Following a direction from the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-ojo, the entire backlog of passport applications at the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has been eliminated.
Due to unclear bureaucratic procedures and other unidentified delays, the Nigerian immigration service has historically been overburdened with backlogs of passport requests and has been known to delay passport issuing.
The current interior minister, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-ojo, appears to be changing that perception as he has already cleared more than 200,000 backlogs in passport applications during his brief tenure in office.
He claimed that “passport issuance is not a privilege but a right for all Nigerians” during a news conference. Additionally, the minister emphasized that “Nigerians do not have to wait months to receive passports.”
Thus, 200,000 passports were cleared and are now ready to be issued in just the month of September.