• Plans for stringent border surveillance measures
• To collapse multiple identity mgt systems into one
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Federal Government has threatened to henceforth adopt the principal of reciprocity in the issuance of visas on citizens of countries with strict visa requirements for traveling Nigerians.
Last year, the Republic of Turkey removed Nigerians from being able to obtain an e-visa to enter the country, citing security concerns. Ethiopia also scrapped Nigerians from the visas-on-arrival option. The government of Seychelles also banned Nigerian passport holders from visiting the country for holiday purposes, but no reason was given by the border control agency
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo made this disclosure at the Business Day Conference, titled: Nigeria Forward: Catalyzing Funding for High Impact Social Projects, with the theme: “Funding for Change: Building Bridges for a Resilient Nigeria.”
According to him, each citizen of a country seeking visa will receive the same treatment matted to Nigerians seeking to travel to that country.
Tunji-Ojo on principle of reciprocity said, “Some of our foreigners might not like this but part of our responsibility is the interest of Nigerians. As much as we have to protect your interest. You must also protect our interest.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) the director for the Center for illegal migration in Turkey, came to my office. And I told him in the next couple of weeks expect reciprocity in terms of travel policy. Any country that does not give me the visa on arrival cannot have visa on arrival in Nigeria. I’m sorry but it is the truth. We’re not a dumping ground. If you say you are useful, people will see you as being useful.
“But if you tell people you are useless, people will ask you why are you this useless? We want to partner with you and so on the table, we must be equal partners and our relationship of investment must be on the basis of the principle of reciprocity.
“So we are doing that to all the countries in the world. The committee is working. I will receive the report tomorrow (Friday), you charge me $100 for a visa, I will charge you $100 for Nigerian visa.
“If you give me visa on arrival. I give it to you. If you say the condition for me to enter your country today is that I must have American visa, Schengen visa, UK visa etc, you will have the same conditions to enter my country. It is not fight, it is about the issue of mutual respect.
“My job is interior security and not external. So let’s call a spade a spade. We must change perception. Perception is everything in life. Perception is your reputation, if people have a wrong perception about you, they will have a negative interpretation about who you are. So, for us we’ve been doing that.
“I told them yesterday (Wednesday), if you have stopped issuing to Nigerians Schengen visa, America visa, etc, please tell your people to change it because on issue of policy on visa reciprocity is my own. The way you respond to us is the way we will respond to you, so you know we are all partners in terms of quality.
“If they don’t know I say this, in Africa, this is the biggest economy. And you see the kind of assets Ghana has, the kind of assets South Africa has, even Seychelles, we don’t have. I’m not asking any country to open their gates to all 220 million Nigerians, no! That it’s impossible. But at least we have to have a meeting point based on mutual respect.”
The Minister who was the keynote speaker on the topic: “Ministry of Interior potential high impact social projects”, also hinted of government’s plan to introduce more stringent surveillance measures at the country’s borders in order to checkmate inflow and outflow of people so as to safeguard the country.
Tunji-Ojo, who described the theme of the breakfast meeting as apt and important, said it focuses on the vulnerability and the weakest people in the country.
He said, “The credibility of performance of every government has to be based only on the evaluation of how the government handles the weakest in the society. The essence of government is not just to protect the strong but to make up and amplify the needs of the weak.
“That is why I tell people, I do not carry the burden of performance just for myself and my family, I carry the burden of performance for my generation.
“And it is important for every youth in government must understand that. The performance of a youth in government will only open the doors for others. The non-performance will just bring us the normal Nigeria mantra, “You see dem, dem no know anything.” It’s time for us when we find ourselves in office, we have to understand that.
“I always said this, my father didn’t give me the Nigeria of my dream. Yes, but that is not an excuse for me not to give my children the Nigeria of their dreams.
“It means the responsibility of transition from where we are to where we want to be, cannot forever be laid at the doorsteps of yesteryears, it has to be laid on our own doorstep.
“The Ministry of Interior, for anybody who understands governance, is very integral in any nation beyond passport. When my old students association hosted me on Friday last week, I said I don’t want to be remembered as the Minister that solved the passport problem because there are bigger things to be solved.”
The Minister said the era of backlog of passports are over as henceforth everything will be done online aside from biometrics capturing and passports will henceforth be delivered to the applicant’s address as done in other countries.
Tunji-Ojo said, “I see no reason why I need a passport and I need to cancel a day’s job just because I need my rights. It is your right. I’m not doing you a favour by giving you passport. We as leaders must start to understand the fundamental difference between a right and a privilege. It’s never a privilege.
“And that is why by December this year we have activated all actions. You need your passport, you go online, even your passport photograph, you upload online, your supporting documents you upload online, your attestation you upload online, you only go to the passport office for biometric nothing more.
“Every action of the state that involves inconvenience cannot be in the interest of the people. During break, people should just walk to the passport office, do their biometrics and go back to work. You need to make life easy.
“By February you will not need to go back to the passport office for your passport, we will DHL it to you in your house. It is not rocket science. This is called copy and paste. In the UK you collect your passport in the post office. That we are Nigerians does not mean we should do things the hard way. We must understand the principle of simplification of responsibility. And this is what we’re trying to do.”
The minister also disclosed that by February 2024, the e-gate at the nation’s international airports will be fully functional to reduce congestion and corruption.
He said: “By February, we’re putting in what we call smart gates (e-gates) in our airport manned by the Immigration Service. I cannot as a foreigner, get to Frankfurt, get to Heathrow and face immigration drilling and get to my country where I should you know that yes, I am Lord of the Manor, every Nigerian is Lord of the Manor in Nigeria. Then I get to the gate and immigration officer will ask me “Wetin you bring come?
“So by February we will have what we call our e-gate, you will come in as a Nigerian, scan your passport, put your fingerprint to ensure you’re not carrying another person’s document. You enter because by law no government official has a right to deny a Nigerian entry to this country. It is your right.
“So why are we making things complicated? And with what we are doing now, which by February is going to take effect, is the advanced passenger information system. What that does for me is that if I am coming into my country, the immigration service has your record ahead. They do what we call prior profiling. That is what they do in Heathrow, Dubai and everywhere.
“And that is why when you get to the airport, they single you out and say excuse me can you step aside? They are not magicians before you come they have done their background check before you come. It secures the country more. It gives you confidence in terms of who is coming, who the person is and we can properly do our job.
“You can’t hang the performance in the internal security of the nation to two minutes or even one minute evaluation by an immigration officer as if he is a witch or a wizard. You use technology.
“So if we have an issue with you, when you come, take a queue by the side, because Nigerians coming to Nigeria should have confidence that they are coming to their own Eldorado. As a Nigerian, you should go to the airport and feel loved. Patriotism is based on the principle of love. If I demand that you should be patriotic, the state must also enhance your patriotism.
“So by February, we are changing all this. Why are we doing that? It also helps businesses. Because once your immigration process is seamless business will always grow.
“Take a look at the GDP, it is directly proportional. Countries with the highest GDP are the countries with the highest inflow and outflow of people. Look at the US, China etc. Because trade itself is very mobile, it is dynamic.”
The Minister, on the issue of identity management hinted that the multiple means of identification will be collapsed into one.
He said, “The agenda of the ministry is that we cannot have the proliferation of identity. We must have what we call an SPC – Single Point of Contact for our identity management services.
“Why would anybody need to do a fresh biometric to get passport? Why do you need to do biometric to get your driver’s license? While in America your social security number is your social security number. You don’t go to the bank and say I want another identification number.
“This proliferation is not healthy for the economy. So the ministry will do our our best to ensure to be able to harmonize Nigeria’s data basis into a single point, that every agency, service provider can plug. Its technology, it is not rocket science. It’s called common sense. It is what it is all over the world. All we need to do is copy and paste.”
On the need for Nigeria to define her borders, the minister said, “Another thing which we must encourage our boundary commission is to define our borders. For instance, the border between Nigeria and Benin was agreed to in 1906. So all the pillars we have were not erected by us but our colonial masters, which is the British and the French. So what you do is to define your borders. And when you cannot define your border, how do you defend what you can’t define.
“For us, the approach in the ministry of interior, is not just to put great solutions, flashy solutions. Our idea is to be able to build a structure that will stand the test of time. What we have now is an inter-agency community under the chairmanship of the director joint services in the ministry. Membership include Nigeria immigration service, they are responsible for ensuring our borders entry and exit. Nugeria border community agency, they are so that they are able to handle the issues of border communities and contagious communities. We have the boundary commission, because they are responsible for bilateral negotiations, implementation etc in our border space. We have surveyor general of the Federation, National Identity Management Commission, because identify management commission is key in determining who you are. Then the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps. So once we are able to come up this report, we will now map out actionable plans so that Nigerians will be able to sleep with their two eyes closed.
We’ll need under the renewed hope agenda of the president, so that we can have a defined space called Nigeria. It’s very important for me very important to the future my children, and very important in my pursuit for in Nigeria, so that my son will say yes, daddy, your generation gave us what’s your father’s generation could not give you.”
Speaking at the conference, the Publisher of Business Day, Frank Aigbogun, said the organization is very passionate about doing its beats to move Nigeria forward and that its focus will be on crystallizing on funding for high impact social projects.
“Raising funding for SDGs projects whether the focus is on health, education, curtailing infant mortality or just providing a better life for the people, the array of speakers and panelists will speak to our issues,” he said
He said Business Day takes pride in taking interest in working together with all other partners in the country to bring about the development that all Nigerians crave.
On her part, Ure Utah, Founder, Bridge Synergy, said without partnerships, no country can move forward.
She said Nigeria couldn’t fund some SDGs financial gap estimated at a staggering $10 billion annually, adding that despite the odds, there is still hope that infrastructure will drive the nation’s priorities by eradicating poverty, and promoting quality education.
She noted that over 60 percent of Nigerians face multi dimensional poverty and challenges in education, energy, agriculture and security.
She said Nigeria being Africa’s most populous country with 220 million people still has 70 percent of her population under poverty.
“We have a duty to give these young lives the best chances at addressing the shortcomings that we face.
“So together with Nigeria’s leading Business Day, Business Media platform I have launched a strategic forum to bring together Nigeria’s most influential political and business leaders with the aim to improve the lives of millions of Nigerians.
“This Nigeria forward dialogue is centered on securing financial support for innovative social impact initiatives.
“And my goal is to bridge the annual SDG financial gap of $10 billion by introducing development partners, to appropriate SDG initiatives in Nigeria.
Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dasuki Arabi, said undoubtedly within the African continent, Nigeria stands as a beacon of hope.
Also speaking, the Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, called for investment in the digital public infrastructure.
“We are waiting for infrastructure, public infrastructure, roads, railways, airports and so on. To move goods from one place to another. But today we are in a digital things where data is the currency of the economy. Therefore, we also need to invest the digital public infrastructure and this investment is not just only corporate investment.
“Today, all of us, we use digital devices and services. Maybe, 60 to 70 percent of what we do on a daily basis, from our personal lives, to business and our transactions mostly, are powered by all these digital devices.
“Therefore, if we really want to see SDGs we need to increase this digital inclusion. We need to increase the divide in terms of connectivity in terms of skills in terms of knowledge, because those who have access to these digital devices are becoming more empowered than those who don’t have.”