By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The passport application process in Nigeria has now been reduced to six weeks, the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has disclosed.
This means one and a half month after applying for a Nigerian passport, the applicant should receive it.
The Minister said this at a meeting with the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr Mohammad Babandede, at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the Senior Information Officer at the Ministry of Interior, Towoju Rapheal, the Minister charged the passport officers and others to ensure that respect the dignity of applicants.
“We have had several challenges in the past, including shortage of booklets, touting, racketeering, inflating the cost, passports being issued to ineligible persons, among others.
“It has become imperative, therefore, to review our operations and rejig our system, in order to be able to offer excellent services to our clients,” Mr Aregbesola was quoted as saying at the gathering.
He noted that as a way to checkmate the officers, “They will wear body cameras. They will detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding and other corrupt practices. Those caught will be dealt with according to the law.”
The Minister disclosed further that an ombudsman will also be created for members of the public to receive complaints and reports on officers trying to deviate from prescribed guidelines and subversion of the process.
“Therefore, I am declaring a zero-tolerance stance to all forms of touting. No applicant will be made to pay any illegitimate fees,” he declared.
At the meeting, it was agreed that applicants will receive their passports after application within six weeks and this is to allow for enough time to investigate and validate personal information supplied by the applicants.
“What we are driving at is the peace of mind that comes from the assurance of certainty. If there are circumstances that will cause a change of date, it would be communicated to the applicant one week before the collection date,” the statement said.
It was also noted at the gathering that applicants will have no basis for further communication with officers, other than to complete their application process and leave the venue. The date for the collection of their passports or any challenge to the application will be communicated to them as the technology for the efficient running of this system has been acquired and will be deployed.
The agency would be required to publish the list of the backlog of applications that are ready which are yet to be collected by the owners. They will be required to go to the state commands to collect them.
“It is my firm belief that we will arrive at a new dawn in passport application processing,” Mr Aregbesola declared, charging the officers that, “It should be our personal and collective goal to leave an institution better than we met it.”
Adedapo Adesanya