Bickering, rancour and
bitterness have become the
lot of officials of the
Nigeria Immigration
Service due to arbitrary
promotions and postings
that run contrary to laid
down procedures, writes
Chinedu Eze
The Nigeria Immigration
Service (NIS) is remembered
more today for the 21
applicants that were
stampeded to death on March
15, 2014 and the angst of the
Nigerian public when the
outgone government did not
show enough remorse.
Besides, the job promised the
relatives to the victims did not
materialise till the last day of
the immediate past
administration as shady efforts
were made to employ some of
the relatives of those victims.
However, informed source said
those relatives have not
received their appointment
letters and this simply meant
that they were not employed.
The tragic incident opened up a
can of worms on what went on
under the then Minister of
Interior, Abba Moro as it
concerned NIS. Moro’s lack of
contrition after the tragic
incident and the inability of the
then administration to punish
those involved in the
recruitment saga, sagged the
existing goodwill that the then
government had.
The Nigeria Immigration
Service is still reeling in the
throes of the policies and
actions taken under Moro that
had given rise to disaffection
among Immigration officers, as
those who used to be junior
officers were suddenly
promoted above their seniors
without any defined procedure
or record of gallantry to define
such unusual favour in a
paramilitary system where
promotion is done in batches
and special promotions come
many years in-between.
Recruitment Racket
Before the tragic incident of
March 2014, the NIS had a
tradition of organising
recruitment exercise every
other year and according to
inside sources, after the
exercise the officials involved
go to buy lands and vehicles
and usually few people were
employed and sometimes no
one was employed.
In response to the last year
exercise, which turned tragic
the past administration raised
a presidential committee to
work out how the relations of
the victims could be employed.
It was after the general
election the committee
seemingly swung into action
and recruited some applicants
some of whom were related to
the victims of the March
exercise but this was not
ratified by the Immigration
Board because of the shoddy
way and questionable manner
it was done, disclosed an inside
source.
“Few days to the end of the
former administration, the
Presidential Committee
suddenly woke up from their
slumber to organise interviews,
issued illegal appointment
letter to the alleged relatives of
those who were affected by the
2014 recruitment exercise.
That appointment has not been
documented because the
Board of the Nigeria
Immigration Service was not
consulted,” the source told
THISDAY.
Promotion and Posting
Under the former Minister of
Interior it was alleged that the
procedure for promotion and
posting was abandoned and
arbitrary system was adopted
determined by variables that
could only be explained by
those who took charge at that
time. THISDAY learnt that those
who are aggrieved in the
system today include the
officers who had not been
promoted since the last 10
years while those under them
had been promoted twice in
four years and some were
promoted every year.
“There were those who were
promoted because of where
they came from and others
who were posted to juicy
places because of the same
reason. The former Minister
turned our rules upside down
and now there is no more
respect among officers
because it is difficult for you to
salute a senior officer who was
two years ago your very junior.
It is not because of his
gallantry but because he came
from the former Minister’s tribe
or state; or in the case of
women because her husband is
from that community as the
Minister,” a disenchanted
Immigration officer told
THISDAY.
Before the last administration
the policy in Immigration was
that when officers are posted
for Foreign Service they were
promoted when they return
after four years so that they
would be in line with their
colleagues who were in the
same batch with them. This is
called special promotion. But
under the last Minister, special
promotion was done every
year.
“Out of 26 posted to new
missions 12 are from Benue
(Idoma), 10 from Plateau, and
the rest was shared by the
remaining 34 states and
Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
But the procedure before now
was that every state is given
one position, now the special
promotion was being done
every year. Officers now don’t
give respect to their superiors
because many of the superiors
were their juniors. The
President should institute probe
panel into NIS,” said another
embittered Immigration official.
The official said Comptroller
General of NIS, David Paradang
was most of the time side-lined
and therefore was not privy to
the posting, recruitment and
promotions and that was why
he recently wrote formal letter
to the Ministry of Interior to
protest the latest promotion
done in NIS before the exit of
the last administration.
It was alleged that he was
never allowed to make inputs
in the posting of officers to
those juicy areas like Port
Harcourt, Abuja, Ikoyi, Festac,
Ikeja passport offices and
those also posted to the
Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Lagos.
THISDAY gathered that foreign
posting for Immigration officers
was published in March, 2015
and it did not follow the federal
character policy. Ideally, every
state should have one
Immigration command, “but
commanders from Benue state
controllers were manning five
states which include Edo,
Festac Passport Office, Ogun
state, Benue state itself and
Delta. And in Command
Controllers, officers from
Benue are in charge of Lagos,
Cross River, Oyo and Imo
states.”
Emoluments
Part of the grievances of
Immigration officials was the
fact that most of their
allowances are not being paid.
They attributed it to the poor
financial management of the
past administration because
what was budgeted for the
Service this year was 35 per
cent of last year’s budget, “So
allowances and other fringe
benefits of officers are not
being paid, including transfer
allowances and death benefits.
The former Minister was more
interested in special
promotions and foreign
posting,” one of the officials
alleged.
High Cost of Passport
Under Moro the cost of
obtaining international
passport rose from N8, 750 to
N19, 500. It was alleged that
he awarded contract to Greater
Washington Limited, an air
cargo company to distribute
passports to applicants and N2,
000 was added to each
passport; then the e-payment
platform which was contracted
to a company known as New
Works was at N2, 500 per
passport.
Insiders said the cost was
outrageous and exploitative
and these were part of what
jerked up the price of the
passport.
“But what baffles us is that the
applicants collect their passport
at the point of issue so the
company, Greater Washington
is virtually doing nothing, so
why are collecting N2, 000 per
passport? They started on
August 1, 2014 and till now it is
not on record they have
distributed any passport. At this
time of hardship for Nigerians
he (Former Minister of Interior)
jerked up the price of passport.
There is so much animosity,
indiscipline, complacency and
bitterness among the officers
right now!”
But top official of Greater
Washington told THISDAY in an
interview that the company’s
job was not the distribution of
passport but the verification,
authenticating the addresses
and other information supplied
by the applications; “that is the
thrust of our job with
Immigration.”
The official who disclosed that
the company has over 400
employees located at different
airports in the country also told
THISDAY that the exercise was
to avert a situation Nigerians
provide fake information in
their passports and go to
commit crimes overseas and
when caught it would be
difficult to trace them thereby
casting doubt on the
authenticity of the Nigerian
passport.
“Applicants come to apply for
passports with fake addresses
and other information. They
open account in banks with
fake information and when
investigated the addresses
they provided are non-existent.
So our job is to verify this
information supplied by the
applicants. There was a tragic
incident that happened recently
where a woman drug courier
died overseas and when the
body was to be brought to
Nigeria it was discovered that
the address in her passport
was fake. Since August 1, 2014
we started work we have been
able to eliminate this problem,
which brings shame to the
country,” the official said.
He said the N2, 000 that is
charged is not meant for
Greater Washington alone but
other agencies help to facilitate
the verification exercise,
including IT Company, NIS and
others.
This was confirmed by the NIS
Public Relations Officer, Emeka
Obua who told THISDAY that
NIS engaged Greater
Washington and New Works on
Public Private Partnership (PPP)
basis, adding that Greater
Washington has been very
helpful in the verification of
information supplied by
passport applicants.
“Some people use false
addresses so we use that
company to authenticate the
addresses and other
information. The verification
exercise is very important.
Some addresses are fictitious.
There is no contract on PPP that
does not go through the office
the Attorney General of the
Federation, so by contracting
out the verification NIS has not
negated the policy of
government.”
On the high cost of the
passport, Obua said, “NIS
introduced new booklet which
is 64 pages, so the number of
pages has increased and it has
enhanced security and other
new features. As far as we
know, no Nigerian has
complained about the increase
in price of the passport and you
have to note that persons
under the age of 18 and
pensioners still pay the old
price.
“We also want to prevent the
system whereby people will
use the passport to commit all
kinds of atrocities and that is
why we are very strict in
change of name and change of
date of birth. If you want such
change you will have to pay
N30, 000 non-refundable fees
to the coffers of government
which we use to process it. We
ask you to bring your
certificates and other
supporting documents.”
On special promotion that take
place too regularly in
Immigration during the past
administration, Obua said for
that fact that the federal
government nullified the last
promotion done recently in
some agencies justified the
action of the Comptroller
General to protest the last
special promotion exercise
done in NIS, which together
with others have left many of
the officials highly embittered
and aggrieved.

This story was on thisdaylive online before 6:30am this morning. For reasons best known to them, it was yanked away. Why? Was the management settled?
Well nlanders the story has been put back. Could Thisday be on nairaland?

Naija sha

ThisDay has a terrible reputation in the industry. Cash and carry journalism from day one. Please tell Nduka, well done on having no discernable principles..

#change