Backlogs in passport processing will be cleared in two weeks – Minister

The interior minister stated that every Nigerian has a right, not a privilege, to own a green passport.

According to Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the interior minister, cleaning up all passport backlogs shouldn’t take longer than two weeks, and there is no justification for passport delays in Nigeria.

This was stated by Tunji-Ojo during a live appearance on Tuesday’s Politics Today programme on Channels Television.

He also added that “clearing all backlogs shouldn’t take more than two weeks” and that the difficulty and wait times associated with new passport issuance and renewal fueled corruption in the industry.

No Nigerian should have to wait more than two weeks when these backlogs are cleared, he insisted.

The minister stated that every Nigerian has a right, not a privilege, to possess a green passport.

Nigerians want that right to be truly theirs, not something that is offered to them, he said, adding that it is a right and not a privilege.

He maintains that it is unacceptable to treat any Nigerian person disrespectfully because they are applying for a passport.

“The President has always emphasised solutions as what Nigerians want to see… No justifications.

“In accordance with the President’s order, things can no longer continue as usual. All of these scenarios—from the point of filling out the form online to the point of payment, to the point of choosing a date, to the point of biometrics, to the point of passport issuance—have been carefully examined. And we are aware of the service providers involved, and we can identify one or two things that need to be fixed,” he said.

Tunji-Ojo added that he is in discussions with service providers and the Nigeria Immigration Service to decentralise and digitise the process of issuing new passports.

“We need to digitise and decentralise the entire enrollment process so that people may enlist by walking into their local post office, financial institution, or one of many other locations. We are still experimenting with a tonne of concepts, he said.