GRFDT

Interview with Rtd. Comptroller General of Nigeria

TRANSCRIPTION:

Interview with Rtd. Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammadu Babandede, who is currently the CEO of Sure4You Rescue and Resettlement Initiative, an NGO established to achieve social justice, gender equality, protection and integration of vulnerable street children, internally displaced persons, and returnees into the Nigeria society, through various interventions that include advocacy and sensitisation in partnership with Government, Civil Society groups and the Private Sector.

The interview is organized into four sections:

The history and development of migration policies in Nigeria

Migration policies and the policy on ease of doing business in Nigeria;

Migration governance in Nigeria

Migration Management Capacity Building

1.    The history and development of migration policies in Nigeria

What are your perceptions on the history and development of migration policy in Nigeria?

As a sending country, Nigerian leadership doesn’t have a good understanding of migration, and very clear evidence of this is the decision of top government officials to put the National Migration Policy 2015 in the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI). In my opinion, this portrays the highest level of misunderstanding of what is migration policy, because migration and refugee issues are entirely two different UN documents.

In your opinion,  did the post-colonial migration policies of Nigeria promote direct foreign investment and the transfer of skills and technology?

Historically, as a British colony, Nigerian pre-colonial migration policy was entirely under the purview of Her Majesty the Queen, and immigration policies were largely controlled by the colonial authorities, who restricted immigration to the country. After Nigeria gained independence, the first Immigration Act was established in 1963, setting out criteria for entering and staying in Nigeria. Since its inception, the act majorly concerned with security and a reciprocal concern for the commonwealth countries. During this period, the majority of the technical experts working in the Multinational Oil companies were citizens of the Commonwealth member countries. So, if one look at the pattern of foreign direct investment in post-colonial Nigeria, it was an investment for the West and not for Nigeria. Following the 1970s economic crisis due to falling oil prices, which led to a massive emigration of Nigeria’s best brains.   The military government introduced the indigenization policy in 1972 requiring foreign-owned companies to transfer ownership to Nigerians, this policy was passionately brought in to assuage domestic economic crisis but was not thoroughly planned and it lacked political sustainability. In the 1980s, the Nigerian government introduced the Aliens Compliance Order (ACO), which required all non-Nigerians to register with the government and obtain a resident permit. Still, the ACO is a perpetual policy of Her Majesty the Queen, which ensured that Commonwealth citizens were treated as semi-citizens of Nigeria and every other foreigner, including the Anglophone neighbouring countries of Niger, Chat, Cameroon, Benin, and Burkina Faso were treated as Aliens. Moreover, in the 1990s, Nigeria received a large number of refugees from neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leon. Consequently, refugee camps were set up to accommodate them and the Refugee Act 1992 was passed into law to establish the National Commission for Refugees.

What do you think about the current migration policies in Nigeria?

First, the location of the National Migration Policy (NMP) 2015 in the NCFRMI is a bad decision because the commission does not have the required institutional structure and competent manpower to drive the anticipated productivity and outcome of the policy. Secondly, the current NMP 2015 was drafted based on the device and funding of the EU, and when a country accepts to passion its policy document on the funding of a donor country, it cannot adequately get the answers to problems the policy is intended to address. And because the money invested in the processes came from the EU, the policy was designed to control people who would not leave Nigeria and neighbouring countries to go to Europe. That is all the story about the National Migration Policy 2015. And as it is said,  one who pays the piper, dictates the tune. Therefore, I agree substantially, that migration policy in Nigeria is not yet adequately decolonized. So as a whole, it is a one-way migration policy, not properly drafted and not well placed in the right institution to be driven and not well managed by the right people.

Are you familiar with any books, either academic or policy periodicals that provide historical account of the place of migration policy in Nigeria? If so, how resourceful are these accounts; and are there any such books you would highly recommend?

The National Migration Policy 2015 offers a lot of insight into the history and development of migration policy in Nigeria, but other than that, I have not come across any comprehensive book on the subject matter, specifically, there are few documentations on the development impact of migration policy in Nigeria. I think this is a huge opportunity for young researchers and academics to offer their own contributions towards nation-building. More so, you can get a lot of documents on the pattern of migration and activities of stakeholders in the field of migration in Nigeria from the website of IOM. 

2.    Migration policies and the policy on ease of doing business in Nigeria;

What is the nexus between migration policy and policies on the ease of doing business?

The policy on ease of doing in Nigeria was started by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and it was introduced as an Executive Order on the Promotion of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment on 18^th May 2017. As the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service (CGI) between 2015 and 2021, I used to be an active member of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), and the policy means that government officials should not put red tape in the services they give to the public.  Red tape means difficulties in the day-to-day jobs you do. The policy on ease of doing business observed 6 important issues as a whole: Transparency in MDAs, Default Approvals, One Government Directives, Entry Experiences of Visitors, Port Operations, and Registration of Businesses. One of the issues involved, for example, in migration management, when you talk of ease of doing business for citizens of Nigeria, you talk of travelling documents, it is a big issue because you can’t travel without an international passport. So, when government officials put a red tape in the administration of the issuance of passports, they are not only making business travels for citizens of the country difficult, but they are also making the criminality of migration easy. In order to make business easy for Nigerians, we introduced inclusive reforms in passport administration. As CGI during my tenure, NIS introduced 10 years passport to provide a longer period before citizens come back to renew their passports. We also introduced a passport delivery system, which reduced corruption tendencies among passport control officials who before this time would come to the Headquarters in Abuja to collect passport booklets for their respective formations and give bribes to passport store officials in the process. Ease of doing business also means that while the process of accessing government services is made easy, the security of the business environment should not be compromised. In respect of that, we introduced a biometric temporary document, known as the emergency travel document (ETC), which citizens of Nigeria abroad can use to return home in the event they lost their passport or for related reasons. Before we introduced biometrics on the ETC, anybody, including terrorists, drug traffickers, and some of whom may not even be citizens of Nigeria, could visit Nigerian embassies abroad and obtain a paper-based ETC, swear an affidavit to change their names and related information and visit Nigeria. But the new biometric temporary document ensures that on arrival in Nigeria, the biometrics of visitors would have been verified against the crime suspect index, Interpol i-24/7 and related databases.

Another important migration issue around the policy of ease of doing business is the entry experience of foreign business partners and investors. The executive order on ease of doing business directed that all ordinary tourist and business visas shall be issued or rejected within 48 hours of receipt of a valid application. The process for obtaining a visa, especially the visa on arrival has been automated into a web-based platform where applicants business visitors to Nigeria can apply from any part of the world and get approval within 48 hours. The principle of ease of doing business with regards to migration management portrays a competition between efficiency and security; ensuring that all eligible visitors are attended to very fast but without compromising national security. In order to address this issue, NIS introduced the MIDAS (Migrants Information and Data Analysis System), a very robust border management crossing system in the world. It was introduced at the airports and major border control posts across Nigeria. We connected the MIDAS to the Interpol i-24/7 database, and while serving as CGI, we had a progressing plan to introduce the interactive advanced passenger information (iAPI) system so that migration can be fast-tracked without compromising national security. The iAPI can allow the tracking and sharing of information about criminals and other suspects right from ticketing and at the point of issuance of a boarding pass by airline companies. Nigeria can share information with Interpol member countries about wanted criminals who intend to visit the country. In this situation, such criminals can be arrested at the country of origin, transit, or destination. Sometimes, a decision may be made to not arrest the suspect but keep tracking his movement in order to gather greater information about him and his network of criminals.

How do you think the current migration policies affect foreign direct investment?

You see, since immigration policy was initiated in 1963, Nigeria’s migration policy was based on the interest of the colonial masters. So, when I came on board as CGI, I initiated a review of the visa regime to tailor it towards national development. Before we launched the new visa policy in 2020, the 1963 immigration act categorized foreign nationals into two: Aliens and Commonwealth citizens, with a deliberate colonial purpose to promote the business interest of Her Majesty, the Queen of England. But the new Visa policy 2020 is fashioned according to the current and anticipated future economic needs of Nigeria. The policy is intended to promote investment and attract the best brains in science and technology, energy and innovation in research around the world. It also expanded the visa classes from 6 to 79 to accommodate diverse needs of migration (including tourism, student visa, internship, research fellow, religious visit, journalist visa, humanitarian visa, etc). For example, the Permanent Residence Visa classes include the Investors Visa -N3. The N3 visa is meant to attract to Nigeria, a permanent residence visa is issued to investors who imported a certain threshold capital into the Nigerian economy from $250,000-$500,000, in the Small-Scale Enterprise Industry; $500,000-$1000,000, in the Medium Scale Enterprise Industry; $1000,000 to $10,000,000, in the Large-Scale Enterprise Industry; and $10,000,000 and above in the Ultra Large-Scale Corporations. Provided there is evidence of retention of investors’ capital, permanent residence is renewable every 5 years. Before the new visa policy 2022, visitors to Nigeria had to obtain Nigerian visa from their country of origin or countries where they are residents. But the new policy introduced visa on arrival, which allows visitors, especially high -net business persons can visit Nigeria from any part of the world by applying online and receiving electronic pre-arrival approval letters in their emails within 48 hours.

In your opinion, what are the major challenges faced by foreign direct investors in relation to migration policies from 1999 to date?

I think the most difficult migration-related experience of investors in Nigeria lies in the bureaucratic procedure of obtaining a residence permit. One big issue that I consider too unnecessary and which I tried hard to improve when I was in office as CGI is the confusion of having Expatriate Quota and Residence Permit processed separately. It is a big bottleneck. Investors/companies have to go through a crazy and very expensive process of obtaining a Quota and thereafter take another very expensive process of obtaining the residence permit for $2000. When I was comptroller general, I wrote great memos against $2000 residence permit fees, and I predicted that it will lead to a crisis in the system, suggesting that many companies will connive with government officials to forge the residence permit. And unnecessarily, a large chunk of the revenue generated in the process goes to the private partners, the so-called CONTEC Global Limited. Imagine other countries will retaliate on Nigerians, for example, the UK, certainly, it will be very difficult for Nigerians abroad. I suggested in my memos that the Expatriate quota should be merged with the residence permit the moment a residence visa is issued. Let me paint a simple scenario on this issue. If a company obtains an Expatriate quota valid for two years, and then places an expatriate on the quota, and when the validity of the quota is less than 6 months, the company wishes to add another expatriate to the same quota, the present system subjects the company to renew the quota entirely because a one year or two years residence permit (CERPAC) cannot be issued on a quota having less than one-year validity. So, as far as I am concerned, it is a big confusion, and I will continue to go against it through constructive advocacy until the right thing is done.

what changes should be made to migration policies to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria?

I think the Executive Order on the Promotion of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment, which addresses 6 important issues on ease of doing business in Nigeria: Transparency in MDAs, Default Approvals, One Government Directives, Entry Experiences of Visitors, Port Operations, and Registration of Businesses, is the right action in the right direction. There is a bill on One Government Directives, which is supposed to ensure that all government services connect to one another in a seamless manner, so that the process of validation of business registration, residence permit, national identity number, fax number, etcetera, will be automated under a single platform in a way that corruption will be reduced to the barest minimum, and maximum transparency can be achieved. This will win the confidence of investors and make life and business easy for both citizens and immigrants.

3.    Migration governance in Nigeria

What are your perceptions of migration governance in Nigeria?

In my opinion, the migration governance framework in Nigeria is not properly defined and is lacking clear direction because we don’t know who is managing it. Honestly, when you ask a question, who takes care of migration in Nigeria, you can’t find a clear answer. The National Migration Policy 2015 provided a migration governance structure with levels of coordination: Ministerial Committee, Technical Working Group, Thematic Group and State and Non-state actors. But overall, the technical working group is the second level of coordination and consultation in migration-related matters, which makes recommendations to the Sectoral Policy Review Committee (SPRC) for approval, and it is chaired by the National Commission for Refugee, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI). If you look at the structure clearly, it is just a forum for dialogue on migration matters. There is no clearly defined institution to manage migration matters. The NCFRMI doesn’t have the capacity to drive the needed energy and resources to implement the policy. In my opinion, the Nigeria Immigration Service is the right agency to coordinate migration matters across all sectors because the Immigration Act 2015 provided a legislative mandate for the organisation to establish the directorate of Migration to be headed by a Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration. The directorate is responsible for signing all bilateral migration agreements on behalf of the Nigerian government, and it is empowered with enough diverse human resources to drive migration management for national development. The NCFRMI is only specialized in handling humanitarian crises of migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, but NIS despite having a competent capacity in that regard as well, it is having an additional mandate to promote the ideals of a migration economy through the National Visa Policy, 2020.

What are the best practices in terms of migration governance at the global level, and how far has Nigeria been able to follow those best practices?

I like the way Switzerland is managing migration. When Nigeria signed bilateral migration agreements with the Swiss in 2010, 2014, and 2017, we hoped that we could have a migration governance framework like their own. Nigeria should have an institution dedicated to manage all migration matters. In Switzerland, the State Secretariat for Migration, formerly known as Federal Office for Migration regulates migration matters. Migration is a very important development issue but in Nigeria, the government is too reluctant about it. With proper management of migration, the country will drive a lot of economic opportunities home from the diaspora. We can also achieve a great fit in addressing transnational crime from home. When there is a clearly defined migration framework, a well empowered institution, and great political will in our leaders in the right perspective, Nigeria can deal with the criminal network spoiling the image and business opportunities of the country. If we can achieve this, the image of Nigeria will regain its splendour and foreign investment will skyrocket. Another important issue that needs proper attention is the management of remittance from Nigerians in the diaspora. Remittance inflows to Nigeria in 2022 as released by the world bank is $20.9 billion, and this is a very huge amount of money that if strategically invested could transform the economy of the country. But unfortunately, Nigeria is not doing well here because of a lack of proper understanding of the role of migration in economic development. Only recently, the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a product that can attract dollars into the country, paying extra naira to Nigerians abroad and sending remittances in dollars through the central bank. However, the black-market rate of $ in Nigeria is almost twice the CBN rate, and coupled with the crazy cost of transfer using the Western Union and related companies, the new Naira-Dollar policy of the CBN may not yield the desired outcome.  

How do you see Reverse Migration in Nigeria, and if any, what are the possible challenges of the phenomenon?

During the first and the second world wars, Nigerians migrated to Europe as war veterans and returned home after the wars with good ideas and made great changes. But this time around, most Nigerians in the diaspora are professionals in various fields of endeavour, having great skills and experience and they are expected to return back and add value to Nigeria. But the opportunities to accommodate returned migrants into the Nigerian economy are very narrow, yet there are upcoming opportunities in the medical sector, especially in Lagos where Large and sophisticated hospitals are being established. But in other sectors such as construction, IT, Design, and the big Oil and Gas sector, the owners of the business prefer to bring in expatriates and pay them huge amount in dollars. Thus, in my opinion, we need to have an employment framework in our migration governance that will mandate companies in these sectors to consider Nigerians in the diaspora as expatriates and pay them well, and this will fast-track the transfer of skills to Nigerians understudying expatriates. During my tenure as CGI, I argued well and advocated for the place of return migration in migration governance. For example, in the new Visa Policy 2020, which I initiated and achieved, we made returning home for Nigerians abroad very easy, including those who find it difficult to hold dual citizenship. We introduced visa category N2A for Nigerians by Birth who Renounced Nigerian Citizenship in fulfillment of the provision of section 37(12) of the Immigration Act 2015, and the visa is accompanied by a residence permit, indefinitely. I also proposed the idea of introducing an Oversea Citizen’s Card (OCC), similar to that of India. Although India, unlike Nigeria, does not allow dual citizenship, they have an oversea citizen’s card which is used by Indians who took up citizenship of other countries to visit India anytime and are considered by the constitution of India as oversea citizens. The OCC will ease the movement of Nigerians in the diaspora to and from Nigeria without having to apply for visas or renew their Nigeria Passport, because too much ‘wahala’ is involved in the process.        

The National Migration Policy (NMP) 2015 structured migration governance into four levels of coordination.  At the thematic groups level, what is, in your opinion, the extent of synergy amongst MDAs working on the five thematic areas of migration outlined in the policy document?

In my opinion, the NCFRMI is not driving migration management properly. The only thing I hear about the commission is going to a conference. While, yes, they organize dialogue on migration issues, and when there is funding from the EU, they organize meetings with stakeholders and take photographs. So, I think there is no viable structure of a working relationship between MDAs, talk less of developing a strategy to go down in years. Although there has been a National Action Plan covering the period of 2019-2023 for implementation of the NMP 2015, yet NCFRMI which is the coordinating agency lacks the required structure and capacity to drive the migration policy framework. I hope that the new government when sworn in on 29^th May 2023, will do the right thing and place the NMP in its proper place.

In your opinion, where do you see the place of multi-level governance of migration in Nigeria (involving states, LGAs & CSOs in migration governance)?

The  Ministry of  Interior is the best place to drive a subnational strategy for migration governance, to work at a lower level of governance with the states and local government areas. It is of course a good idea if the federal government will expand its migration governance framework to include input from subnational governments. In addition to international migration governance, internal migration also should be managed properly based on some inclusive framework, because there is a huge internal migration crisis in Nigeria. For example, the recent 2023 general elections exposed the depth of internal migration in the country; whereby the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria living in Lagos (South West Nigeria) and Abuja (the Federal Capital Territory) deployed their numeric strength and influenced the outcome of the elections dramatically. However, because the constitution of Nigeria is silent about indigenous privileges for all citizens regardless of their hometown, citizens by birth who hailed from other parts of the country are often deprived access to political opportunities, and sometimes even special social welfare services, like scholarship, when they are outside their home town. And this is a very critical issue at the heart of migration management. So, I believe a multi-level migration governance will provide an inclusive framework for knowledge sharing and building of capacity across the three tier of government. In fact, I also agree that one of the causes of statelessness is lack of access to vital registration which is a common problem across the 36 states of Nigeria. For instance, Federal civil servants in Nigeria move across the 36 states and give birth and rise their children outside their hometown and in some states, especially the South Eastern states, children born of parents of Northern or Western Nigeria are treated like foreigners. So, in this case, when the children are not properly connected to their hometown in the North, they face the problem of statelessness. The  Ministry of Interior launched a National Plan of Action to eradicate statelessness in September 2022, and I think the development is quite timely and applaudable.

State governments and local communities are very important stakeholders in migration management. In the 1999 constitution, section 27(2)(d) recognizes the role of the subnational government when granting citizenship by nebulization. The subnational government would write a report indicating the acceptability of the foreigner seeking naturalization to the local community in which he lives and to prove if he has assimilated into the way of life of Nigerians in that part of the federation. This singular section can form the basis of a comprehensive and inclusive legal framework for robust multi-level migration governance. There is a need to provide adequate capacity -building opportunities for the staff of subnational governments in respect of migration governance so that whenever their input is sought for, their contribution could be seamless.        

The Migration Data Management Working Group (MDMWG) developed a data management strategy to harmonize migration data across relevant MDAs in 2013.  What is the extent of progress achieved by this thematic group if any?  Do you think migration data generated under this framework can enable Nigeria to achieve the SDGs target on migration at Tier 3?

Migration data come from different sectors. They include administrative data, census data and household surveys. For Nigeria Immigration Service, the organization provides administrative data on visas, residence permits, entry and exit information and data on irregular migrants (such as entry refusal and returns). During my tenure as CGI, looking at the importance of data in policymaking and the entire migration governance process, I introduced a robust database platform in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM), an information management software, called Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS), which has been deployed for migration information management by about 20 countries around the world. The software is very sophisticated, it allows for interoperability with other information system platforms such as E-Visa platform, Advance Passenger Information, National passport and ID-card databases, interpol i24/7 database, residence administration database and a lot more. It has simplified the collation and management of migration data, and is embedded with data analytics capabilities to enhance the quality, currency and availability of migration data. Other important migration data from other sectors include data on remittances, retrievable from the central bank; Emigrants or people in the diaspora, retrievable from embassy registers, and refugee records, retrievable from the refugee commission.     

4.    Migration Management Capacity Building

Sir, what does capacity building mean to you in the context of migration management?

It means capacity building for all actors, managers, and implementors, including the president of the country and cabinet ministers. It is important to design capacity building program according to the needs and circumstances of different actors. Advocacy through organizing curtsey visits, workshops and seminars will be more appropriate for ministers, judges and top government officials. When the National Agency for the Prohibition in Trafficking in Persons and related offence (NAPTIP) was established in 2004, I was deployed to the agency on secondment to act as director of the investigation. As a baby organization, we started with a lot of capacity -building programs for different stakeholders. Even though judges can read the law  and apply it to prosecute offenders, we had to organize workshops for them as a form of advocacy to share real stories of trafficking with them so that they can have a wholistic picture of the context of trafficking and understand the full implication of the NAPTIP Act 2004. And for mid-level cadre staff, comprehensive training modules should be organized on various technical skills including, investigation techniques, border surveillance, document fraud detection and analysis, detention procedures, essentials of human rights, national referral mechanism, understanding TIP and SOM, and a lot more.

what is your view regarding the level of professional education of public servants and staff or NGOs working in the field of migration management in Nigeria?

NGOs are good, they know  so much about migration issues and they are doing quite well in their spaces. But public servants are grossly lacking knowledge and understanding of migration issues. With the exception of staff or the NIS, NCFRMI and the newly established NiDCOM, other public service agencies considered as stakeholders in the management of migration don’t know much about migration, and talk less of having an understanding of the linkages between migration and economic prosperity. For example, the CBN governor could tell you that migration issues are stories, but when you look at the impact of remittances on the GDP of Nigeria you know migration is a broad daylight reality. So, there is a need to educate the directors of CBN on the importance of migration. It is a key development issue even at the global level, the fact that it is monitored under 30 indicators of the 244 indicators of SDGs 2030. The Minister for  Foreign Affairs of Nigeria also needs to understand that the whole image of Nigeria can be tainted by a lack of proper migration management.

In your opinion Sir, what should be the professional standards and ethical responsibilities of public servants and staff of NGOs working in the field of migration management?

Ethics in migration management is imperative. Officials of government working on public interfaces, and interacting with migrants must observe their ethical code of conduct. They must ensure that all migrants are treated with respect and dignity, irrespective of their migratory status. During my tenure as CGI, I developed a new code of conduct for the staff of the Nigeria Immigration Service and it is prepared to cover best practices compare to any standard in the world.

In your opinion Sir, what, if anything, is needed to build the capacity of civil servants and staff of NGOs working in the field of migration management?

Through training and retraining.

Sir, how, if at all, can government agencies such as NIS, NAPTIP, NCFRMI, NiDCOM and NGOs such as SURE4U and NACTAL build their capacity to enhance synergy and efficiency towards migration governance that yields prosperity for all?

These agencies need to organize a training program together so that they can look at migration together from different perspectives and develop one box solution together. Joint training will streamline their operation and facilitate information and knowledge sharing among them. I hope that in the nearest future, my NGO, Sure4You Rescue and Resettlement Initiative will establish a Migration Academy to provide a joint training platform for all actors working in the migration space.

And last but not least Sir, the proposed Regional Migration Institute TUGA in Kebbi State is your brainchild. We will be glad to share your dream of the institution, and, if any, the success and challenges of your efforts and those of your predecessors in pushing for the establishment of the institution.        

It is only in Africa there is a common area of mobility but unfortunately without a common area of training for the officials of government of member countries managing the mobility framework. The Schengen Area has Frontex as a common migration agency with a well-equipped state-of- the- art Academy, but the ECOWAS region has been in existence since 1979 under a regional legal framework known as the ECOWAS protocol permitting common mobility among citizens of member states, but until now we don’t have a common training institution on migration. So, my dream for the regional migration training institute TUGA in Kebbi State is to replicate the model of Frontex. The institution will provide common training for managers of migration from all 15 member countries of ECOWAS on how common clearance should be, how common documentation, interview, detention and return should be, and what strategy and framework to adopt for information sharing. Before I pulled out of the civil service, we developed a world-best curriculum for the institution, obtained an operating license from the National University Commission and a clear buy-in of the  Ministry of  Education. In fact, I started the regional meeting of the head of immigration agencies of the ECOWAS region in 2019 and I sold the idea of the Academy and they accepted it. The ECOWAS secretariat since then, took over the regional meeting. I believe we can’t have a successful common area of movement without knowing each other. The idea of the Academy was discussed and included in the resolution of states, and a regional academy has been discussed and accepted by heads of immigration and also ministers accepted it. So, it has gotten the political buy-in. And the idea for locating the institution at TUGA, Kebbi State, is because the location is a meeting confluence for Nigeria, Niger and the Benin Republic. But unfortunately, since I left office in 2021, I don’t hear anything again about the institution.    

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The interview is conducted by Ahmed Murtala Hassan, Nigeria Immigration Service, Abuja, Nigeria. Mr. Hassan is a former intern at GRFDT.