The situation in Lagos is particularly serious as a result of the high number of applicants that daily throng the two issuing offices in the state – Ikeja and Ikoyi.
A senior immigration officer told Saturday Tribune under the condition of anonymity that the command was expecting to take delivery of the passport booklets soon.
“You know, we don’t print them here. We get them from Abuja. But I am very sure that we will get supply very soon,” the officer said.
The Public Relations Officer of the state command of the NIS, Alex Araromi, could not be reached for comments as of press time.
Although the Nasarawa State command of the NIS claimed to have stock of the document in abundance to issue to applicants, reverse is the case in many other states of the federation, like Lagos.
The Nasarawa State Passport Control Officer (PCO), Lawal Abdulmumuni, disclosed to Saturday Tribune, on Friday, in Lafia, that the command presently had a lot of applicants, as well as adequate number of booklets.
It was gathered that some neighbouring states that have run out of the booklets are referring their applicants to the Nasarawa State command.
The story of the scarcity of the travel document is the same in states like Oyo, Plateau, Ogun, Delta, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo, where spokespersons for the immigration offices confirmed the situation.
In the meantime, investigations have revealed that the scarcity of the booklets was caused by the demand for a review of the contract between the Federal Government and the company that produces the document.
It was gathered that Iris Smart Technology Nigeria Limited, ISTL, the company that supplies the passports, had last year demanded an upward review of the price Nigerians pay to acquire the document because of the high exchange rate. The Federal Government has yet to approve the proposal.
ISTL was said to have sent the review request to the NIS in early 2016, arguing that the cost of producing the Nigerian passport had gone up because of the high exchange rate of the naira to the dollar.
Saturday Tribune gathered that many applicants who have done the biometric capturing after filling the forms and paying about N40,000 could not get either the 32-page or 62-page passports issued them. Unfortunately, the number of applicants keep increasing by the day.
Initially, it was easy getting the 62-page but this was also exhausted because of the rush by Nigerian travellers.
When the scarcity started applicants who urgently need the passport were advised to apply for the 64-page passport, which was available but costs more.
The 64-page passport was introduced by the Federal government in 2014 for frequent travelers who usually fill up the 32-page passport before its five-year expiration.
Though the official cost of 64-page and 32-page passports are N20,000 and N15,000 respectively, applicants said they were asked by the immigration officers to pay N40,000 for both the 32-page and 64-page.
An immigration officer who preferred anonymity said the company producing the document had partially stopped supplying the 32-page passport since the middle of last year, causing acute shortage in issuance for the NIS.
Comptroller-General of NIS, Mr Muhammad Babandede, had told journalists that the lingering foreign exchange crisis was responsible for the difficulties being experienced by citizens who are trying to obtain international passports in Nigeria.
He said the Buhari administration was aware of the challenges and making efforts to resolve them. Mr. Babandede, who was appointed in May 2016, said the crisis started when contractors were left with huge differentials as the major world currencies suddenly appreciated against the naira, making it difficult for previously awarded contracts to be executed.
He said: “The main causes came from the contracts awarded by the previous government. Companies that supplied the booklets were paid in line with the exchange rates at the time.
You know the exchange rate has changed. But even if you produce the passports in Nigeria, most of the components to produce them will be brought in — the chips, the security papers and others.”
Babandede, however, did not talk on the possibility of a hike in passport prices for now, saying the government would work to resolve the problem without making life more difficult for Nigerians. “Something has to be done.”
Sources said the printing and binding of the passport booklet, embedding of the chip as well as lamination of the data page is done in Malaysia before final delivery to Nigeria.
The Public Relations Officer of the Service, Mr Sunday James, who was met in his office on Tuesday for further clarifications on the lingering scarcity of the passport booklets, said he was going in for a meeting with the Comptroller-General.
But a statement he issued recently on behalf of his boss said the CG also blamed the activities of touts for the difficulties many Nigerians were facing in obtaining the travel document.
He said touts hanging around passport offices do more harm than good to the aspirations and desires of Nigerians in their efforts to get passports by intercepting prospective applicants outside the passport office areas or pretending to be a staff member.
He advised Nigerians to keep to the rule by dealing with no other person apart from those designated officers/men on schedule duty at our Passport offices.
He also directed Passport officers in charge to clear the office area of unwanted elements such as touts who make Nigerians go through difficulties in obtaining Passports which are actually much available.
Another passport applicant, Haruna Ibrahim, told Saturday Tribune that his application for the international passport has taken several weeks without hope of getting the document soon. “They keep telling you to exercise patience; we will call you in two weeks time when it is ready.
The two weeks will come and go. I can’t imagine a situation like this. This used to be 24-hour something, now you can’t get in months and the people are not telling you the truth.
Ibrahim, while calling on the Federal government to ensure speedy resolution of the passport debacle said the difficulties Nigerians are going through would count against the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. He said President Buhari may have good intention but the unnecessary hardship Nigerians are being subjected to, in all front was bad for an administration that professes change.
“What stops us from producing the passport booklet here in Nigeria? Even if we do not have to expertise, we can bring the company producing booklet and all other component of the passport in Nigeria. What is wrong with the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company?” he queried.
Source:Tribune
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