Nigerians in South Africa protest against delay, high cost of passport processing

Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

Nigerians in South Africa under the umbrella of Nigeria Union, South Africa have protested what they called “excruciating” cost of passport replacement and renewal.

In an open letter to the Consul General of Nigeria in Johannesburg, Abdulmalik Ahmed, they lamented that they were charged unreasonable fee of R2, 000 and R120 for loss of passport processing and passport capturing.

Besides, the Nigerians complained that the minimum five-months required for passport renewal and nine months for replacement of lost passport was too long.

They lamented that their repeated appeals to the consulate for consideration had fallen on deaf ears.

They threatened to embark on necessary action both at the consulate in South Africa and Nigeria, if their demands were not met.

The letter read, “We regret to note that despite series of outcry from Nigeria community in South Africa and calls from nooks and crannies of the country about the unreasonable fee of R2,000 and R120 you imposed on Nigerian citizens for loss of passport processing and passport capturing respectively, you remained adamant in inflicting excruciating pains on our compatriots whose passports were stolen, lost, damaged or misplaced.

“The non-challant attitude over the cry of Nigerians, relative to the above submission is preposterous and mind-boggling to say the least.

It seems as though the Mission is only interested in how to extract money out of Nigerians not minding their pains with no plan whatsoever to improve service delivery at the consulate hence the minimum turnaround for passport renewal is now five months and lost passport nine months.

“There is no justification whatever to this premeditated hardship inflicted on the people. It is rather unfortunate that the purpose wherein diplomatic missions are established all over the world as enshrined in Nigerian foreign policy statement which among others is to cater for the interest of Nigerian citizens in a host state is defeated.

“We demand that the unreasonable R2,000 penalties for lost passport and extra R120 for passport capturing (after payment of legitimate $106 and extra charges of R50 imposed by consulate and OIS services) should be stopped with immediate effect.

“We demand that the time frame for passport renewal and replacement should not be more than one month.

This is because the avoidable delay makes corruption inevitable as applicants would be desperate to get their travelling documents on time and apply or renew their immigration documentation.

“It is imperative to add that if these demands are not met, we shall be left with no options than to embark on necessary action both at the Consulate in Johannesburg and in Nigeria to stop this calculated diplomatic extortion of Nigerians being perpetrated at the Consulate General of Nigeria.

“This open letter is necessary at this point in time as all our communiqué and plea to your Excellency to withdraw the charges imposed on our compatriots for consular services seem to have fallen on deaf ears.”