NIS, touts and passport racketeering

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By Michael Owhoko

WITH a thriving environment for racketeering, process for obtaining the Nigerian passport has turned the booklet into a hire purchase document where applicants pay official cost at point of application, connoting preliminary down payment. This is the practice nationwide. Applicants who fail to comply with this process risk delayed services characterised by uncertainty, except for Very Important Persons, VIP,  and those with direct contact with top officials of NIS who enjoy some level of waivers exempting them from any form of bargains. Despite this, a balance sum is made as gift at the end of the exercise to the facilitating official in appreciation, but at the discretion of the applicant.

Sadly, some of these NIS officials have also extended these unethical practices to foreigners and the country’s missions abroad. As a government agency providing direct services to foreigners, NIS is the face of Nigeria.  How it carries out its activities and…



Source: Vanguard Newspaper