The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Immigration Service

  • FEC approves N12.6b for Immigration Service new data centre, others

    THE Federal Government yesterday moved to bring under one roof data of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) presently domiciled with various service providers for effective information and data management.

    To this end, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved about N12.66 billion for the construction of a Data Control and Communication Centre for NIS as well as purchase  of firefighting equipment for the Nigeria Fire Service.

    The approval will also take care of procurement of 116 Green Maria vehicles for the Nigerian Prisons Service.

    The council also gave approval of N828 million as variation for the Abuja runway, increasing the contract sum for the project to N6.5 billion and another N1.2 billion for Pilot Cutters for Apapa and Tin Can Ports in Lagos.

    The approvals were given at the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.

    Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau, who briefed State House Correspondents alongside his Transportation counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, said the approval for the firefighting equipment was to sufficiently equip the fire service to curtail fire incidents.

    The 116 Green Maria vehicles are to convey prison inmates, especially those awaiting trials to courts.

    Dambazau said the three memos presented by his ministry to the council were approved.

    He said: “The first memo has to do with procurement of fire trucks. I have informed this gathering before that when we came in, in 2015, I went round the fire stations within Abuja here and what I found was very awful because as at that time, there was only one rickety fire truck on ground.

    “So, as part of the security sector reform efforts and also in order to reduce loss and curtail the incidence of fire, we embarked on the procurement of firefighting trucks, water tankers and so on. But the reform is not just about procurement of equipment. We are also focusing our attention on the issue of training and welfare of staff within the various services.

    “In 2016, we procured 21 firefighting vehicles plus other vehicles such as water tankers. In 2017, the procurement was for 22 firefighting trucks and, of course, in 2018, it is a repeat procurement of what we did in 2017.

    “For this year, it will cost N3.952 billion for those fire trucks, water tankers and other related vehicles.

    “The government is doing everything possible to ensure that fire incidents are contended and also controlled. These fire trucks are being distributed accordingly. We identified areas that have the fire hazards and of course, we are just starting this and we will continue to do this effort.”

    He added: “The second memo has to do with the Nigeria Immigration Service. I remember that sometimes in May, there was approval for Projects Consultants for the construction of what is termed as Technology Building, which is a data command control and communication centre. The whole idea is to bring together all the data used by Nigeria Immigration Service under one roof.

    “For now, we have this data domiciled with the service providers. Even though we are able to bring them there, but they are in piece meal. So, within the command, the technology building, all these data will be brought together so that they can interface with other institutions that have to do with internal security, border management and so on, including the Customs since the Immigrations and the Customs are always at the borders.

    “The rationale is to be able to guarantee effective and efficient monitoring and management of the data and this is the focus.”

    Dambazau said: “In this case, Julius Berger is going to construct this building, including the furnishing. The Comptroller General has a power-point presentation. That project is going to cost N7,119,139, 883.

    “The third aspect is the Nigerian Prisons. That also has to do with procurement of operational and Green Maria vehicles not Black Maria.

    On his part, Amaechi said: “There are two memoranda that we presented from the Ministry of Transportation. One has to do with the Abuja runway variation of cost, which had earlier come this year and was stepped down for the ministry to liaise in terms of pricing with the Ministry of Works. That was done and brought back to council.”

  • Immigration service unveils special squad to tackle internal security

    Immigration service unveils special squad to tackle internal security

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has inaugurated a new security unit called the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) to assist in emergencies and ensuring internal security in the country.

    The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. Muhammad Babandede told 456 Border Patrol Corps members during at their passing out at the Immigration Training School, Kano, that the service must be ready to discharge its duties at all times.

    “As a paramilitary agency we are aware of the several security threats in the country, sometimes emergencies come and we are asked to squat and we might not just be ready that is the idea of creating the rapid response team,” he said.

    “You can see they have been trained to withstand emergency threats, they will first be based in Abuja, We will gradually develop the system to states and they will be available 24 hours.”

    He said that 56 officers and men of the NIS were trained in the latest security and emergency response techniques by foreign security experts alongside other personnel at the training school.

    Babandede said that the RRS will work with other security agencies to ensure adequate internal security in view of the myriad of security threats in the country.

    The NIS boss also assured of adequate security at the nation’s borders in order to stem the tide of terrorist, violent foreign herdsmen and illegal immigrants coming into the country.

    A total of 56 RRS, 50 Sector Commanders, 300 Border Patrol Corps and 50 specialised Immigration Drivers received certificate of training at the end of the one month training in the school.

  • Immigration service to overhaul operations for greater efficiency, says CG

    Immigration service to overhaul operations for greater efficiency, says CG

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says it will overhaul its operations and reposition the service for greater efficiency in line with international best practices.

    The Comptroller-General of NIS, Mr Muhammad Babandede, spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.

    Babandede said the service would use inputs received from its officers nationwide to achieve its set objectives.

    “I have already directed comptrollers of state commands, assistant comptroller generals in charge of the zones to collate inputs of reforms the people want.

    “I want to hear from the officers. That is why I gave this opportunity for a compulsory one month parade, during which officers should be free; they will not be victimised.

    “They should be free to say whatever they want (to say) against us or against anybody; let’s hear from them.

    “If the problem and solution come from the grassroots, we will be able to sit down and articulate a system that is owned by the immigration officers.

    “Implementation becomes easy because the idea comes from the grassroots.”

    He said NIS would collaborate with SERVICOM and state commands of the immigration service to address operational challenges in the states.

    “SERVICOM had done analysis of our services to the public, it’s very disturbing we got fair; and it’s good for me, (it’s) a starting point, they have given some quick fix, I will help them.”

     

     

  • Derailing of Nigeria: the smaller picture (2)

    Derailing of Nigeria: the smaller picture (2)

    Within the country, a visit to passport offices across the country often reveals that the Immigration Service is also engaged in sharp practices but only in a way more subtle than that of the police on inner-city streets and highways.

    There has to be a general recognition that this crisis (corruption) is moral as well as economic. It is, indeed, a perfect illustration of the economics of morality—the absence of a sense of propriety, of restraint and of right and wrong, was not just obnoxious, it was economically disastrous.—Fintan O’Toole

    The first part of this column last week argued that as much attention as is being paid to the big picture of political and bureaucratic corruption by President Buhari needs to be paid to less elaborate corrupt practices that exist within the security forces and other agencies. Today’s piece will conclude the series on what appears to be minor corrupt practices but which call for as much effort on the part of the Buhari government to initiate an elaborate process of ethical re-engineering, without which no modern nation can thrive.

    On the topic of uniformed officers using their positions to defraud citizens and the state, the two agencies not covered last week: the Customs and Immigration Services do not generally fare any better than the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Commission, and military units assigned to perform civil duties that we covered last week. Nigeria in the last few decades has been one of a few countries in which Customs officers act as highway police. It is common practice to see Nigerian customs officers on highways that are farther than 100 miles from the coast or any international border. Customs officers, such as are found on the highways between Lagos and Ibadan, Ibadan and Ife, Ijebu-Ode and Ore, Ore and Benin, for example, stop not only vehicles carrying containers but individual motorists going or coming from work to check if they carry contrabands or goods that had not been duly cleared at the seaports or at the borders.

    Most of the time, motorists who get stopped end up being made to give some money to the officers who stop them. It will be more cost-effective for customs officers operating in the middle of the forest in many parts of the country to be deployed to seaports and highways that link Nigeria with other countries. If there were efficient and honest performance of customs officers, citizens or foreigners who convey containers on highways would have cleared their goods at the ports or at border posts before getting on domestic highways, thus obviating the need to post hundreds of customs officers to highways in the middle of the country to apprehend persons trying to evade customs charges. Citizens who are often flagged down by customs officers on the highways need to be saved from such harassment and exploitation. If the Customs Service is overstaffed, then the agency needs immediate rightsizing through deployment of redundant customs officers to other sectors.

    Similarly, customs officers in collaboration with NDLEA staff at international airports also harass citizens, not for carrying illegal drugs but for carrying food items that they want to consume in their destinations. Tricks used to create difficulties for travellers include asking them to go and obtain licence to take food out of the country, even when the food being transported is not in commercial quantity. For fear of missing their flights, such customers are often pressured to part with some money. Such harassment makes citizens lose respect for and confidence in the authority of customs and NDLEA officers who are deployed just to check the luggage of travellers exiting the country. No public servant should be given a chance to create the type of difficulties that citizens experience on their way out of the country at each of the country’s international airports. The technology for effective detection of cocaine and other illegal drugs has gone past two or three uniformed men or women rummaging with their hands through travellers’ bags, just to complain about small quantity of food in the luggage of travellers, especially those with children.

    Immigration officers appear to be more restrained than other agencies. Yet there are many cases of harassment by Immigration officers of citizens, particularly those coming back home on expired passports. Many of such officers appear ignorant of the general problem in Nigerian embassies abroad with respect to renewal or re-issue of passports. Even in places such as New York, Washington and London (second home to millions of Nigerians), Nigerian embassies are often unable to process new passports for citizens in good time for their travel plans on the excuse of not having in store passport booklets. Most of the time, such persons still get to enter the country after ‘greasing the palms’ of officers at the Lagos or Abuja end. Moreover, those who come to the country to obtain their visas at the entry point are not immune from harassment. Within the country, a visit to passport offices across the country often reveals that the Immigration Service is also engaged in sharp practices but only in a way more subtle than that of the police on inner-city streets and highways. Each passport office allows touts or passport contractors to run after potential applicants for passports right from the gate, marketing benefits of accelerated service. Unlike in other countries, such quick service attracts double the cost of a regular passport and receipt that does not reflect payment for accelerated service.

    Even traffic wardens in uniform are wont to take full advantage of their uniform to fleece motorists. It does not matter what names they bear from state to state, traffic wardens who are not full-fledged police also extort money from motorists for claim of infractions of traffic code. They too are in the habit of jumping into vehicles to negotiate traffic fines. In some instances, there is collaboration between police and traffic wardens to extort money from motorists. In addition, during the era of Sure-P’s special federal task force staff, citizens were also pressured to part with 200 or more naira, particularly on Lagos roads.

    All this is to draw attention of the new government to the abysmal level of ethical standards on the part of those employed to enhance security and safety of citizens. The culture of corruption cuts across income levels and across occupational lines. Those endowed with political and bureaucratic power make efforts to steal billions of naira, most of which President Buhari is already planning to retrieve. On their own part, those with the little power bestowed by the uniforms they wear steal whatever they can get from poor citizens. But the effects of formal sector corruption of ministers and civil servants and of informal sector extortion of citizens by police and other uniformed workers are similar. In both cases, citizens are robbed directly or indirectly. State authority is also eroded.

    Just as big-time thieves of state property rarely get punished and shamed to restore citizens’ confidence in the state, so is it rare to find erring police, immigration, and customs being subjected to the principle of crime and punishment. In societies where corruption is nurtured by impunity, citizens either become cynical or resigned to corruption as a way of life. The 2105 presidential election was a rebellion against kleptocratic governments in the country. While there are several individuals, groups, and non-governmental organisations that are already pleading with President Buhari not to probe anybody unless he is ready to probe everybody from the government of Balewa to that of Jonathan, there is no doubt that majority of voters who brought Buhari to power with their votes, though generally voiceless, are enthusiastic about the fight against corruption.

    But the war against corruption will remain half-hearted or half-won if it is directed solely at big-time looters. It will be in order for the Buhari government to involve citizens in the fight against corruption. Citizens may not be adept petition writers, but they know their neighbours who live above their wages and salaries. Opening special Ombudsman offices in state headquarters to collect information from citizens suspected of graft or extortion may be a good addition to the two major anti-corruption agencies. Moreover, the principle of crime and punishment needs to be invoked at all times. The best way to restore and sustain citizens’ confidence in government is to assure them that those who dare the state by violating its laws are punished accordingly. This is also the best way to promote compliance habit on the part of citizens.