Buhari’s broom at Immigration

I have always said that a man who has no wife cannot lose his mother-in-law. Apply that to the hurricane currently sweeping the various sectors of public life and you will agree that those who have no integrity whatsoever cannot now claim that they stand the risk of losing their ‘hard-earned reputation’ when being made […]

I have always said that a man who has no wife cannot lose his mother-in-law. Apply that to the hurricane currently sweeping the various sectors of public life and you will agree that those who have no integrity whatsoever cannot now claim that they stand the risk of losing their ‘hard-earned reputation’ when being made to face the consequences of their actions. Most of the federal  parastatals are rotten from head to toe. Last week’s sack of Immigration boss David Parradang is only the beginning of what ought to be a comprehensive overhaul of the Immigration Service.
The Nigerian Immigration Service is one of the most brazen covens of corruption in the land. That is why a lot of young job seekers think it is the place to be. There is no attempt to even mask corrupt activities. It is standing there gidigba in plain sight. Try applying for a Nigerian passport and you’ll see how totally irredeemable the present corrupt system is. To begin with, no one will tell you the official cost of the Nigerian passport. You are simply told, “Bring N25,000”; or, “We have only the 64-page booklet and that will cost you N45,000”.
Don’t just take my word for it. Try it now. Approach any passport office — particularly the NIS headquarters in Abuja or the outpost in Festac Town, Lagos. It is always a bazar. You wonder whether corruption is in our DNA. I have a theory: If you notice so much confusion and motion without movement in any federal parastatal, chances are that it is all contrived to make the illicit toll gate thrive. Check out the exotic cars parked by lowly immigration officers whose salaries ordinarily cannot sustain a motor cycle. Watch the body language of those responsible for signing or approving the issuance of the passports and you would see an elaborately contrived democratisation of corruption.
It is that corrupt system that is at the heart of the embarrassing issuance of a genuine Nigerian visa on a fake Pakistani Passport to an ISIS fugitive by the name of Imam Al Assir. But for the vigilance of the security agencies of Lebanon who apprehended the terrorist at the Beirut International Airport before he boarded Egypt Air to Cairo en route Nigeria, we would have had hot potato on our laps by now.
Al Assir had been on the run since June 2013, after he and his fellow terrorists engaged in a deadly two-day battle with the Lebanese army in the southern city of Sidon. The army eventually seized his headquarters after 48 hours but Assir escaped with several of his followers and continued issuing audio statements while on the run. In 2014, a military judge recommended that prosecutors seek death sentences for Assir and 53 others.
Boko Haram had been boasting about its affiliation to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS. Abubakar Shekau who leads the dominant faction of the terrorist group recently appealed to ISIS leader Albaghdadi to come to his aid and help him defeat Nigeria. Amazingly, Ahmad Al Assir, the Sunni extremist already declared wanted in many countries,  was on his way to Nigeria! Without prejudice to whatever findings the ongoing investigation into the matter unearths, we all know that if the price is right you can purchase almost any document in Nigeria.
I have heard it said that the paucity of funds in our foreign missions which had led to a situation where diplomatic staff are being owed salaries, may be one of the excuses for the resort to bribery and other underhand practices in the issuance of entry visas. I beg to disagree. I can’t excuse crime under any such guise. If Al Assir had succeeded, we would probably in the coming weeks be counting the dead in hundreds in the battle zones — just because of the greed of a few immigration officials.
The authorities may want to gauge exactly how bad the comportment of our immigration officers at the land borders and airports is. At the airport, the immigration officer is a beggar who bids you welcome and asks what you brought for him from your overseas trip. Or, on your way out, he volunteers to help you fill your immigration form and then begs for something for the boys.
The worst case of bad behaviour by Immigration I ever came across happened at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. I had just seen off my son when I ran into a professional colleague who was convulsing with rage. “What’s the matter?”, I asked. “Ah, there will be trouble here today o!” He screamed. He then went on to tell me that his teenage son had just phoned him from the departure area that he had been robbed of $100 by a female Immigration officer.
What happened was that the woman had asked the boy what he was going to do in Ukraine. The boy produced his admission papers to the university and other documents. The woman smiled and then asked, “What did your daddy tell you to give us here?” The boy replied, “Nothing”. The woman asked to see his wallet and then neatly took out $100 with her own hands before waving the boy on. As soon as the boy passed that point, he called his father on his mobile phone and it was at that stage that I came ran into his dad in the terminal. We raised hell (to put it mildly). The most senior immigration officer on duty had to show up to retrieve the $100 from the woman which he returned to the student with profuse apologies. He then ordered the woman to change into her civilian clothes and go home.
All through, my heart bled. What do you want to tell that young man a few years down the line when he graduates and is considering career options? Would you be telling him to make sacrifices for a country whose official had robbed him at the onset of his overseas studies?
The corruption at the Immigration service is also replicated in many other government establishments such as the Federal Ministry of Education where officials exploit helpless persons  who come for Certificate Stamping. A searchlight  should be beamed on officials of the Education Ministry and the school principals to know how they deployed capital releases, especially the Education Tax Fund.
I’m enjoying this broom revolution!