Travel News

The NIS adopted different measures to address the challenges Nigerians faced in getting passports in 2021

It is a truism that many intending Nigerian international travellers went through tough times in the year 2021 while trying to obtain passports from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

While some were lucky to get the international travel document, others remain on the waiting list after going through all the required processes. A similar situation was obtained in Nigeria’s embassies abroad.

It got to a point that the NIS, under the watch of its former Comptroller-General, Mohammed Babandede, halted applications for new and renewal of passports to enable the service to clear backlogs of passport applications.

In its bid to ensure enforcement of the directive, the service shut down all payment portals from May 18 until June 1 and sent Task Force teams to all passport offices to enforce the clearance of passport backlogs.

Consequently, Deputy Comptrollers were deployed to all passport centres to monitor the process and ensure the directive was followed.

However, in spite of the measures, difficulties in accessing passports persist.

Recently, a report from Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe, (NIDOE), Italy Chapter, indicated that more than 1.5 million Nigerians living in Europe needed passports.

The NIS adopted different measures to address the challenges Nigerians faced in getting passports in 2021

Also, the Nigerians in Diaspora Network (NDN) staged a protest in Oberhausen, Germany, over passport scarcity, according to reports widely publicised on social media.

The NIS blamed the scarcity on the emergence of the Coronavirus (COVID19) that surged in 2020

The service explained that when the lockdown that resulted from COVID19 eased, what it witnessed was geometric turn-in in passport applications.

It also attributed its inability most times to meet its six weeks timeframe for fresh passport issuance and three weeks for re-issuance to challenges posed by the National Identity Management System (NIMC).

The NIS claimed it always got delayed responses from NIMC when enquiries were filed.

A new circular recently emerged from the NIS in Lagos, barring the management of the service from speaking to journalists. Also, a circular barring journalists from exclusive interviews with Passport Control Officers (PCOs) was released in November 2021.

Speakíng with journalists before the circular was issued, the Passport Controller, Lagos Passport Command, Milka Musa, said that difficulties in getting passports were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept the world at standstill during the lockdown.

“When the lockdown was eased, what the NIS witnessed was a geometrical growth in passport applications,” he said, adding that the service was working hard to ensure a state of equilibrium was achieved.