Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
The recent hike in passport fees across board is yet again another brazen demonstration of insensitivity to the growing pains and suffering under the current administration.
The move itself is a clear metaphor of what the Germans called ‘’schadenfreude’’ wishes for the already pauperized and psychologically disoriented citizens hobbled by a series of anti-people economic policies orchestrated by some of the aides of President Bola Tinubu. This current increase falls within the purview of the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
Last week the upward review was made public on Wednesday through an official statement released by the Nigerian Immigration Service on X.
“Based on the review, 32-page Passport booklet with five year validity previously charged at Thirty-five Thousand Naira (N35,000.00) will now be Fifty Thousand Naira (N50,000.00) only; while 64-page Passport booklet with 10 year validity which was Seventy Thousand Naira (N70,000.00) will be One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000.00) only,” the statement revealed, noting that the passport fees remain unchanged in Diaspora.
The Nigerian government says the increase is part of its efforts to “maintain the quality and integrity of the Nigerian Standard Passport.”
Coming at a time Nigerians are groaning under excruciating pains of fuel subsidy removal and Naira floating, twin policies that have now turned a hydra-headed albatross causing unprecedented hardship in the land. One explanation for the latest government action is an exemplification of total disregard for the inhuman living conditions of Nigerian, mass poverty, unemployment and grinding suffering which has become a daily menu of the downtrodden.
As the people are left with no choice and pushed to the cliff with more hardship instead of succor from their political leaders, suicidal tendencies, depression and psychosis have increased according to statistics from health workers and health psychologists.
In the face of these insulting inequalities, political actors, appointed and elected public officers continue to live in embarrassing affluence and plutocratic decadence with total abandon.
What is more concerning is the sheer effrontery on the part of government not living up to the ideal it has consistently held up, given a litany of waste of public funds on grandiose , self-serving projects that have nothing in common with bettering of the lives of the people.
We call on the government to begin to reconsider its policies widely regarded as anti-people and begin to give thought to policies and programmes that could alleviate the suffering of the people and create opportunity for them to thrive.
Nigerians belong to all of us. The rationale given for the hike is morally and economically untenable, enough of anti-people policies, Nigerians are not in fiefdom.
