Razaq Bamidele
Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora must be heaving sighs of relief by now with the launch of the new Enhance e-Passport in The United Kingdom, on Tuesday, in line with the government assured commitment to improve passport application process for Nigerians at home and across the world.
Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, through a statement made available by his Special Adviser on Media, Sola Fasure, gave the assurance at the official Rollout of the travelling document at the Nigerian High Commission in London.
While revealing that the Nigerian passport is the highest affirmation of Nigerian citizenship, the Minister noted that it is the responsibility of Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to make procurement of the important document easy and stress free within a very reasonable period.
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His word: “What we have come to do here is symbolic of the core mandate of the Ministry of Interior and indeed, the Federal Government of Nigeria – affirmation of citizenship integrity. The Nigerian passport is the highest affirmation of Nigerian citizenship. It is therefore our responsibility to provide the passport without any stress, within a reasonable period.
“As we are all aware, there have been huge challenges to passport administration, from shortage of booklet to touting and an economy of corruption built around it. These challenges have persisted for too long and a lot of people have become cynical while other have taken them as normal and then roll with it. But I come from a tradition of problem solving in public administration. I do not believe that any problem is insurmountable, so we are going to solve all the problems associated with passport administration and we are already succeeding.”
The features of the new enhanced Passport, according to the minister, is a huge improvement from the standard Passport that was introduced back in 2007, disclosing that it comes with more sophisticated security features, that make it one of the most secured passports in the world.
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“The Enhanced e-Passport is a great improvement on the Biometric Passport technology which Nigeria adopted in 2007 as a strategic step towards curbing forgery, impersonation and other forms of frauds associated with obtaining travel document under the old Machine Readable Passport regime. We are aware that technology rules the world and we are keeping abreast of the latest development in the field.
“Over the years, the Nigeria Immigration Service had worked assiduously and in close synergy with Messrs Iris Smart Technologies Limited to develop and implement Passport reforms that are in tandem with international best practices, including extant International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Standards and Regulations,” Aregbesola revealed.
He, therefore, used the occasion to reel out some of the achievements of the Nigerian Emigration Service (NIS), under his tenure noting that, the service has issued a total of 2.7 million Nigerian passports in the past 24 months.
“In the past two years alone, we have issued 2.7 million passports to Nigerians. We have taken substantial measures to address the issue of shortage of passport booklets. This year, the ministry approved the deployment of over 600,000 booklets, the largest of its kind ever done. That is not all. The Nigeria Immigration Service through MIDAS is now connected to INTERPOL and can upload information to the agency on lost, stolen and invalidated passports in real time.
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“The Ministry of Interior had consistently provided the enabling environment for the Nigeria Immigration Service to undertake and implement several reforms, especially with regard to Border Management and Passport Administration as well as Internal Monitoring/Control mechanisms to enhance efficient and effective service delivery to Nigerians and foreigners alike,” he informed.
The acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, DCG Isa Jere in his remarks, revealed that the Service is ever prepared to meet the demands for passports in the United Kingdom, assuring that his officers and men are ready to roll out the new passports at the official rate published on the Service’s website.
His words: “We are ready to serve the public and start rolling out the new enhanced e-passport in the United Kingdom with immediate effect. Our staff are professionals and will deliver excellent service to our citizens. Those who have any complaints whatsoever are advised to use the publicly listed complaints channels to adequately resolve any issues raised.”
Dignitaries at the event were the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola; Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Isa Jere; senior Nigerian diplomats; members of the diplomatic corps, Nigerians in diaspora and a host of others.
