The ‘refusal’ of two government agencies to synchronise and enable the issuance of my international passport on time was what put paid to my anticipated, and a hitherto-fated trip to the United States, where I was supposed to take residence for the six-week 2022 Mandela Washington fellowship.
As a result of negligence and unprofessionalism, I am now traumatised and betrayed by public service workers in Nigeria.
Or else how do I explain that after being selected for one of the most prestigious leadership mentoring programmes – the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2022 – in the world, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) jointly became the clog to my participation in the auspicious fellowship.
The ‘refusal’ of two government agencies to synchronise and enable the issuance of my international passport on time was what put paid to my anticipated, and a hitherto-fated trip to the United States, where I was supposed to take residence for the six-week 2022 Mandela Washington fellowship.
Both Washington and the United States Embassy in Nigeria exhibited a great degree of consideration and empathy by extending the deadline for submission of my passport for visa issuance several times and regularly called me up from time to time to get appraised of the latest information about my situation. But repeatedly I missed the deadlines extended because of the two Nigerian public service entities, eventually leading to the revocation of my offer for the fellowship.
In fact, after receiving the notification of the award from the U.S. Embassy, I got admission for the programme at the Rutgers University, New Jersey and subsequently received a flight ticket for the pre-departure orientation and other documents pertaining to the fellowship.
While I had received the Award of Excellence from the National Association of Information and Media Studies Students, as well as Campus Journalism Award in 2020, I also won a fellowship with the International Center for Journalists, African Academy for Open Source Investigation, before I capped it with the Overall West African Fact-Checker on Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking Research Fellowship.
Therefore, the offer by the government of the United States of America was to be the icing on the cake that would further expose me to the global scale of accomplishments.
Surprising, I initiated the process of renewing my passport in February, when I was shortlisted for the Fellowship interview.
First, a NIS official said that my National Identification Number (NIN) data did not tally with my Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) data and that I had to apply for a re-ordering and harmonisation, which was eventually approved weeks after foot-dragging.
It is extremely painful that after excelling in my media and journalism career so far, on the verge of international glory, my country just failed me. I feel so bad and betrayed by workers in these public institutions!
I was later told that the approval had to be implemented by their ICT “Technical Partners”, which I came to understand was a firm run by foreigners – IRIS Smart Technologies. The foreigners operating the IRIS system practically run the show in the production of passports for NIS headquarter. In fact, the NIS staff fidget even at the mere mention of their name. These guys appear to be in mortal fear of the IRIS!
To cut a long story short, the IRIS kept my file for two weeks and returned it without implementing the applied for change, querying that the available documentation did not match with my NIN data! Surprised, some helpful immigration officials discreetly verified my NIN data in the NIS database and confirmed that it was correct. By the time the file was returned to IRIS with a printout of the evidence, they said the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) server was down. This went on for weeks without even a ray of hope for a positive outcome.
Eventually, a very top female Immigration officer who got wind of my predicament waded in and intervened and ordered for my file. Boom! The workers claimed they couldn’t find my file again and it had gone MISSING.
How can my file just disappear like that? It was not only funny but very pathetic, making me feel the weight of the kind of woes that many Nigerians have to undergo, as a result of the sort of system that we run.
I wouldn’t deny the fact that the female assistant comptroller-general (ACG) and the public relations unit of the Nigerian Immigration Service did their best to intervene, but time was limited and so a simple issue that should not take more that an hour to correct took ages and led to the loss/revocation of a golden opportunity for my career.
This is a manifestation of the rot, ineptitude, negligence, inefficiency and total disregard for the value inherent in our country’s public service. This is a flagrant violation and abuse of not only my human rights but my right and privilege as a citizen of Nigeria, which I have laboured tirelessly to serve.
This is a fellowship that is highly competitive with participants from all over 49 African countries taking part.
It is extremely painful that after excelling in my media and journalism career so far, on the verge of international glory, my country just failed me. I feel so bad and betrayed by workers in these public institutions!
Mohammed Dahiru Lawal is a PRNigeria reporter and the author of “101 Fake News on EndSARS” which won a SABRE African PR Award 2022 mdlawal001@gmail.com
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