When Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, an Abuja-based writer, got shortlisted for the United States’ Mandela Washington Fellowship in March 2022, he did not foresee the chances of losing it until the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) frustrated the processes.

Lawal (also the author of 101 Fake News on EndSARS) after successfully applying for the fellowship in September 2021, was invited for an interview three months later. As luck would have it for him, he was among the 58 (Nigeria) successful applicants selected in March 2022.

“Congratulations! You have been selected to participate in the 2022 Mandela Washington Fellowship, the U.S Department of State’s flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI),” a mail dated March 7, from Nigeria’s Embassy of the United State of America, reads.


The congratulatory mail.
The mail further revealed that Lawal is expected to arrive in the United States on June 8, 2022, for an in-person fellowship which would span for six weeks. But Lawal contends that “negligence and unprofessionalism” by NIS and NIMC robbed him of the offer.

READ: NIMC Wants NIN Compulsory For All Govt Services, Solicits BPSR’s Support

Prior to when the U.S embassy sent the congratulatory mail, Lawal had begun processing his passport renewal in February. “I initiated the process of renewing my passport in February 2022, when I was shortlisted for the Fellowship interview,” Lawal said. But what ordinarily should take him three weeks to get spanned into three months, yet in vain.

NIS/NIMC Ineptitude

Lawal became a victim of not the only Nigerian bureaucracy system, but also gross misconduct by the officials of NIS and NIMC’s Ineptitude.

Average Passport Processing times take up to 3 weeks for renewals/reissues and up to 6weeks for-first-time applicants, according to the passport production timeline portrayed on NIS’ website.



Lawal’s passport, according to him, expired about two to three years ago and I did not attempt renewing it until when I needed to. “When I went for the renewal, the NIS officials detected some biometric errors like misspelling and name arrangement on my NIN data,” Lawal said, adding there was a need to harmonise his NIN data to match with the one on the NIS database.

“Before they could harmonise that, you (Lawal) have to write a formal letter to NIMC,” he continued. “After writing that, it has to be taken to the Assistant Control General of Immigration (ACG).”

Unfortunately, the process of forwarding his letter to the ACG took almost two months before he finally got an approval. Following this, Lawal was subjected to another bureaucratic burden — the Implementation and Production stage. “That should not take more than one or two hours,” said Lawal. But his file was forwarded to another section within the production realm.

How Lawal’s File Went Missing with IRIS

Lawal’s file was transferred to the office of the IRIS Smart Technology, a foreign ICT technical affiliate with NIS. WikkiTimes findings show that the foreign NIS partner handles the production of Nigerians’ passports.

“Two weeks later, IRIS returned my file saying the document on my file did not tally with my NIN data,” Lawal said in disappointment. This after he had written a letter to that effect.

An insider would later verify Lawal’s NIN data from the NIS database and confirm it was correct.

Sadly, “by the time the file was returned to IRIS with a printout of the evidence, they said the NIMC server was down. This went on for weeks without even a ray of hope for a positive outcome,” Lawal told WikkiTimes.

READ: INVESTIGATION: How Humanitarian Ministry Diverted Multi-Million Naira Rural Women Grant To Personal Accounts

“Eventually, a very top female Immigration officer who got wind of my predicament waded in and intervened and ordered for my file,” Lawal continued. “Boom! The workers said they couldn’t find my file again. They said it was missing.”

“How can my file just disappear out of the blues?” Lawal asked. “It’s not only funny, but it’s also pathetic and this makes me feel sorry for such kind of woes many Nigerians have to undergo.”

Offer Revoked

After many deadlines and extensions given by the U.S embassy, Lawal’s six-week fellowship program was revoked — a situation that has kept him traumatised for days.

“According to programme records, you failed to submit a valid passport for Mandella Washington Fellowship that was due for 04:00 pm GMT (12:00 pm ET) on April 20, 2022. Consistent with the Mandella Washington Fellowship Terms and Conditions, your selection for Mandella Washington Fellowship has been officially withdrawn; this action can not be appealed,” a notice to revocation mail sent to Lawal reads.

https://wikkitimes.com/between-nis-and-nimc-mohammed-lawals-file-went-missing-making-him-lose-u-s-fellowship/


Lalasticlala

Very pathetic.

That’s bad…

When they say may Nigeria never happen to you, this is just one example out of many!

This guy just found out that all govt agencies and offices are being run by donkeys? This has always been the case.

Emperor Nero is busy , no comment

some people will defend Nigeria until Nigeria happens to them, that is the case of this guy