The interior ministry claimed that the instruction was just one of numerous “swift measures” meant to remove obstacles that applicants face.
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS)’s contractor, has been ordered to make sure that the backlogs in passport applications are addressed “within the next two weeks.”
According to a post by Tunji-Ojo on Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, the edict is just one of several “swift measures” meant to remove obstacles that candidates face.
He stated, “I engaged service providers to the immigration service to ensure the backlogs of applications are cleared within the next two weeks. This is part of swift measures to remove all bottlenecks in the acquisition of passport and immigration documents.”
Speed up the process
The interior minister gave agency leaders a directive last week to expedite the application and passport pickup processes for Nigerians.
“Nigerians shouldn’t have to stand in queue for hours to obtain passports. No, this needs to stop,” Tunji-Ojo was reported as saying in a statement by Alao Babatunde, the Interior Minister’s Chief Press Secretary.
The minister added that President Bola Tinubu was not interested in rationalisations and demanded that the heads of the agencies act in accordance with their words since the nation was at a crossroads and urgent reform was required.
