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The Acting Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service, Wuraola Adepoju, speaks with STEPHEN ANGBULU on border security amid the Niger embargo, its challenges with passport issuance reforms and why Nigerians should shun third party routes to obtaining passports
You were appointed the Acting Comptroller-General of the NIS about three months ago, how interesting or tough has the journey been?
I was appointed the Acting Comptroller-General of the Immigration Service on May 30, 2023. I have always taken pride in saying that I’m the first appointee of this government (laughs). I would say the journey has been interesting. What I have been able to accomplish on this is due to the support I enjoy from my immediate subordinates and every other person in the service. I have also enjoyed the support of the government and our personnel. It has afforded me the opportunity to see the service from the top. It has given me a bird’s-eye view of the service.
When you assumed office, you promised to prioritise the well-being of your personnel, and a few weeks after that pronouncement about 7,000 personnel were promoted. Aside from this, what are you doing to improve their welfare and make the service better?
There is an ongoing training of our cadets. When you talk of morale, not only does training boost the morale of officers, it improves their service delivery and enhances their confidence. There is an ongoing training at our training school in Kano; we are training about 600 cadets there. Also, we have been able to purchase buses which we have deployed with the support of the good people of Nigeria, like Chief Arthur Eze and Access Bank, who supported us with buses. Also, the cooperative society bought five 18-seater buses and we deployed about six buses that ply the major routes in Abuja. For housing, the BUA foundation gave us an award of about N500m. That was there before I came on board, but I have asked that the money should be used for the construction of residential accommodation for junior officers. Very soon, the construction will commence, because essentially, accommodation, transportation and staff development are very crucial and germane to the welfare of our personnel. Also, the issue of payment of their allowances; I’m making consultations on how to get the funds to pay pending transfer allowances, but as for repatriation allowances, death benefits and others like that, we pay immediately because there is always fund for that.
How do you intend to raise the funds for the pending allowances, since the money you raise from passport issuance goes into the federal purse?
Yes, apart from the internally generated revenue, which we have a share in, our technical partners who assist us in the provision of some of these services also have their share. Sometimes we get interventions, which we plan to explore to enable us to take care of this very important aspect.
Analysts blame all border agencies, including immigration, for the illegal importation and proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Last July, some were intercepted while coming from Mali through the Idiroko border. Why is it so difficult to detect the movement of arms slipping through the borders?
You will agree with me that since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, sub-Saharan Africa has been inundated with small arms and light weapons. The issue of illegal arms importation and proliferation is a serious concern to us. We acknowledge the need for enhanced border security measures. Although that is not within the purview of our responsibilities, in the light of interagency collaboration, you see, it is important that we deploy more sophisticated detection devices at all borders. So, they are in their numbers. But we are doing everything we can to ensure that such have reduced the importation of arms and its proliferation. It is the collective responsibility of every one of us and the border agencies. We need equipment. We need logistics to enable us to detect these things. Some people would have loads of other goods that you will consider innocuous. Meanwhile, beneath those things they have piled arms. So, I think the customs have the devices to detect these weapons no matter where they are hidden. They may need more to be deployed in our borders.
Your visit to Sokoto was to ensure compliance with the ECOWAS’ directive to shut all land borders with Niger, do you think building a wall could have eased this?
Border security is of utmost importance and our approach should be multifaceted. While border walls have been effective in some contexts, the situation in Nigeria requires a comprehensive strategy that includes technology, intelligence-sharing, well-trained personnel and diplomatic efforts. But to build walls? No, we don’t build walls. We build bridges. Migration is an integral part of socioeconomic development in any society. What we do is to prevent bad people from coming into the country. Migration is an agent of technology transfer. No nation is an island. Besides, Nigeria is the big brother in Africa. We are one large family with all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is a key player in the development of Africa. We can’t completely shut our borders. You know that Nigerian borders are contiguous. What that means is that we share common cultural heritage with the people on the other side. So, what we do is to ensure that we prevent the bad people from coming in. We cannot stop people from migrating. When you migrate, you can transfer technology and skill. Migration is part and parcel of mankind. It is inherent in humans to do that. So, we don’t build walls, we build bridges but we prevent the bad guys from coming in.
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