Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo is a svelte man by stature. He remains a very simple person, who welcomes everyone with an affable smile just as he is down to earth.
But his small head harbours very sound and workable ideas that can transform the society. From the way he relates with and treats people who come across him, the man, who was appointed minister by President Bola Tinubu in 2023 to head the vast and problematic Interior ministry, has emerged as a good ambassador for the government and people of Nigeria within the short span of time that he has presided over the ministry.
While many Nigerians might not have known much about Tunji-Ojo before his selection for the ministerial positon, his far-reaching and dramatic changes in the processing and delivery of Nigerian passports to the citizens, have now imprinted his name on the minds of many Nigerians. Indeed, when in early last year the minister announced that he was going to make eliminate the hurdles that suffocated those in need of the travel document, not many Nigerians took him seriously. The threat by the young minister to eradicate passport racketeers and make the document readily available was not only laughable but equally dismissed as unattainable given the seeming overwhelming influence which passport touts and middlemen had long exerted on the Nigerian Immigration Service system of processing and obtaining one. As a painful but tolerable tradition, which most Nigerians had to deal with, passports touts hijacked the passport market for their own benefit. They decided how much Nigerians in need of passport should pay, where the booklets were to be found and who can get passport, when and where. Indeed, the system was turned into money-making process for a few undesirable elements while Nigerians at home and abroad were subjected to endless wait for the elusive travel document.
It was so bad for some Nigerians living and schooling abroad who were sometimes forced to return home and queue for months for the passport. It was a humiliating and sordid experience. But all this is now history, as the different interventions put in place by Tunji-Ojo have begun to transform the way one can process and obtain the Nigerian passport without sweating as it was in the recent past. The process, which has now been simplified and streamlined, has brought smiles to families and individuals who used to suffer before being able to obtain a new passport or even be able to renew an old one.
I have witnessed how the process works and it is good for all. I did not initially believe the minister and the NIS when the new method was initially rolled out. I sneered at the idea especially, when it was announced that it would be done online in a bid to eliminate substantial contact with immigrations officials. “This is another scam that Nigerians will soon be exposed to,” I concluded within me and shared the same skepticism with my friends and discouraged them to stay away from the process as much as they can. But how wrong was I? The system worked and it is still working seamlessly more than a year since it was put in place and passport touts have been significantly sent out of work; and they are now yawning, looking for what else to do descend on in order to smile to the bank because of one ingenious man.
Twice, I have baited the NIS officials in order to see if indeed the passport processing system is foul proof as Tunji-Ojo has proclaimed and twice, I have been made to eat my humble pie because of the excellent treatment and utmost respect the NIS officials meted out to me and my colleague I unleashed as a cover agent in search of Nigerian passport. It was exactly on January 22, 2024 that I personally went to the NIS headquarters in Abuja and decided to test the process of obtaining the Nigerian passport without seeking to rely on anyone for any form of assistance, as the case used to be. I had made up my mind to record as much as possible and later publish in the media the shenanigans who would corner me during the process for one form of bribe or the other in order to fast-track the renewal of my passport. And, as obtained in the new passport procedure, I had to complete an online form and get a date for physical biometric capture at the NIS headquarters in Abuja. True, after successfully filling the electronic forms and paying the proscribed fee of N70,000 online, the system automatically suggested January 22, 2024 at 11am as my capture date and time. I was also issued a serial number: 127. Yet, I still harboured my doubt and was convinced in my mind that the process would still thrive on the usual and well known man-know-man basis by the time I arrived the NIS headquarters. Again, I was proved wrong on arrival.
In my bid to prove them wrong, I arrived the NIS capture centre by 9:30 am on the said date and met a handful of other Nigerians who were booked for biometric capture like me. In a jiffy, a dutiful junior officer, issued me with a number: 127 and told me to keep the number safe since it is the same number I would use to collect my passport on completion of the process. I snapped it with my phone camera and saved because of what the man told me. I then moved inside the hall where people were seated serially based on the time they arrived and were issued the number.
As I sat there and began to take notes with my phone, another junior officer emerged from inside and greeted us respectfully and began to check our numbers apparently to be sure that we sat according to our serial numbers. I was happy with that, and noted it in my phone notebook. I did not want the officials to suspect that I was recording what was going on in the hall.
Next, the passport officials started calling those of us who had been serially seated and it was then it dawned on me that they had just started capturing people biometrically inside the rooms in front of us. They were calling people for capturing according to the numbers they were given on arrival. At this point, my hands were shaking, as it became clear to me that these people had certainly eliminated the forces that would cause confusion and permit ‘man-know-man’ or throw the process into ‘survival of the fittest’ mode. I did not have anything to write again. In fact, just as I was wondering when I would be called for my capturing, a young lady bellowed with smile: Number 127! Is the person around? She asked; and I stood up promptly. Sir, please, enter that room and sit down so that they can take your biometrics,” she ordered politely. Inside the room, there were two middle-aged officers, one with a ‘Buba’ on his name tag. He was very engaging and friendly as he took my biometrics and directed me to look at the camera and put my different fingers on the capture machine. Before long, the young officer told me: “Sir, you are free to stand up,” and he opened the door for me to exit. This was a ‘terrible’ day for me because my plan to expose the ‘corrupt’ people in NIS had just been seriously thwarted. What am I going to write when I return to office,” I queried myself, as I was told the process was over.
I then asked them when my passport would be ready and they told me they would send me a text or email. After nearly three weeks without hearing from NIS, I placed a call to a woman, whose number is given as the contact person for passport issues, and surprisingly, the woman answered and directed me to go to the NIS Passport Centre and ask for my passport. She added that if my passport was not ready by the time I got there, I should call her again for the next line of action. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that just two days after my biometric capturing on January 22, 2024, my passport was ready for collection on January 25, 2024. I could not believe what I saw. It was all smile on my face as I made to leave the massive premises.
But unconvinced that these people do not cut corners in the revised passport issuance process, I then encouraged a female journalist to go for the issuance of ten-year passport. As in my own case, the staff paid the passport fee online and was scheduled for capturing on August 11, 2024. Armed with her phone to take notes on possible lapses she would notice and report back for media use, she went earlier than she was scheduled based on my instruction. Alas, the staff was promptly attended to as she arrived and was captured within an hour. When I asked her why she came back so early, she said that as she arrived, the officials took her in and ran through the process and without any hassles as they were not many people that day.
There was one senior officer, whose name had a “John’ on his chest. That man worked really hard and deserves commendation. Although there were pockets of attempts by a few immigration officers to sidestep the process by ‘rushing’ some people inside to be captured over those who were already seated, the man, rebuffed them and insisted on getting people to be captured as they came. They did not seem to like that but the man stood his grounds and threatened to report them if they insisted on having their way.
In all, the new method put in place is working well and saving Nigerians from having to pay through their nose and waiting endlessly to obtain the vital travel document. However, some immigrations staff appear to be unhappy with the new system as it has cut some of them from exploiting Nigerians in need of passports. One NIS staff I met at the parking lot complained to me that it was wrong for the young minister to ‘dictate’ to professionals on how to do their jobs. According to the staff, the minister was simply depriving them of their ‘chop money’ with the new measures he has introduced which have eliminated the payment of cash to staff and middlemen in the passport processing system.
system would be restored while the battered image of Nigeria on this score would bounce back.
VANGUARD
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