By Milton Tella – The transformation of the Nigeria High Commission London embarked upon by the High Commissioner; His Excellency Sarafa Tunji Isola since resumption of duties, got the endorsement of the Minister of Interior Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who was in London for the official launch of the Enhanced Nigerian e-Passport – the first outside Nigeria.
The Minister of Interior led a standing ovation to acknowledge the remarkable, quick turn around achievements of the Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
The representatives of the Nigerian community at the event, Dr. Henry Egenti, Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) UK Chapter and Mr. Ayo Akinfe Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (CANUK) also affirmed to the outstanding works of Ambassador Isola since resumption, especially in resolving the backlog of over 18,000 passports within six (6) months.
Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola hosted the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and senior staff from the Nigerian Immigration Service to officially launch the Enhanced e-passport in the UK on Tuesday, 23 November 2021.
Nigerians in the UK would expect that the distress associated with the processing of this important travel document would come to an end with the official launch of the Nigerian Enhanced e-passport.
Ambassador Isola promised that decades of worries would be addressed with the government’s introduction of the enhanced e-passport.
He said, “This is a landmark event, as it is the first official roll out outside the shores of Nigeria. Nigerians coming to the Mission to queue outside will be a thing of the past.”
Ambassador Ishola said, “One major requirement for the issuance of the enhanced e-passport is having a Nigerian National Identification Number (NIN). To ease this, the number of enrolment centres licensed by the National Identification Management Commission (NIMC) to process the NIN for Nigerians in the UK have been increased to 17 in the five major cities of Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leicester, London and Southampton.”
He added that the High Commission will continue to update Nigerians on any new developments.
Ambassador Isola appealed to applicants to exercise patience with the new process.
Alhaji Idris Isah Jere, Acting Comptroller – General of Immigration, in his welcome address during the officially roll out the enhanced e –passport, appreciated Ambassador Isola for the level of support extended to the immigration section of the Mission since his resumption of office.
Alhaji Idris Isah Jere said, “The set up in London is a model worthy of emulation. Historically Nigeria is the first African country to introduce the e-passport
Although we have commenced issuance of the Enhanced e-passport in Nigeria, this is the first roll out outside the country.
This statistics shows that this Mission is the no. 1 collection centre abroad. We will therefore continue to prioritise the service to Nigerians in the Diaspora.”
Nigeria’s Interior minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola officially launched the new enhanced Nigerian e-passport by presenting the first produced e-passport to the first applicant at the Nigeria High Commission in London.
Ogbeni Aregbesola said: “What we have come to do in London is symbolic of the core mandate of the ministry of interior and indeed, the Federal Government of Nigeria, which is an affirmation of citizenship integrity. The Nigerian passport is the highest affirmation of Nigerian citizenship, so it is therefore the responsibility of the government to provide the passport without any stress, within a reasonable period.
“As we are all aware, there have been huge challenges to passport administration, from shortage of booklets to touting and an economy of corruption built around it.
These challenges have persisted for too long and a lot of people have become cynical while others have taken them as normal, but I come from a tradition of problem solving in public administration.
“I do not believe that any problem is insurmountable, so we are going to solve all the problems associated with passport administration and we are already succeeding. The enhanced e-passport is a great improvement on the biometric passport technology which Nigeria adopted in 2007 as a strategic step towards curbing forgery, impersonation and other forms of fraud associated with obtaining travel documents under the old machine readable passport regime.”
“We are aware that technology rules the world and we are keeping abreast of the latest development in the field. Over the years, the Nigeria Immigration Service had worked assiduously and in close synergy with Iris Smart Technologies Limited to develop and implement passport reforms that are in tandem with international best practices, including extant International Civil Aviation Organization’s standards and regulations.”
Nigerians applying for the passports online have three options to choose from in terms of pages of booklet and the validity. The choices include a 32-page booklet with a five-year validity, a 64-page booklet with a five-year validity and a 64-page booklet with 10-year validity.
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
