“One of the challenges facing NIS as regards passport applications is the few corrupt officials of the service who are undermining the efforts of the service at sanitising the process and bringing integrity to passport application. These unscrupulous people are making the situation difficult by the day, if people did not tolerate them, they will not exist again,” he said.
Aregbesola dispelled the rumour that the NIS experienced a shortage of passport booklets. He noted that this was an excuse by a few corrupt officials of the service to extort applicants. “We did not have a shortage of booklets at any given time; we have enough booklets to meet the need of the people. There are more than enough booklets in our production schedule,” he said.
The Minister emphasised that getting an international passport was the right of all Nigerians in Nigeria and those outside the country. He assured them that the service would not relent in its mandate of providing passports to all Nigerians.
The NIS Comptroller in Oyo State, Mohammed Umar, revealed that the new passport office in Oyo would be an additional centre to the Ibadan Centre, which had been serving people of the state and its environs for decades. Umar said that Ibadan Centre had been overstressed due to the high number of passport applicants. This made NIS consider establishing another centre in Oyo in order to effectively serve the people.
The Chairman of the Oyo Metropolitan Development Association, Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, thanked the Minister and the Federal Government for the project. Ladigbolu assured the government of the support and cooperation of the people of the town to officials of NIS. He said that the centre would reduce the stress being experienced by people in obtaining passports and boost the economy of the town.
Aregbesola noted that NIS has been improving its services, with only a few countries being able to boast of the type of Nigeria passport, which he said “is one of the best in the world.” He said that the challenges currently facing the immigration service included a dearth of offices to enrol applicants for data capturing. He said that the challenges were gradually being tackled, especially with the construction of more passport front offices.
The Minister added that the inauguration of the new office in Oyo Town would reduce congestion in the Ibadan centre. He said that about 5,000 applicants waiting for data capturing in Ibadan centre would be offloaded to the new centre in Oyo, to reduce the waiting period of data capturing by applicants.
“There is a limit to the number of applicants any passport office can attend to in a day, thus making it impossible to urgently attend to all the applicants necessitating the long waiting period. Ibadan can only attend to 450 applicants in a day and that is why we need several locations like this one in Oyo,” he said.
The Minister appealed to Nigerians to stop patronising touts and report any NIS officials manipulating applicants for money. He said that NIS has been working to improve the passport application process and ensure that all Nigerians get their passports without any difficulty.