A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs), under the aegis of the League of Nigerians in Diaspora (LOND), has urged the 10th National Assembly, led by Senator Godswill Akpabio, to remove the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) from the Ministry of the Interior.
The LOND noted that the National Assembly needs to establish the Nigeria Immigration Service Commission (NISC) to regulate, monitor and promote discipline and efficiency in the service.
According to the coalition, despite the efforts of the personnel of the NIS to give their best in the last 60 years of NIS establishment, the years under the Ministry of Interior had been without requisite professionalism, discipline and cohesion in policies and implementation.
In a statement yesterday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, LOND Coordinator Yusuf Lawani argued that the establishment of the Nigeria Immigration Service Commission would eradicate the political bottlenecks witnessed in the issuance of passports, promote professionalism, discipline and foster unity among the personnel of the service.
Lawani said after a review of the activities of the NIS in the last six years and the recent anomaly noticed in the ascension of the Acting Comptroller General and other comptrollers in various states due to lack of discipline, there was the need to have an NISC to monitor and maintain proper succession according to grades and ranks in service.
The coordinator noted that instead, the Ministry of the Interior had been usurping the functions of the NIS personnel and turning the tradition of succession according to the NIS Act of 2015 into a political patronage.
He alleged that the role played by the ministry during the recent desperate extension of the service of Caroline Adepoju as Comptroller General for three months and her last minute appointment by former Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola showed an open display of malice to professionalism, a slap on the service, a bad precedent and a show of executive irresponsibility.
Lawani said: “If the Nigerian Immigration Service is established and manned by experienced NIS retirees, the exalted position of the NIS as a vital component of the national security architecture will be maintained.
“Also, the retirement status of 35 years in service will be maintained and issues of proper promotion, discipline, cases of insubordination will be a thing of the past. Performance and discipline will be imbibed in the personnel among the ranks.
“In the Immigration Act, 2015, Article 8, Section 3 (1) states that upon retirement of the Comptroller-General, the President shall appoint from among serving officers of the service on recommendation of the board.
“But the NIS is being rubbished by the fact that a Deputy Comptroller General that her service expired on May 31, 2023 was appointed by Rauf Aregbesola in a blizzard manner, backdating the ill-conceived appointment to May 26, 2023, which was done without a presidential approval.
“The Immigration Service Commission, if established, will promote the beauty of any uniform service with proper career progression, promotion of officers as and when due, alongside their course mates, colleagues and peers, not selective, discriminatory and hand picking of officers, among others.”