Three Years On: How the Interior Ministry Became One of Tinubu’s Government’s Quiet Reform Stories
By Jerry Adesewo
In a government frequently consumed by economic controversies, political battles, and public anxiety over insecurity, the Federal Ministry of Interior has quietly emerged as one of the more active reform-driven ministries under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Led by Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the ministry has spent the last three years pursuing aggressive reforms across immigration services, correctional facilities, border management, digital identity systems, and paramilitary administration.
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While critics argue that deeper structural challenges remain unresolved, even some observers outside government circles acknowledge that the ministry has become one of the administration’s most visibly energetic institutions.
Perhaps the most publicly noticeable reform has been in passport administration.
Before the Tinubu administration, Nigeria’s passport system had become symbolic of bureaucratic frustration—delayed processing, endless backlogs, extortion complaints, and inefficient service delivery. Under Tunji-Ojo, the Ministry of Interior introduced contactless biometric passport applications for Nigerians abroad, centralized passport operations, expanded enhanced e-passport services to several European missions, and reportedly cleared a backlog of over 200,000 passport applications.
For Nigerians in the diaspora, these changes represented more than administrative reform. They signaled an attempt to modernize one of the country’s most criticized public-facing systems.
The ministry also pushed broader digital transformation initiatives within immigration and internal administration systems. New online portals for expatriate residence permits and immigration processing were introduced as part of efforts to reduce manual bottlenecks and improve transparency. At the center of many of these reforms lies technology.
Tunji-Ojo himself has repeatedly framed technology as “a catalyst for national success,” arguing that digital systems are essential for improving efficiency, strengthening border security, and reducing corruption opportunities within public service delivery.
Beyond immigration, the ministry also embarked on reforms affecting Nigeria’s correctional services. One of the most discussed interventions involved efforts to decongest custodial centres nationwide. Government sources say more than 4,000 inmates serving minor sentences with options of fines were released through coordinated interventions supported partly by private-sector funding.
Correctional facilities in places such as Kuje and Suleja also reportedly underwent rehabilitation and infrastructure upgrades as part of broader prison reform conversations.
Supporters of the reforms argue that these interventions reflect a shift from punitive incarceration toward more humane correctional administration.
The ministry additionally introduced welfare and career reforms within agencies under its supervision.
As Chairman of the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire, and Immigration Services Board, Tunji-Ojo, who has become a serial award recipient in recent times, supervised one of the largest promotion exercises within the services, with over 32,000 personnel reportedly promoted. Salary adjustments, improved allowances, and the establishment of structures such as the Paramilitary Pensions Board were also introduced to improve morale across the services.
In a country where low morale within security-related institutions often affects performance, these reforms carried strategic significance.
There were also employment implications, as the ministry secured presidential approval for the recruitment of approximately 30,000 personnel into agencies under the ministry — a move government supporters presented as both a security and youth employment intervention.
Yet the ministry’s record is not without criticism.
Some Nigerians argue that despite administrative improvements, broader national realities continue to overshadow reform claims. Border insecurity persists. Fire service infrastructure remains inadequate in many states. Passport delays still occur in some locations. And the larger crisis of insecurity across the country continues to raise questions about the effectiveness of internal coordination among security institutions.
Others also caution against excessive celebration of digitization without corresponding grassroots impact.
As one online commentator observed during a public debate on the ministry’s scorecard, digital reforms alone do not automatically translate into improved living conditions for ordinary Nigerians already burdened by inflation and economic hardship.
Still, within the wider context of the Tinubu administration, the Ministry of Interior appears to have established itself as one of the government’s more visibly reform-oriented ministries.
Part of that perception stems from Tunji-Ojo’s leadership style itself.
Young, media-visible, and administratively aggressive, the minister has increasingly become one of the most recognizable figures within the cabinet. For many younger Nigerians, especially, his emergence symbolizes a generational shift within governance—an attempt to blend technology, bureaucracy, and political communication into a more energetic style of public administration.
Whether the reforms ultimately produce lasting institutional transformation remains to be seen. But three years into the Tinubu administration, the Ministry of Interior has at least succeeded in changing one important thing: the national conversation around it.
For a ministry once associated largely with queues, delays, overcrowded custodial centres, and bureaucratic fatigue, that alone represents a significant political shift.