The president said he had always sympathised with frequent travellers who changed passports so often, noting however that with the introduction of the new travel document, Nigeria had moved a step forward.
"The key thing is for us to have a robust relationship with key countries so that some of these frequent travellers may not need visas. That'll really help us
One thing again is how Nigerians can get passport easily, especially those living outside this country. When I travel, there is this complaint about how to get the Nigerian passport, not necessarily the issue of 64-page passport, but how do they get passport. So, the ministry must look into this", he said.
Jonathan charged officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to conduct themselves properly while attending to visitors at airports.
"What affects every traveller is how efficient and committed our immigration officers work at our airports. Visitors that come into the country have different impressions about our
immigration officers. So, they must improve. They're the image of this country, how they handle visitors matters so much. If they
conduct themselves poorly, it reflects on all of us. So, their
conduct at the airports is key besides the passport.
"The issue of the image of the country is what we'll all work for, both people in government, the media and civil society. I always say that when people continue to paint their country with all kinds of colours, that's the way they'll
associate those colours with your green passport. I want a situation where you travel to another country and you raise your green passport, people will
appreciate you and not when you raise your green passport, people
will begin to think your green passport signifies some
suspicious character. We're not helping ourselves when we paint
ourselves the colours that we're not supposed to bear.
The president appealed to all Nigerians to be mindful of their actions and statements in order to paint "brighter colours for our green passport".
Earlier, Interior Minister Abba Moro said the new passport was aimed at enhancing the integrity of Nigerian travel documents and the image of the Nigerian traveller anywhere in the world.
NIS Comptroller-General David Parradang said each applicant would pay N20,000 for the new passport and get it within 72 hours.
According to him, those below 18 years would pay N8,750; 18 to 60-year-old applicants, N15,000: 60-year-old and above, N8,750; while change of data/lost e-passport would attract N20,000; and change of name as result of marriage, divorce and deceased spouse, N8,750.
Parradang said the Service was very serious about the persecution of any of its officers found engaged in abusing the process of the new passport.
Source: Daily Trust
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