance.
They alleged connivance of some passport officers with agents to exploit applicants after compelling them to wait fruitlessly at the passport processing lounge.
An applicant, Adetunji, who said he was at the Ikeja passport office for the renewal of his wife’s passport, gave account of how he negotiated with an officer to get his passport renewed.
According to him, an officer at the Ikeja passport office billed him N15,000 after he had paid the N26,000 online renewal fee for the passport to be renewed and delivered in two weeks.
He said: “I applied online for my passport renewal and I paid online the sum of N26,000 for the processing fee. I picked a date online but on getting there on the appointed day, it was a different ball game.
“The online registration was seamless but it was far from the reality at the passport office. On getting there at the appointed day, I was first discouraged by the mammoth crowd there. The processing waiting lounge was overcrowded. I went there with a printed copy of my application but I waited for hours without any of the officers attending to me.
“The officers were snubs. They were not ready to talk to you or assist in any way. I met a female officer who I complained to that I didn’t have the luxury of time but all she did was to advise me to keep waiting.
“Shortly afterwards, I approached another officer who soon began to call the names of the applicants, many of whom I discovered ought to have been attended to several months ago.
“The process was frustrating. It was at this time that I chose to apply wisdom. I asked one of the applicants seated beside me how things were done there. He advised me to seek the assistance of any of the officers to know how to go about it.
“Fortunately, I met a male officer who, after listening to my plight, directed me to another male officer who later directed me to the gate where a list was placed on a table to write down my name. I was number 120 on the list of visitors billed for capturing.
“It was at this point I got to know that many of the applicants had been negotiating and engaging in private talks with the NIS officers. I met an officer and I was taken to an office upstairs where we negotiated the amount to be paid for the passport renewal. He requested for additional N15,000 but I pleaded with him to pay N12,000 which he agreed to and I paid. I did my capturing same day and my passport was ready for collection three weeks later.
“But my wife’s case which is the reason for visiting the passport office is yet to be attended to. She applied online in November 2022. She chose a date but was unable to get it done on the appointed date due to the large number of applicants and since then, she has not been contacted.
“The NIS officers make the process so frustrating for applicants that you will be left with no other choice than to negotiate with them. They keep calling names but it won’t get to your turn for months.”
Retired officers as agents
Another applicant, Owotimo, lamented how an agent at the Ikoyi passport office demanded for N35,000 for him to get his passport renewed.
He said: “I went for passport renewal but I was accosted by one of the staff who I believe was a gateman. He asked what my mission was and I told him. The immigration officer I met directed me to a man outside who told me what passport renewal required. And the man gave me an appointment if I was willing to pay the amount he demanded. There are different price tags for normal processing and express passport issuance.
“Once you entered, some agents would approach you. The roadsides were packed with cars of passport seekers. Bribery cannot be eradicated in Lagos. I got there around 9.00 a.m. and saw a pool of applicants but within an hour, I was attended to. I paid and I was given an appointment. And in no time, my passport was ready. The agent and NIS officers worked hand in hand.”
Abidemi Kamal claimed to have been patronising an agent at the Ikoyi passport office for his passport issuance and renewal.
He said: “I applied for passport for myself, my wife and two children but my effort was frustrated by officials at the Ikoyi passport office. It was during my frequent visits seeking a way out of the passport dilemma that I was introduced to a retired official of the NIS who, within a space of two weeks, delivered our four passports without difficulty.
“The man was an agent. I paid him N45,000 for each passport in two installments. Since I knew the man, any issue relating to passport has become a thing of the past.
“I paid on a Monday and within a week, our passports were ready. After the initial deposit, he gave us an appointment and later for capturing and the following week, our passports were ready for collection whereas if we had gone through the normal process of online registration and waiting for an appointment, it might take three months or even more for our passports to be ready.
“I was told that the man had been operating at the passport office for over 15 years and he knows the rudiments of passport application and issuance and therefore he never fails once you meet his financial demand.”
How to end racketeering in Lagos –NIS spokesman
The NIS has revealed that the crowds at the four passport offices in Lagos are a major reason why applicants fall prey to unscrupulous officers and agents. This is even as the service said that it has dismissed eight officers over passport racketeering and is currently probing 80 others over same issue.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune, the NIS spokesman, Akuneme, explained that the NIS needs about 10 offices in Lagos to reduce the crowds in the state and end passport racketeering.
He said: “We are doing our best to stop this third-party passport application process. The NIS is doing its best to reduce and eliminate the issue of third-party application in passport processes.
“What we have realised over time is that a great number of Nigerians don’t believe that they can apply for passport and do the process themselves. We also know that there are still some bad eggs in the system, some officers who deliberately frustrate the system. You won’t believe that we heard that at some passport offices, when you go there, these unscrupulous officers will tell you there are no booklets. Meanwhile, the NIS does not have a booklet issue. In the last one year, we have had enough booklets to go round.
“What we had as part of the fallout of COVID-19 is more people wanting to migrate more than before. Since COVID-19, we have had an increased number of passport applications, more than what we used to have. You can call it the japa syndrome.
“A lot of countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia approach Nigeria to recruit people because they lost manpower during COVID-19. So, what we have is an increase in the number of applicants, not shortage of booklets. We have been struggling with manpower at our disposal and the timing. However, we are gradually stabilising because the pressure was much during COVID-19 in 2021.
“Because of all these issues, you will see unscrupulous officers and agents telling applicants that there are no booklets just to create panic in the system. We have been telling Nigerians to not just hang outside passport offices to make enquiries. They should walk inside and ask for the officer in charge of the passport office. Walk up to the Public Relations Officers to make your enquiries. We still have officers who are doing their best to implement the ongoing reform process of the NIS.
“Yes, we have a few officers scattered around the Lagos area who are bent on sabotaging the passport reform process of the NIS. We are fishing them out and punishing them. Some of them have been dismissed, about eight of them. About 80 officers are also facing Orderly Room Trial (ORT).
“We have been asking applicants to give us names and numbers of officers that demand for money from them. Nigerians are in a desperate rush for passport and that’s why these unscrupulous officers keep cashing in on them.
“Our Comptroller General has passport issues as part of her major focus. In fact, she will be coming to Lagos State very soon to meet the governor on the issue of passport issuance. The essence of the visit to the Lagos State governor is to request for more facilities to assist with passport issuance.
“Lagos State, as a whole, requires 10 passports offices to weed out third-party issues that are currently plaguing passport issuance in the state. We currently have four passport offices in Lagos. We just opened one in Alimosho, apart from the ones we have in Festac, Ikoyi and Ikeja.
“We need 10 passport offices in Lagos to stop the situation where unscrupulous officers cash in on vulnerable applicants. Due to just four passport offices, the rush at these offices leads to people falling victim to passport racketeering by agents and unscrupulous officers. The crowds at the four passport offices in Lagos are overwhelming and stretching our facilities.
“We need six more passport offices in Ikorodu, Ajah, Iba and other places. If we get more passport offices, the crowds at the passport offices will reduce and ultimately, passport racketeering will stop. It is due to the crowds that people are falling victim to issues like this.
“If you go to Nasarawa, Enugu, Ilorin, you will get your passport in three days because of less demand for passports in these places. In Lagos, each of our four offices does 500 passports daily, meaning 2,000 daily. In Nasarawa, we manage to do 20 passports a day. In Enugu, we manage to do 30 passports daily, but in Lagos, we do 2,000 passports daily.
“With more passport offices in Lagos, we will run the unscrupulous officers and agents out of business and crowding of the passport offices will become history.
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