Uncertainty In NIS: Dearth Of Top Officers Mars Operations

Some Nigerians have decried the current level of poor performance of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) which they attributed to dearth of senior officers to man sensitive positions in the organisation.
They made the criticism while recounting their experiences to The Tide source in Abuja.
One of them is a Nigerian, who returned from Europe to renew his international passport, which had some two months to expire.
The respondent, who simply called his name Ibrahim, expressed sadness with the frustration he experienced in the service Headquarters to renew his passport yet could not be attended to.
He said after struggling to obtain his National Identification Number (NIN), a precondition for the passport renewal, the service said he could only apply for the document and return in two weeks for image capturing.
The Diaspora Nigerian told The Tide source that he felt embarrassed that an office which was dealing with citizens with international exposure could be talking about staggered processes in the issuance of passports.
“This office is toying with the future of its citizens if it fails to issue travelling documents promptly on request; is it that it does not have the manpower to carry out its primary responsibility.
“Nigerians abroad chose to return home to update their documents as most of the times the passport booklets are not available in their countries of residence.
“NIS prefers to issue temporary travel permits for a foreign-based applicant to come home even after the person had paid a fee that is higher than the main passport booklet.
“This is unacceptable.’’
Visits to some passport processing offices of the service showed that a lot of applicants turned up and would spend the whole day without success.
The Tide source reliably gathered from some Nigerians during interview that apart from the passport booklets supplied not being enough to meet demand, some officers who could be reported to did not exist.
Some Immigration officers reported that the top level management of the Service was depleted due to the steady retirement of personnel and withholding of recent promotion interview conducted to fill the gaps.
The promotion examination carried out since 2021 was hanging in the Service board’s office.
It was gathered that of the eight Deputy Comptrollers-General heading eight directorates of the service, only two remained in service while six had retired since 2021.
The sources alleged that there was no sign that the Board of Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire, and Immigration Services, saddled with the responsibility to fill the gaps, was in a hurry to do so.
“As it is, apart from Account/Finance and Visa/Residency Directorates, the rest directorates are headed by Assistant Comptrollers-General against the provisions of the Nigeria Immigration Act.