Nsikak Umanah, a US-based legal practitioner had gone to the Ikoyi, Lagos State, passport office of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), to obtain a new international passport. Barrister Umanah, was a victim of an armed robbery attack on the Victoria Island part of Lagos. The robbers made away with his valuables including a three-year old Nigerian International Passport with US and Canadian visas attached to it.

For Umanah, the Nigerian-born, USA based attorney, the entire event of January 27th 2015, could just be summed up in two words, “societal dysfunctions.” The victim added that, those that robbed him of his valuables, were miscreants, who took advantage of chronic and perpetual traffic hiccups on the streets of Lagos to dispossess motorists of their belonging.

Recently, Umanah, bumped into our Correspondent at the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) passport office in Ikoyi, and he reeled out the tape of life experiences during the few days he had spent in his country. According to him, “I made up my mind to let go the robbery attack, moreover most of what the robbers took from me, were what I would be able to recover with little or no headache.”

But he was wrong, for instance, his effort toward the recovery of his international passport which was one of the valuable items stolen from him that day, took a lot from him financially and physically. His encounter with NIS officials at the Ikoyi passport office, when he went to obtain a new international passport, continues to leave him with a spasm of nightmarish experiences, perhaps, that which could live with him for a very long time.

Umanah said what you see happening at Ikoyi passport office, “is a kind of an on-going racketeering, where every available space in and around the Ikoyi passport office has been converted to an extension of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS); where Immigration officers recruit their relations and touts to solicit for people who wish to obtain or renew their passports, where the environment looks like a market place, with people engaging in the activity of buying and selling. The astonishing part of it is that the management of NIS appears not perturbed about these nefarious activities going on under their nose even till now.”

When our Correspondent arrived the Ikoyi passport office, for confirmation of Umanah’s story penultimate Wednesday, the enraged Nsikak, was already causing chaos in one of the NIS makeshift container offices, littering the passport office complex. It was not difficult getting the angry Umanah to spill the beans.

Umanah’s Story

“I am tempted to believe that the fraudulent activities at the Ikoyi passport office have received approval from NIS high command, because the officers who get these clients render account to some other high officers somewhere in the system. Nobody would issue passport to you at the official price, but at the average price of N25,000.00 to N30,000.00 depending on your bargaining power and how fast you want your delivery,” he alleged.

However, inside sources confirmed to our Correspondent that some top officials of the agency were not unaware of the nefarious activities going on at the Ikoyi passport office of NIS, but were quick to note that the senior officials would never act, because they are receiving returns from their foot soldiers. Umanah also frowned at the infiltration of the Nigerian civil service by politicians, who according to him, influence appointments, including that of the heads of the passport offices, “when somebody gets the job of heading such sensitive position under such condition, he feels that he can do anything and get away with it because, he is paying dues somewhere and therefore feels protected.

According to him, on the first day of my visit to the passport office, he was greeted with: “Welcome sir, do you need passport? Do you need information? I can help you get whatever you want. These are some of the things you will hear at this office my brother,” he said.

Investigation revealed that a visit to the Passport office is like a visit to the market where one is confronted with sellers with unsolicited invitation to come and buy their wares with every tactics and marketing instinct they are able to muster. “Have you ever gone to Yaba market, you notice how those marketers attack or sandwiched you with their goods, asking for your patronage, that is what you find at Ikoyi passport office.

Umanah said that at the Ikoyi passport office, their good is the standard Nigerian international passport. According to him, out of curiosity, you might be tempted to follow the voices at the “market” beckoning on you, to know what they have to offer. Investigations revealed that one of the rickety Volkswagen buses parked outside the gate of the Ikoyi passport office “is a mini passport office, “where everything and anything can happen inside there.”

Officially, with effect from August 2014, the new 64-page e-passport costs N20,000. The e-Passport for those below 18 years costs N8,750, while applicants from 18-60 years will pay N15,000 for the e-passport. Those aged 60 years and above are expected to pay N8,750 for the passport. But nobody pays these amounts. Applicants who insist on paying the official rate end up waiting till eternity to get service. Umanah decried the trend, describing it as ‘shameful’.

Inside the bus is a computer powered by a mini generator, internet facility and a photocopying machine. This is where unsuspecting applicants are told they can be assisted to get the international passport within 24 hours. Asked how that will be possible, a young man, who gave his name as Edward, said if you are ready to pay the sum of N30,000,00 you will get it under 24 hours but if you pay N50,00.00 you can get it within eight hours. As you are still discussing, he brings out a piece of paper containing the requirements you are to fulfill in your passport requisition form.

In the list of general requirements he would present to unsuspecting applicant includes, Local Government letter of identification; Birth certificate/age declaration; recent colour passport photographs; Guarantor’s form sworn to before a Commissioner of Oaths/Magistrate/High Court Judge and Parents’ letter of consent for minors under16 years.

Other requirements are Marriage certificate where applicable; and Police report in case of a lost passport. You are told that for any of them you are unable to get, there is always a ready-made. For instance, letter of identification from your local government that may require you travelling back to your state, can be arranged for you, but you would have to cough out N10,000.00. Meanwhile, you can get the same state of origin certificate with less than N1, 500.00 at your State liaison office close to you. After one has been told of the different hurdles you will need to overcome before getting the passport, you might be tempted to seek their assistance. If you decide against it, you have to get ready for many more hurdles deliberately created by NIS officials at the main office, who have been informed by the touts of your refusal to patronize them. “If you think the touts were trying to rip you off, wait until you are confronted with the bigger picture by the Immigration officers,” Umanah stated.

Staring from the main gate to the complex, the Immigration guards inside a small kiosk, ask where you are going and what you need. There are more than 10 officers at the gate screening people going into the complex. One of the officers asks: “What do you want?” “Sir I want to get information on how to get the international passport”, you answer. Then, the next question from the officer is if you have somebody who is going to assist you and if your answer is in the negative, he offers to be your consultant.

He reels out the requirements you will need to get before logging into the official website of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). The officer tells you how long it will take you to get your photograph snapped and get it processed if you decide to follow the official route, but with proper negotiation, you can get it under eight hours if you pay as little as N25,000-N30,000.

He follows you into the large compound housing the Passport office, asking you to take a seat at the applicants’ waiting area. At the designated area, there are hundreds of applicants waiting to be called for photograph capturing.

As you wait eagerly for the officer to come back, you discover that it is not just the officer ‘’helping’’ you that is involved in the deal, but a pocket full of them. All this is a scheme, so that you won’t argue about the amount they would extort from you. He would tell you at the end of the day, the line of officers he would have to settle. After all, you saw most of them, with your file.

Phone conversation like “Oga, I am outside waiting,” “Where are you?” and “I can’t see you”, are what you are confronted with while sitting at the waiting areas as the applicants who have paid some Immigration officers want to let them know they are around. Intermittently some of the officers come around to the waiting area to meet some of the applicants, their candidates or client(s) as it is called.

So, it is not uncommon to see officers clutching applicants’ files and intermittently coming into the waiting areas to call their client(s). Those called follow the officers inside the room for photograph and data capturing, which is the major and most difficult aspect of the international passport processing. The question is: “What is the Passport Controller doing about it? He cannot feign ignorance of the racket going on under his nose?” asked Umanah.

Majority of the applicants who pleaded anonymity said they paid officers of the service to make the process easy for them as experience had shown that they could be on the waiting list for weeks if they decide to go online to fill the forms and wait to be called for the processing.

However, the spokesperson for the NIS, Chukwuemeka Obua, in his reaction, said he would not agree that officials of the service were those encouraging illicit activities at passport offices across the country. “We have the problem of touting in almost every sector of our society, so NIS is not exempted from this. But the service is doing all it can to fight this menace. That is the reason we keep telling any Nigerian, who want to obtain international passport to always go through the proper channel,” Obua told our Correspondent in a telephone chat.

One of the applicants said: “Don’t tell me the authority here does not know about the involvement of the officers in this business. Then what has the Oga, done to those involved?”

He continued: “I don’t want to believe that all the officers in this Ikoyi office officially have something to do with passport processing that you see almost all of them moving about with passport application files when they should be attending to other duties.’

Another applicant said the business would not have been thriving if Nigerians themselves do not believe in circumventing the system for their personal gains. “If Nigerians decide to follow the right path, there will be no more business for these people. She was quickly cut short by another applicant, who said “we are at their mercies except the authorities want the system to work for Nigerians, it won’t work.”