That 100 per cent increase in processing fee for the Nigerian international passport by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), is one financial imposition too many on Nigerians. Government seems to lose touch with reality that Nigeria is a country where millions of citizens are poor and struggling with basic things of life. Besides, coming less than a year after the last increase, the latest increase confirms a widely-held notion that this government prioritises tariffs and levies more than policies that facilitate increased production, or that seeks to improve the welfare of ordinary citizens. The major disservice of the increase is to force more money from overburdened taxpayers and make them poorer, even as they suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. The Nigerian Immigration Service, and indeed the supervising Minister of Interior should revert to the old fee. The sharp increase is not justified in the face of economic realities or by the content nor external features of the document.
According to the Immigration Service, fee for the 32-page five-year validity passport had been increased from N50,000 to N100,000. The 64-page version that was increased from N70,000 to N100,000 in 2024, is now N200,000. The reason for the increase, according to NIS and the Interior Ministry is to enhance efficiency in delivery time and boost integrity of the document. It is the same excuse given for previous increases since 2019, when the e-passport was introduced. Successive ministers have made efforts to recalibrate the process to achieve levels of efficiency. That cannot be denied, but it is no reason to embark on yearly fee increase.
The authorities need be informed that apart from being a travel document, the international passport provides recognition of a person’s identity and citizenship. It is a vital document that every citizen should have all the time, and not a commodity to be traded each time government is pressed for money. It is the constitutional responsibility of government to make it available and affordable. Owning a passport shouldn’t be a luxury but a legal document to facilitate access to education, health and other social investment programmes of government.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) is right to insist that the increase is arbitrary and discriminatory against poor Nigerians. Government must at all times seek to balance quest for revenue with rights of citizens. The increase, indeed, violates Nigerians’ right to citizenship, supported in chapters 2 and 4 of the Constitution.
What government has done by its addiction to increases in tariffs and levies is to systematically deny millions of citizens access to the document. As rightly pointed out by the Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), a country that struggles with payment of N70,000 minimum wage has no justification to continue on the part of systematic extortion of citizens. FENRAD notes that Nigeria has one of the highest passport fees relative to income globally. It is 13 per cent of the monthly minimum wage in South Africa. In the United States it is 14 per cent. In Germany, it is 3.5 per cent. In Nigeria, it is 143 per cent of the minimum wage. That is exploitative and unacceptable.
The excuse by minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, that the fee increase is to safeguard the integrity of the document is neither here nor there. The fact that foreigners obtain Nigerian passports illegally cannot be a function of pricing. Experience has shown that corruption and criminality are not deterred by costs. In fact, the higher the price, the more premium it attracts. He should blame the institutional corruption that is embedded in the system and the failure to prosecute offenders. It is a notorious fact that personnel of the Immigration Service are complicit in debasing the Nigerian passport. Let the government go after those who forge the document in and out of the system. The integrity quotient of the Nigerian international passport is dependent on Nigerians and how they present themselves to the international community. The country cannot run inefficient and corrupt systems at home and expect her passport to gain integrity abroad.
Understandably, the involvement of consultants who are hired to do what staff of the Immigration Service are employed and trained to do, is a process that invariably jerks up fees to accommodate consultants’ profits. Lawmakers should pay close attention to activities of consultants in the country’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies. It is the responsibility of the Legislature to protect citizens from extortion and excessive taxation. Lawmakers must rise to the occasion.
Nigerians demand relief in the economic and social conditions of the people. They demand that government slows down its policy of squeezing the populace for levies. If, as President Tinubu bragged recently, government has met projected revenue targets for year 2025 by August, Nigerians need to see clear improvement in citizens’ living conditions. There should be enough of squeezing hapless citizens at every opportunity just to increase government’s purse.
