According to information obtained by The PUNCH, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has issued a total of 66,929 official and diplomatic passports to public office holders since the implementation of electronic passport issuance in January 2007 up to August 2023. Additionally, more than 1,091 of these travel documents were provided to newly-elected and appointed public officials following President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration on May 29, 2023.
Acting Comptroller-General of the NIS, Caroline Adepoju, shared these details during an interview with the newspaper. Adepoju mentioned that over 16 million passports, including those for foreign nationals who later became Nigerian citizens, have been issued during this period.
She further elaborated that more passports are currently in the process of being issued to new public office holders (including newly-appointed ministers), immigration officers on diplomatic missions, and some military attachés.
Adepoju also clarified the breakdown of these passports, stating, “For diplomatic passports, which are issued to diplomats, we have issued 125 now. This includes some officials in the presidency, our personnel on diplomatic missions, and some military attachés. So far, we have issued 125 diplomatic passports. For the official passports, that amounts to 966 passports.”
Regarding the historical context, Adepoju explained, “Prior to 2007, passports were issued manually. The electronic passports came into being on January 1, 2007. So, to date, I can tell you that the total number of passports that have been issued is 16,361,966. That is the total of all the passports that have been given. As for the diplomatic passports, we have 12,470 issued since 2007. And the official passports, we have issued 54,459 passports.”
Under her leadership, Adepoju noted that more than 337,756 personalized booklets have been issued, both domestically and internationally, from May 30, 2023, to August 31, 2023.
Adepoju also took the opportunity to encourage Nigerians to apply for their passports online without the need for intermediaries or agents. She expressed concerns about the use of fictitious information when agents apply on behalf of applicants and emphasized the importance of direct applications for smoother processing and communication.
The head of immigration also provided an update on the electronic registration of migrants, revealing that more than 300,000 migrants have been duly registered in the system. “We have approximately 300,000 migrants electronically registered in this system. Out of these, approximately 25 percent, which amounts to 75,000, are regular migrants, while the remaining 75 percent, equivalent to 225,000, are irregular migrants,” Adepoju disclosed.
She highlighted that this registration process is an ongoing initiative, part of their efforts to enhance national security and regulate the presence of migrants in the country.
Former Nigerian Ambassador to Singapore, Dr. Ogbole Amedu-Ode, explained the significance of specialized documents like official and diplomatic passports. These documents ensure that the holders, often engaged in important state matters, are internationally recognized and granted the necessary courtesies and privileges to effectively carry out their duties. “For diplomatic passports,” he elucidated, “it is established in the Vienna Convention that diplomatic agents, whose persons are inviolable, need to possess and travel with a document that provides them with certain privileges and responsibilities to facilitate their diplomatic missions.”
