The Nigeria Immigration Service has responded after investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, called out the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, over his inability to fulfill his promise of effective passport issuance.
Fisayo in a post shared on his X handle, stated that he applied for the renewal of his passport six months ago and that till date, the passport is yet to be issued to him.
He said this goes contrary to the promise of the Minister who vowed to ensure that Nigerians would receive their passports one week after application, He further stated that he was widely att@cked online months back when he expressed doubts that the Minister will fulfill his promise..
He wrote
‘’In January 2024 when I wrote that “Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo will NEVER be able to revolutionise Nigeria’s messily-corrupt passport application system”, some accused me of prophesying doom.
But it is now six months since I paid and applied for the renewal of my international passport. Maybe I will get it tomorrow.
On Thursday July 31, 2025, I paid a sum of N109,700 via the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) payment portal, then proceeded to one of their Lagos offices, to complete further documentation and capture. Meanwhile, the officers first mocked us for kick-starting the registration online.
I couldn’t complete capturing on that day due to a “network problem” that lasted several hours; I was forced to return to their office the following day for that. As I write this, “passport pending production” is the long-running feedback from NIS.
The irony is that Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo continues to be lauded by the unsuspecting public as one of the best — even the best — ministers in Tinubu’s cabinet. It is already almost five months since Tunji-Ojo announced, in the latest of his many mouthwatering passport efficacy promises, that Nigerians would be able to receive their int’l passports one week after application.
My opinion of him remains unchanged; he is simply the typical Nigerian politician who has a mastery of gallery play and public sentiment manipulation via the media for personal branding.
Woe unto you if you rely on media reports to gauge the performance of public officers or, more importantly, the efficiency of public institutions!”
Reacting to his call out, the Immigration service in a statement issued on its X handle, said contrary to his claim, Fisayo’s passport is out and ready for delivery. The agency said that so far, passport applications now take two to three weeks of processing and that millions of passports have been produce so far. The agency mentioned that the process has however been affected by various factors including incomplete applications, security checks or technical glitches etc, some of which have caused delays which are not uncommon with systems around the world.
The response reads
‘’ We refer to the recent publication regarding a passport application specifically by Fisayo Soyombo, that has been pending.
We wish to clarify that the passport in question has already been produced and is ready for delivery.
So far, passport applicants have enjoyed the 2-3 weeks passport processing time with millions produced up to date. This process has been affected by various factors including incomplete applications, security checks or technical glitches etc, some of which have caused delays which are not uncommon with systems around the world.
To set the record straight, the passport application portal has produced numerous applications efficiently, with many receiving their passports within the timeframe.
In fact, over 1.3 million passports were produced in 2025 alone. Just this evening, reports are out that our passport now ranks higher on the Henley Passport Index.
Hence, a single case of delay cannot ultimately be a true assessment of a reform that has earned public vote, and brought sanity to a crisis we once struggled with.
We, however, believe that feedback like this is valuable and will help us get better.
Going forward, we will introduce a new feature to the passport application tracker, “passport produced” that will notify applicants when their passport is ready for collection.”
Some other Nigerians also seized the opportunity to call for assistance in getting their delayed passports out. One Nigerian man stated that he had applied for his passport in the UK in August 2025 and he is yet to get it delivered. In its response, the agency said there are no passport backlogs in the UK at the moment unless the ones with Change of Data requests.
