By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Federal Government yesterday said henceforth the country would adopt the principle of reciprocity in the issuance of visas to foreigners that come into the country.
By this, it will treat foreigners seeking Nigerian visas the way Nigerians are treated by their respective countries.
This is because the government has planned to introduce more stringent surveillance measures at the country’s borders to checkmate the inflow and outflow of people to ensure that the country is safe.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, stated this at the Business Day Conference, titled: Nigeria Forward: Catalysing Funding for High Impact Social Projects, with the theme, “Funding for Change: Building Bridges for a Resilient Nigeria.”
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The Minister said that the era where countries treated Nigerians with levity in terms of visa issuance was over, adding that the Nigerian government would adopt the principle of give and take.
Tunji-Ojo, who is the keynote speaker on the topic, “Ministry of Interior potential high impact social projects”, said the topic was very important to him because it talks about vulnerability and the weakest people in the country.
“The credibility of performance of every government has to be based only on the evaluation of how the government handles the weakest in the society. The essence of government is not just to protect the strong but to make up and amplify the needs of the weak.
“That is why when we came I realized that. I tell people, that I do not carry the burden of performance just for myself and my family, I carry the burden of performance for my generation.
“And it is important that every youth in government must understand that. The performance of youth in government will only open the doors for others. The non-performance will just bring us the normal Nigeria mantra, “You see them, them no know anything.”
“It’s time for us when we find ourselves in office, we have to understand. I always said this, my father didn’t give me the Nigeria of my dreams. Yes, but that is not an excuse for me not to give my children the Nigeria of their dreams.
“It means the responsibility of transition from where we are to where we want to be, cannot forever be laid at the doorsteps of yesteryears, and it has to be laid on our doorstep.
“The Ministry of Interior, for anybody who understands governance, is very integral in any nation beyond passport. When my old students association hosted me on Friday last week, I said I don’t want to be remembered as the Minister who solved the passport problem because there are bigger things to be solved.”
On the principle of reciprocity, he said, “Yesterday (Wednesday), the director of the Center for Illegal Migration in Turkey, came to my office. And I told him in the next couple of weeks expect reciprocity in terms of travel policy.
“Any country that does not give me the visa on arrival cannot have a visa on arrival in Nigeria. I’m sorry but it is the truth. We’re not a dumping ground. If you say you are useful, people will see you as being useful.
“But if you tell people you are useless, people will tell you why you are this useless. We want to partner with you and so on the table, we must be partners, we must be equal partners and our relationship of investment must be based on the principle of reciprocity.
“So we are doing that to all the countries in the world. The committee is working. I will receive the report tomorrow, you charge me $100 for a visa, and I will charge you $100 for a Nigerian visa.
“If you give me a visa on arrival. I give it to you. If you say the condition for me to enter your country today is that I must have an American visa, Schengen visa, UK visa, etc, you will have the same conditions to enter my country. It is not a fight, it is about the issue of mutual respect.
“My job is interior security and not external. So let’s call a spade a spade. We must change our perception. Perception is everything in life. Perception is your reputation, if people have a wrong perception about you, they will have a negative interpretation about who you are.
“So, for us, we’ve been doing that. I told them yesterday, that you have stopped issuing Nigerians with Schengen visas, American visas, etc, please tell your people to change it because on issue of visa reciprocity is my own. The way you respond to us is the way we will respond to you, so you know we are all partners in terms of quality.
“If they don’t know I say this, in Africa, this is the biggest economy. And you see the kind of assets Ghana has, the kind of assets South Africa has, even Seychelles, we don’t have. I’m not asking any country to open their gates to all 220 million Nigerians, no! That it’s impossible. But at least we have to have a meeting point based on mutual respect.”
The Minister noted that the issue of porous border has given serious challenges to the security apparatus of the country and harped on the need to know the inflow and outflow of people from other countries to Nigeria.
Elucidating On border control, the Minister said, “On the issue of border control, I want to plead and I want to say this, there’s a need for advocacy. I want to talk from the heart and not from the head. Let me say this. By my analysis one of the major problems we have, and I will plead with our journalists in the house to be a bit investigative in this regard.
The Minister lamented the current process of issuance of passports to Nigerians where people will spend the whole day at the immigration office trying to get their passports.
The Minister, who also spoke on the issue of identity management, wondered why the country should not have the details of every citizen in one data.
He said, “The agenda of the ministry is that we cannot have the proliferation of identity. We must have what we call an SPC – Single Point of Contact for our identity management services.
“Why would anybody need to do a fresh biometric to get a passport? Why do you need to do biometrics to get your driver’s license? While in America your social security number is your social security number. You don’t go to the bank and say I want another identification number.
“This proliferation is not healthy for the economy. So the ministry will do our best to ensure we can harmonise Nigeria’s data basis into a single point that every agency and service provider can plug. Its technology, it is not rocket science. It’s called common sense. It is what it is all over the world. All we need to do is copy and paste.”
Speaking at the conference, the Publisher of Business Day, Frank Aigbogun, said the organization is very passionate about doing its best to move Nigeria forward and that its focus will be on crystallising funding for high-impact social projects.
“Raising funding for SDGs projects whether the focus is on health, education, curtailing infant mortality or just providing a better life for the people, the array of speakers and panelists will speak to our issues,” he said
He said Business Day takes pride in taking an interest in working together with all other partners in the country to bring about the development that all Nigerians crave.
On her part, Ure Utah, Founder of Bridge Synergy, said without partnerships, no country can move forward.
Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dasuki Arabi, said undoubtedly within the African continent, Nigeria stands as a beacon of hope.
Also speaking, the Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, called for investment in the digital public infrastructure.
