Passports should be issued to Nigerians in two weeks, says Minister

On Tuesday, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, the interior minister, announced that 55,000 of the 200,000 passport backlog had been cleared.

He added that more backlogs would be removed before the end of the two weeks the immigration chief had been granted, and that once the backlogs were eliminated, Nigerians should be able to get their passports in two weeks.

During Dr. Betta Edu’s visit to his office in Abuja, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, he spoke.

This was said in a statement by Afonja Ajibola, the press director for the interior ministry.

By refusing them a passport, Nigerians “must not be demoted from being citizens of Nigeria,” he argued.

He reaffirmed his conviction that we must act immediately and said that he receives reports every morning. This morning, he was informed that around 55,000 of the 200,000 passports on hold that he had commanded to be cleared in two weeks had been cleared.

He continued by promising that once the backlogs are cleared, Nigerians will begin to benefit from the effective service of having their passports issued within two weeks of applying.

In his speech, Edu guaranteed access to low-interest loans for the widows of killed members of the Federal Fire Service, Immigration Service, Nigerian Correctional Service, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Additionally, she pledged that skill-building initiatives at the correctional facilities will empower offenders.

“The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Beta Edu, said her Ministry’s Mandate has been expanded to cover more Nigerians, who number roughly 16 million and are vulnerable to insecurity that could force their displacement and result in humanitarian crises,” she said.

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She added that her government is prepared to step in and offer subsidized loans to the NSCDC, prison officials, men and officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service, and fire service workers’ widows. She claims that a skills acquisition program will allow inmates of correctional facilities to begin receiving similar interventions.

But she added that as the Federal Fire Service is a ministry-supervised organization that also handles disaster response, she will also put her attention there. As part of the collaborative cooperation, the NSCDC’s role in security intelligence will also be active.