New e-passports: Nigerians in Europe at a fix over December deadline
Goodluck Jonathans
Chaos, pandemonium and anger are currently the orders of the day at the Nigeria Embassy in London as many citizens struggle to meet the deadline of December 31, 2010 when the current International passports carried by Nigerians will no longer be valid.
United Kingdom is one of the countries that hosts the largest concentration of Nigerians after Nigeria and the deadline as given by Nigerian government, couple with the numerous challenges people have to meet everyday could be making the December deadline unrealistic.
According to EMNnews.com investigations, Nigerians who visit the Embassy to carry out various required duties such as regularisation of passports either through re-issue to upgrade to the new e-passport , or renewal of expired ones or those visiting for travelling visas are facing untold sufferings everyday as the Embassy appear to be short-staffed.
In particular, the Embassy has been a punishment haven for children brought in everyday for formality reasons but are subjected to sufferings and hardships due to overcrowding and lack of recreation corners where they could take refuge on visits and play the day away without stress.
Mothers are forced to contend with the punishment of cuddling and carrying their children and in many instances, large families are most hit.
As against the old system of issuance of International passports whereby photographs are supplied by applicants, the current passport called e-passport is given with passports taken at the embassy embedded on the issued International passports.
So, every family no matter the number has to be present physically so that individual passport of every family member could be taken and this is the worse situation.
Many family members take their holiday off to meet up their application while many squeezes their off-duty holiday to meet up, and when confronted with such uncertainty anger, frustrations and abuse of staff take over.
A week-long visit to the Embassy recently exposed an air of disenchantment as people complain of undue suffering, hunger and subjection of children to unnecessary hardship and punishment.
Among the problems that people have to contend with are overcrowding and non- provision of children playing gallery where twenties of kids visiting the embassy daily could have found solace.
The resulting inconvenience has created scenarios of occasional lawlessness caused by those who are frustrated and aggravated.
The current state of affairs at the Embassy if discovered by the British law enforcement Agencies may create penalty imposition
Nigerian Embassy, Central London
Among the dangers much inherent are stampede induced problems such as fire- outbreak and infighting which may create a sudden run for cover.
Though, such scenarios are unlikely but the British Security Authority holds the principle that prevention is better than cure. The immunity enjoyed by the Embassy could be creating a total openness for danger and havoc.
There is the danger of suffocation in the event of fire alert or any similar occurrences which may be dangerous for the level of overcrowding.
According to John Ezenwa, one of the frustrated applicants for the e-passport: “There had been total lack of good planning. The issuance of the new e-passport should be given more time and given a more calculative discharge considering the complexity of life in the United Kingdom”.
Already, a December deadline is staying while Embassy Management is failing to notify Nigeria government of the need for the extensions of the deadline to avoid deadly rush and the accompanied consequences.
Embassy staff members have had to contend with huge tasks unusual for their routine job, an indication that the High commission office is grossly under-staffed.
Nigeria Embassy serves between 150-200 in each of their department each day while nothing less than 500 Nigerians turn up to carry out one service or the other. From the staff
Large numbers of those who visit are turned back as mostly, the entrance door is shut to outsiders at 1pm.
Nigeria E- passport
Many who come from far distance are not always aware of the closing door time.
Nigeria introduced a chip-based e-passport to be in line with the new world passport order while also using the opportunity to check the ever growing cases of forgery and identity theft or impersonations.
The new e-passport has an embedded microchip that stores personal information of the holder.
On the eve of the introduction, Nigerians chargeable fees for the e- passports for administration fee is 8,500 naira ($67).
It has the advantage of having the biometric data of the holder encrypted in the microchip embedded somewhere in the passport, making it impossible to tamper with.
Also visit:http://emnnews.com/articles/nigerian-embassy-plans-home-visit-services-for-disabled-and-elderly/
and
http://emnnews.com/editorial/tears-angers-and-frustrations-as-nigerians-queue-for-new-e-passport/
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Thank God this is the last time i would hold a Nigerian passport,,
I want to throw away my Nigerian passport after i naturalise… this is one document that is certain to cause you endless embarrassment if and when you are in possession of it. And this is the one time in my whole life, i feel ashamed of being a Nigeria, ie, when travelling and i would have to present the green thing
Pathetic I must say to those who want to throw away their Nigerian Passports more grease to your elbows to increase the level of your stupidity, naivety and foolishness.
Do you know tomorrow????????????????????????
Look at China and India today super strong in Technology and Economical growth. People like you will in the future look for visa’s to come and do business in Nigeria or eat your vomit and try to re-apply for the passport.
Dont worry I am not a politician at least not yet. But I am resident in London and 30 years old. So dont think I am writing bcos I’m old or not leaving abroad. I am young and leave in London.
SHAME ON ALL THE IDIOTS…………………..
My dear good friend Joan, there is nothing like being an idiot because one wishes to give up his Nigerian passport. It is a matter of choice. If one wishes to give up his/her passport that is his/her choice and must be respected because he knows best why he wants to part with it. By the way, having a Nigerian passport does not make one a Nigerian hence there are other identifiers that make you a Nigerian rather than the green abused and worthless paper floating around in the black market in Europe and USA.
Oh well I always laugh at Nigerians like Emmanuel and Omo Agege because they are one of them Nigerians who think naturalising to become a citizen of another country is the end of their predicaments… I am a Nigerian and a very proud one indeed…. I was born here in England and grew up here but at the same time, I am so happy that parents took me to Nigeria to learn our culture…and I must tell you all that the best part of my life was actually spent in Nigeria and it made me appreciate Nigeria now more than ever …This is the irony of life …as you people plan to naturalise and throw away your Nigerian Passport….there are lots of other people out there wanting to naturalise to become Nigerians… I know of two Germany citizens who recently naturalised to become Nigerians…if you guys think Nigeria aint for you…it’s of no need to badmouth the country just because you wanted to naturalise somewhere else!