Many Nigerian public officials are very tall in words but short in action. That was why I wasn’t particularly optimistic when the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said in an interview on Television Continental (TVC) that he was going to revolutionise the issuance of international passports, about three weeks ago.
Until recently, it was easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it was to get our passport. It could take months, perhaps longer. Indeed, Tunji-Ojo inherited a backlog of over 200,000 passport applications.
I never knew the minister from Adam. But he impressed me during the interview on ‘Journalists Hangout’. He spoke on the passport conundrum, condition of our correctional centres, etc. My conclusion of that first impression was that if only this man would match words with action, then, his ministry and indeed Nigeria would be the better for it.
Another new appointee of the Federal Government who impressed me in a similar interview on the same station about two weeks ago is the new Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Hassan Abubakar.
He too mesmerised me with a thorough articulation of his brief.
If the depth of understanding of their briefs by these two men is a fair representation of the government’s cabinet, then, Nigeria should be in for an early recovery, despite our present seemingly daunting challenges.
I am however devoting today to Tunji-Ojo. He has begun to deliver on his promises. ‘Talki-n-ado’ (talk and do), as we say. He has not only cleared the backlog of passports awaiting action that he inherited, about 204,000 in all, he has gone some steps further. His reforms include applicants uploading their “passport online, you upload your supporting documents online, so when you go to the immigration office, you spend just like five minutes just to have your biometric captured; that’s all,” he added while speaking with Channels Television, last week. Hopefully, this new arrangement would be in place by December. The long and short of it is that by the time he is through with his revolution in the passport offices, virtually the entire processes would be computerised, thus reducing human interaction to the barest minimum.
This makes eminent sense. Human beings are prone to temptations. Their wants (mind you, wants, not needs) are numerous. They want to own the most grandiose houses, ride the best vehicles (and, may be men or women), drink the costliest ‘koinyan’, flaunt their ill-gotten wealth, sometimes in the most annoying and ungodly manner. In most cases, it is only corruption that can produce and sustain these wants. The computer has no such need and so is not corrupt. It can only be corrupted.
It beggars belief that someone would head a ministry like that of interior for years and Nigerians would be cringing before very junior public servants and miscreants to get passport, which is their natural right.
Tunji-Ojo has proved that it is not a question of how long but how well. He was sworn in only on August 21. No one should blame those of us who suddenly had a change of our names to Doubting Thomas when he promised to clear the backlog within two or so weeks. It is not our fault. That is what we had been conditioned to believe over the years. That issuance of our passport is rocket science. Something that Christians among us have to read the Litany, the Muslims reading the longest ‘Ayat’ in the Holy Quran, or the traditional worshippers making some lengthy incantations besieging our ancestors to see us through the laborious processes of making Nigerians get international passport!
Tunji-Ojo’s achievement with issuance of passports has completely demystified his predecessors under whose watch passport ownership became a status symbol and its issuance, a growth area.
But, let no one make no mistake about it; there will be backlash from people who had been feeding fat on the decadent order, particularly in the ministry. They are the much-talked-about corruption that would always fight back. As I have always said, corruption in this country is like sin that many of us eat as if we are eating food. It is very sweet, especially as it makes its perpetrators smile to the bank with so much ill-gotten wealth for doing little or nothing.
But the war will not only come from the miscreants and leeches in the system who profit from other people’s sorrow. Some of those who had presided over the rot that sustained the delay in issuance of passports in the ministry are also not likely to take their being demystified kindly.
So, the minister has to keep watching his back all the time. There should be neither spiritual nor physical carelessness, especially with regard to his security. He is working in the midst of wolves.
But this is not to say that everybody in the ministry is corrupt. There should be some good people in the system, after all the place is neither Soddom nor Gomorrah.
The minister must, after settling down to business, sift the wheat from the chaff so as to know how to relate with the different categories of workers. Each must be rewarded according to his or her contribution.
But, if such noticeable improvement can happen in so short a time with regard to issuance of passports, then there are several possibilities in other areas, if only the drivers of the process know what they are doing.
But the government must be ready to render the necessary support. It is astonishing that a country that is celebrating 63 years of independence cannot produce its own international passport. The Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) must be provided facilities to produce such document. It should be given the marching order to do things like that after the government must have done its bit; that is, provided it with the requisite tools to perform such functions. After that, those running it should be told to shape up or ship out. The naira cannot appreciate if we continue to do some of these things that we should do within, abroad.
There should be no big deal about issuance of international passports. This is a document that virtually every country issues to their nationals wishing to travel out to other countries without hassle.
All said, Dr Tunji-Ojo must realise that he is also in charge of our correctional centres. The point must be made that although the name has been changed from prisons to correctional centres, not much has changed in terms of welfare for the inmates.
After stabilising on issuance of passports, this should be his next port of call. How can the lot of inmates in the centres be improved? The money may not be enough for everything, but the best must be made of the available resources. Leakages must be blocked because no one can convince me that the correctional centres are immune from the corrupt tendencies in the passport offices or even the country at large. The minister has to strengthen the security in the correctional centres to reduce jailbreaks to the barest minimum. I say this well conscious of the fact that the ongoing fight on President Bola Tinubu’s academic credentials is getting messy and can only get messier. It has become ‘roforofo’ fight which might be continued in every imaginable area. We all know how far some of our politicians can go to make political point.
Be that as it may, I congratulate the minister on his appointment and appeal to him not to rest on his oars. It’s a marathon. He should expect all kinds of obstacles on his way. These are mere distractions that should be ignored. He should be guided by the fact that it is he who endures to the end that gets saved.
And, as for AVM Abubakar, he had delivered in terms of his theoretical understanding of his brief. I want to also have the opportunity to write on him as I have done about the Minister of Interior. I know the situations are not exactly the same. But there is no challenge that is insurmountable. The government should endeavour to provide whatever he needs to deliver. Nigerians want to be able to sleep with their two eyes closed. Abubakar and the other service chiefs are crucial to the realisation of this dream.
