Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of the Interior, has urged the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to address the challenges Nigerians encounter in obtaining passports.
President Muhammadu Buhari is concerned about the difficulties Nigerians in diaspora face in obtaining Nigerian passports, according to Aregbesola, who made the appeal while conferring the rank of Comptroller General on the acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Idris Isa Jere.
The Minister did point out, however, that the country had plenty of booklets.A statement released on Thursday June 16 by Afonja Fatai Ajibola, a deputy director, (Press & Public Relations) in the ministry, read;
“I received a message from the president at FEC today which I want to make public. The president is concerned with the report coming from overseas on the difficulties encountered by Nigerians in getting a Nigerian passport. The challenges are there not because of the lack of concern.
“Second, international visitors to Nigeria and even Nigerians who have the fortune of being born outside the country and therefore need to have a Nigerian passport before they can come into the country because they couldn’t get and want to come home through the visa on arrival platform find it difficult to process this effectively and seamlessly.
“We can’t afford to have these challenges with our people in the Diaspora.
“I say to you that there is no shortage of booklets in the country, we may be having human challenges.
“The truth is that, in terms of supply of booklets we have on the ground, there cannot be a shortage of booklets.
“I read lamentations on social media and I want to say nobody can access Nigerian passport without going online, it is not possible for those who go online not to be serviced, although some still patronise touts to access the online process.
“It is because of the difficulty we have managing ourselves, that is why they go through third parties and have refused to go through it the proper way. ”