The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has told the Nigerian Immigration Service to stop asking Nigerians, especially married women, to travel to its headquarters in Abuja to effect a change of name on their passport, The PUNCH is reporting.
He spoke at a dinner with members of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Media Centre and some social media influencers.
At the dinner in Abuja, Tunji-Ojo described the act as “inhumane”.
He said: “There is one stupid thing I have seen and it is that a woman gets married, changes her name, and then she has to come to Abuja all the way from say Kaura Namoda or Enugu just to come and effect a change of name in her passport.
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“It is absurd.
“I can’t just figure it that you want to change just your name and you have to be in Abuja.
“I have asked the immigration people: Is it that immigration people in Abuja have more than one head than those in the states?”
Tunji-Ojo said by March, the new passport reforms he is putting in place would ensure contactless biometrics enrolment to allow Nigerians to do their enrolments from their homes.
He said: “With the new reforms, you don’t need to travel to Abuja to change your data.
“Everything will be online.
“From March, once you have ever enrolled for your passport and you are coming to renew, please don’t come to my office, stay in your house and do it.
“We have contactless biometrics and this can be done in five minutes.
“We don’t need to keep taking your biometrics every five years.
“Who does that in the world?
“This is what #RenewedHope is about.
“It is about positively disrupting the process.
“By the grace of God, the issue of passports is the least of our worries.”
