Coach Og
69 posts
😂 I had muted responses so didn't notice the Immigration Service official handle responded. Sigh. Thanks for responding @nigimmigration, but with all due respect, your response does not convince me of anything. This "well thought out policy" is stupid and does not achieve anything positive. A friend got this indigenship certificate today from his state liason office. I've seen it myself. He was asked questions he didn't know the answer. No evidence provided by him whatsoever of being from that state. They gave him a certificate. He paid 3,000 Naira and did not get a reciept, so you know that is going into someone's pocket... Thanks for wasting the time of all Nigerians, costing them money, and impacting productivity of the country. All for nothing. Addendum: It goes without saying that only Nigerians by natural birth or by naturalization processes should have a Nigerian passport. That is not in question here. There are a list of things you can be asked to provide to prove that you are eligible to get a Nigerian passport. Those should be listed. One such example is a birth certificate. Another a marriage certificate (foreigner marrying a Nigerian) What is at issue, and is the stupid policy, is requiring everyone to go get a indigenship certificate that is not worth the paper it is put on. Most people already have a birth certificate. Why waste their time? Hope this clarifies my view. Related point. Nigeria needs to move away from the concept of "state of origin" and move to "state of residence". We should have a public debate on this. ✌🏾
Thank you very much for this “question”. First off, you DO NOT necessarily NEED to go to your state of origin to get the “indigenship document”. We are aware that most states have liaison offices in other states. For example, Anambra state has liaison offices in Lagos (Eti-Osa) and Abuja (Asokoro). These offices are empowered to issue such documents. Having said this, every document that the Service requires from passport applicants to produce/submit/upload was carefully thought through (NOT stupid) and backed by certain laws and policy documents approved by the Federal Government through our supervising ministry - in this case, the Ministry of Interior. It is quite important, especially based on certain intel that we have (but cannot disclose publicly), that ANYONE, a Nigerian of course, who wishes to obtain a Nigerian passport - a document of authority for identification and travel - MUST prove beyond reasonable doubt, that he/she is a Nigerian citizen. For your claim of being a Nigerian citizen to hold water, there has to be a document that “ties” you to a local government (indigenous area) within the country. This document is what we request that applicants present to us, amongst others, to authenticate their claim of being a citizen. You may also want to read up the particular part of the Nigerian Constitution that bothers on Citizenship, for clarity, sir. So sir, we hope with these few points of ours, we have been able to convince and not confuse you.
I gather that now, to renew your passport, you need to get a letter from your state of origin showing that you are from there. What sort of STUPID policy is this? So I should go to Edo State, which I have visited two or three times max, to get a document. How would they know I am from there? We create our own problems.
