By The Quest Times
Mr Fidelis Okoya arrived Lagos, Nigeria, from the United States on December 5, 2022 and commenced processes to renew his international passport and obtain his NIN (National Identification Number) almost immediately.
“I wanted to renew my passport in the US but I reckoned that doing it back home would be swifter and easier, more so because the President Buhari-led federal government and the Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, have been talking a lot about how the passport issuance process has been reformed and how you can get your passport in double-quick time,” Okoya tells Quest Times.
While Okoya, 54, has since retrieved his NIN, he has been unable to renew his international passport because immigration officials at the Festac Town office of the agency keep telling him that “they cannot renew the passport because the NIN portal is down.”
Much to his consternation and frustration.
“The bureaucratic bottlenecks are a pain the butt,” he says.
“I do not understand why and how the NIN portal that is critical to everything you do now in Nigeria; a portal that contains the identities and personal information of over 200 million Nigerians, can be down and no one is doing anything about it. No heads are rolling and there are no protests and outcry on the streets.
“The portal has been down for over a week now. I cannot renew my passport because of that. Yet, immigration officials and NIMC (National Identity Management Commission) officials are so nonchalant about a major government portal packing up right in the middle of the Christmas season when you have a lot of Nigerians coming back home for the yuletide. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen, but here we are.
“If I cannot renew my passport seamlessly in my home nation, if thousands of Nigerians who are returning home for the Christmas holidays cannot renew their passports without hassles, I think two Ministers–Isa Pantami and Aregbesola–owe the nation loads of explanations,” Okoya adds.
Quest Times has spoken to five other Nigerian returnees who have relayed their frustrations in renewing their passports because of a comatose NIN portal.
‘Money for hand, back for ground’
“A country that’s digitizing all of its operations and data shouldn’t let this happen; and for well over a week now. Haba!!!” says Nwachukwu Chike, who arrived Nigeria from the Netherlands in November. “My brother, this is embarrassing,” he adds with a wave of the hand.
In late November, an undercover reporter with The Quest Times had to offer bribe money to immigration officials at the passport office in Sagamu, Ogun State, before he could be captured for his passport renewal, even after registering for the same process online.
Government officials and talking heads continue to say that renewing one’s passport online is easy and hassle-free. However, immigration officials shamelessly beg for tips at most passport offices nationwide before “capture” is done.
Okoya tells Quest Times that he offered a generous tip to passport processing officials at the Festac office in Lagos, to speed-up the process. “They wouldn’t have captured me on the day if I didn’t bribe them,” he says dejectedly.
Similar tales of kick-backs to passport processing officials abound across Nigeria, even as government officials continue to parrot the now bare-bone, worn-out line of “ease of doing business.”
In November, Interior Minister Aregbesola boasted that the passport process in Nigeria and abroad has been reformed. “The passport process is being reformed by boosting the operations of the existing passport offices across the nation and the Diaspora to deliver improved passport experience for Nigerians with the ultimate goal of eliminating corruption,” Aregbesola said.
He added that the reforms put in place was yielding results as the NIS has produced 1.5 million passports till date this year.
Spokespersons of Ministers Pantami and Aregbesola did not immediately respond to requests for comments for this story.
Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Idris Jere, was also unreachable when Quest Times reached out to him for a reaction to this story.
This investigation was conducted and published by The Quest Times
