*Photo: Professor Kehinde Yusuf*
Some people take delight in real or fake bad news about Nigeria. But positive news has a way of unyieldingly calling into question and overwhelming bad news. And this is understandable. Afterall, as a Yoruba proverb says, “Ègàn kò pé kóyin má dùn” (‘Mocking honey doesn’t stop honey from being sweet.’).
In today’s Nigeria, one of the areas of such unyielding sweetness is the activities of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) under the Controller-General of Immigration, Kemi Nanna Nandap, superintended over by the Honourable Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
The most visible indicator of the good work that is being done by the NIS is passport issuance. Apart from facilitating international travel, among other functions, the passport, according to passportmakers.com, “serves as a tangible symbol of global citizenship, transcending the confines of national borders and emphasizing our shared humanity. In a world often plagued by division and strife, the act of crossing borders with a passport in hand symbolizes unity and solidarity, reminding us that we are all interconnected members of the global community.”
The efficiency of passport issuance by a country is therefore one of the means of rating the country in relation to others. In fact, the Henley Passport Index has been established as an “authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations, giving users the most extensive and reliable information about their global access and mobility.”
In the Henley Passport Index for 2026, the Nigerian passport is ranked 89 with a visa-free score of 44. This is an improvement from the 2025 ranking of 94, 2024 ranking of 95, 2023 ranking of 97, and 2022 ranking of 98. This shows a steady rise in ranking of the Nigerian passport for the past five to six years.
In the past, as widely reported, Nigerian passport issuance had been bedevilled with racketeering and other untoward practices which led to the restriction of access to or shortage of passport booklets, opaque passport application and processing procedures, passport counterfeiting, delay in passport issuance due to slow application and processing, incomplete information (especially due to third party involvement in passport application processing), exploitation of applicants and non-collection of printed passports by applicants. These and related problems have undermined the international standing of the Nigerian passport.
The government has made different efforts to address these problems. These include the digitalisation and simplification of the application process, the creation of new passport offices in different locations across the country, a digitalised payment system, and the introduction of tracking facilities for monitoring the progression of the application processing and for getting instant feedback.
These measures have resulted in different levels of success. They have created transparency in the passport issuance process, opportunities for immediate identification of information inadequacy or inconsistency and timeous remedy of the identified problems, and instant printing and collection of passports by applicants. These developments have attracted commendation from Nigerians within the country and in the Diaspora.
It was therefore not surprising when Ambassador-Designate Reno Omokri rebutted a 6 May, 2026 report in Punch newspaper by Stephen Angbulu titled “Nigerian passport climbs global ranking, slips in visa-free access.” Angbulu had said in the report: “The Nigerian passport climbed six places on the Henley Passport Index since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, rising from a global rank of 95 in January 2024 to 89 in the latest April 2026 edition. However, the actual number of countries Nigerian passport holders can visit without a visa fell by two destinations.”
Omokri noted as follows in his rebuttal: “In particular, you stated that ‘The most well-documented is Ethiopia, which scrapped visa-on-arrival for Nigerian citizens in October 2022, requiring Nigerians to obtain visas from the Ethiopian embassy in Abuja before travelling. The change came barely two weeks after Ethiopian Airlines emerged as a core investor in the Nigerian national carrier project. Ethiopia, which had been one of the most accessible destinations on the African continent for Nigerian travellers, is now effectively inaccessible by any route.’”
Omokri challenged the claim by observing: “[V]isa-on-arrival access has been restored for citizens of Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu, due to the effective diplomatic engagement undertaken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Her Excellency, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs. For example, I travelled to Ethiopia on Saturday, 11 April 2026, with my Standard Nigerian Passport, the standard passport available to all Nigerian citizens, and was issued a visa-on-arrival at Bole International Airport by the Ethiopian Immigration and Citizenship Service. Please find attached a copy of the visa-on-arrival issued to me by the Ethiopian authorities, which is available to all Nigerian citizens.”
My personal experience in the specific case of the Ilesha Passport Office headed by the Passport Control Officer Olufemi Adetunji affirmed the efficiency and applicant-friendly nature of Nigerian passport issuance today and justified the widespread commendation by different stakeholders. My interaction with the office started after my enquiries on the renewal of my passport recommended to me that the Ilesha office was my best bet in terms of proximity and potential seamlessness of passport acquisition.
I enquired from one of the officers at the office and was referred to the web link of the Nigeria Immigration Service, and was directed to apply online. I also sought to know how much I would be required to pay for a standard passport, and I was informed that at the appropriate point during the online application, I would see the cost on-screen.
Then I started the online application. The form requested for my National Identification Number (NIN). When I entered it, the information on my old passport was displayed on the screen, side-by-side with my NIN personal data. And this was the point at which I got stuck, because my old passport had my title as part of my lastname (or surname), but my NIN details had only my lastname without a title. The online passport system flagged this old passport and NIN lastnames as different names, and so it disallowed me from continuing to fill the application form. The NIS online system also recommended that I contact the passport office for the resolution of the problem. And I did so.
When I reported the problem to the Ilesha Passport Office, I was informed that I had to be processed for change of data which would require removing the title from my old passport data. I was further informed that the process would require that I submit my birth certificate or corresponding declaration of age, my certificate of local government origin, a sworn affidavit of change of name and a newspaper announcement of the change of name. I duly processed and submitted these documents and paid the required fees including for processing the change of data. Thereafter, the passport application process was allowed to continue and I was given an appointment online for the capture of my biometric data.
The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the Ilesha Passport Office was the courteous nature of the guard at the security post who directed me to the appropriate office. I also noticed the orderliness of the arrangement of the applicants who were seated in a well-ventilated shed within the office premises. After doing a final vetting of my application, I was ushered into the data capturing room.
In the data capturing room, I observed that further vigilance was exercised, and the officers were alert to any observation that could require double-checking the information that an applicant supplied and establishing the authenticity of that applicant. Because my application required an Abuja approval of my change of data and it was already Friday afternoon, I decided to return the next Tuesday to pick up the printed passport. By the time I got to the Ilesha Passport Office on the appointed Tuesday, the passport was ready, and I collected it.
Moreover, a young female lawyer narrated the following personal experience: “I recently applied for a new international passport, and selected the Ilesha Passport Office for my biometrics capturing. I did so, since it was the closest passport office to my city of domicile, and because one applicant who had just processed his application had narrated the very positive experience he had had with the Ilesha office. The online process was straightforward and smooth, and by the time I completed filling the form, I had secured a date for data capturing and the fee was displayed on the screen. This facilitated my immediate online payment of the application fee.”
She continued: “On the appointed date, I was intrigued with how fast the biometric capturing process was and how professional the officers were. It was refreshing to witness such efficiency and coordination in a public institution, especially in a process many people often assume would be stressful and time consuming. From the orderly environment to the courteous attitude of the officials, the entire experience reflected a commendable level of professionalism and dedication to service delivery.”
She recounted further: “I was even more pleasantly surprised when I was informed that I would be leaving Ilesha with my passport that same day! And I did leave with it! I immensely appreciate the officers at the Ilesha Passport Office for enhancing my confidence in the Nigerian system and for renewing my hope that this country can assume a higher pride of place in the comity of nations. I believe that more members of the public should be enlightened and sensitised on Nigeria’s improved passport issuance process, as positive experiences like this deserve recognition and encouragement.”
In spite of the positive developments in passport administration in Nigeria as the above-mentioned experiences show, there is still ground to cover. For example, in comparison to Nigeria’s 89 rank and 44 visa-free score on the Henley Passport Index for 2026, Ghana is ranked 67 with a visa-free score of 67, and South Africa is ranked 46 with a visa-free score of 100. It is therefore important to find out what these and other more highly-rated countries are doing and from which Nigeria can learn to enhance our passport power.
Meanwhile, in closing, I join all who have been commending the national leadership of the NIS and the Ministry of Interior for providing the template which has produced the efficiency and fine experience that I and others have enjoyed at the Ilesha Passport Office.