- Asks Foreign Affairs, Interior Ministries To Come To Aid Of Nigerians In Diaspora
Worried by the menace of passport racketeering that has been a source of immense concerns for Nigerians living abroad, the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committees on Interior and Foreign Affairs to work with relevant Ministries and agencies to tackle the decades-old infraction, causing a blight to the country’s international image.
The committees were asked to engage both the Interior and Foreign Affairs Ministries, the Comptroller General of immigration, Ambassadors and Consular Officers on the need to immediately introduce measures to make it easy for Nigerians abroad to renew their passports.
The decision was reached following a motion sponsored by Senator Matthew Urhoghide representing Edo South. The motion titled: “Urgent need to remove the difficulty faced by Nigerians outside of the shores of Nigeria in renewing their Passport” was considered during plenary.
Urhoghide expressed concerns over the hardships faced by Nigerians in renewing their travel documents outside the Nigerian shores.
Nigerians in the United States of America, Canada, Italy, the Uk and Austria are the worst-hit by passport racketeering, according to the Senator.
Citing the example of US, Urhoghide noted that there are only four centres — Washington DC, Atlanta, New York, and California — where Nigerians can renew their passports, despite the far-flung distance that exists from one state to another in the US.
The Senator drew the Senate’s attention to the size of some states in the US that are bigger than some countries of the world in both population and landmass, noting that one centre cannot serve the needs of Nigerians.
“Only four centres serve the whole of the United States is enough problem in itself until we have to consider the fact that Nigerians in the remaining forty-six states in the US have to travel to the centre closest to them, or sometimes to a centre cheaper in monetary terms to access,” Urhoghide said.
He added that around the world, Nigerians are being forced to physically present themselves for passport renewal at the consulates, something that has continued to breed untold hardships for the diasporans.
He said due to the In-person passport application, some Nigerians would have to be on the road for days, travelling to the renewal centres that are usually far from their cities, hence, causing a threat to their job security, finances and life.
“All of the passport renewal applicants spend months trying to renew expired Passports. The only ones who get speedy attention are those that pay to the middlemen or directly to the embassy officials,” he said.
He thereby urged the Nigerian government to put in place a robust e-passport application and delivery mechanism at its diplomatic missions abroad that will make the application process seamless for Nigerian diapora, as well as stamp out passport racketeering.
In a related development, it would be recalled that the federal government recently launched the Electronic Temporary Passport to cater for Nigerians desirous of returning home but whose national passport is not available.
