The Senate has mandated the Committees on Interior and Foreign Affairs to engage Ministers, the Comptroller General of immigration, Ambassadors and Consular Officers to introduce measures to make it easy for Nigerians abroad to renew their passports.
The Senate is the upper chamber of Nigeria’s bicameral legislature, the National Assembly of Nigeria. The decision was reached after the consideration of a motion titled:
“Urgent need to remove the difficulty faced by Nigerians outside of the shores of Nigeria in renewing their Passport”.
The sponsor, Senator Matthew Urhoghide condemned the hardship faced by Nigerians in renewing their travel documents.
The lawmaker said the worst hit are nationals in Austria, Canada, Italy, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Senator Matthew noted that in the U.S. there are only four centers for passport renewal – Atlanta, California, New York and Washington D.C.
“Applicants spend months trying to renew expired passports. The only ones who get speedy attention are those that pay to the middlemen or directly to the embassy officials,”
He said.
The Public Accounts Committee Chairman decried the situation where Nigerians are made to physically present at renewal centers.
Citing capture as the reason given by the Immigration Service, Matthew said it was not tenable since applicants’ bio-data are already in the database.
The Senator lamented that at the renewal centers, there exist middlemen who are either working with or for officials of the Nigerian Embassies.
“This is especially true of renewal centers in the U.S. and Italy; videos of this practice are awash on social media. These middlemen demand money from Nigerians to book a capture (interview) date,”
“Payment for the renewal is done with credit/debit cards of the holder or owner only for himself or herself. Payment for the children or any other family member is done using money order and this money order has to be sent by post. This has recorded missing money orders.”
In a resolution, the Senate directed relevant ministries and agencies to increase the number of centers where passports can be renewed abroad, stop the use of middlemen and periodically assess the activities of foreign missions.
