Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, has criticised delays in passport processing and warned against illegal charges during an unannounced inspection of the Nigerian Immigration Service passport office in Gwagwalada, Abuja.
He insisted that Nigerians must not pay a kobo beyond officially approved fees and that inefficiency in service delivery will no longer be tolerated.
During the visit, the minister toured the VIP and Children section of the passport office and engaged immigration officers and passport applicants, questioning why only a few people had been attended to several hours after the office was expected to commence operations.
Tunji-Ojo expressed concern that despite the section being designated for expedited services, applicants were still waiting long after opening hours, with many others seated downstairs without being attended to.
“So it means that by 9:30am, I expect to see at least one or two applicants here. Because I can see some people waiting downstairs, and our responsibility is to be efficient,” the minister said.
The minister also used the opportunity to caution passport applicants against paying any money outside officially approved fees, insisting that Nigerians had already paid fully for passport services.
“I don’t want to hear that you are collecting money for diesel or paper. Nigerians have paid for their passports completely. Serve them diligently,” he warned immigration officials.
Tunji-Ojo questioned the pace of enrolment and biometric capturing, calculating that each applicant should be processed within a few minutes if systems were properly managed.
“How long does it take to do an enrolment? Three minutes. So three times seven, that is twenty-one minutes,” he said, stressing that delays were unjustifiable.
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Immigration officers at the office admitted that although operations were scheduled to begin by 8:00am, activities only commenced around 9:00am after the generator was switched on, citing power supply challenges.
“We are supposed to open by eight,” one official said, explaining that electricity was only restored after applicants had already arrived.
The minister, however, criticised the operational practice of completing enrolment for all applicants before starting biometric capturing, describing it as inefficient and insensitive to applicants’ time.
“It doesn’t make sense to me. People are there waiting. Some of these people still need to go to work. Some of these people have other things to do,” Tunji-Ojo said.
“So why must you wait until you enrol everybody before you do capturing?” he asked.
Describing the situation as unacceptable, the minister stressed that unnecessary delays defeated the core purpose of public service delivery.
“You are wasting people’s precious time. Time is money. Time is expensive. It is unacceptable,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo also faulted the under-utilisation of the VIP and Children section, noting that applicants waiting in other congested areas could have been redirected to the section to ease pressure and improve turnaround time.
“It will not cost you anything if you use this place for them,” he added.
Reiterating the ministry’s stance on fairness and efficiency, the minister emphasised that no category of Nigerians should be treated as more important than others.
“Nigeria has no VIP. When you wear this uniform, you wear a uniform of sacrifice. You are here to work for the people,” Tunji-Ojo said.
