NIS requests better working conditions, more capability
By Matthew Atungwu
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), has petitioned the Senate to accept better working conditions, competitive pay, and frequent promotions for NIS personnel.
Mrs. Caroline Adepoju, the Acting Comptroller General of the NIS, made the appeal in a conversation with the Senate Committee on Interior.
According to Adepoju, the NIS was expected to have comparable terms of service as its sister agencies, particularly in terms of pay.
She bemoaned the stark discrepancy in benefits enjoyed by its staff in contrast to those of other sibling agencies.
According to the acting CGI, this was demoralizing and disheartening for service personnel as they carried out their statutory responsibilities.
Adepoju also decried the nonregular promotion status of its officers, noting that many of the personnel had stagnated on a particular grade level without promotion for many years.
She said that there was a need to open up space for promotion and called for improved capacity of its personnel for effective discharge of their responsibility.
The immigration boss also called for improved funding and logistics for the NIS to enable it to properly executive its mandate like the provision of E-gate.
According to her, there is a need to increase the number of its personnel for adequate manning of the airports, sea, and land borders.
In spite of the teething challenges, she noted that the service under her leadership had almost cleared the backlog of passports.
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Adepoju added that the management was also poised to and committed to improving its service delivery mandate in line with the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
Alhaji Ja’afar Mohammed, the Secretary, Board of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Nigeria Correctional Services, and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, corroborated Adepoju’s submission.
He explained that the board has had historical challenges, saying that the board had existed on an ad-hoc basis.
The secretary said that the board didn’t have a comprehensive record of employees of NIS to generate eligibility status on issues relating to promotion and retirement
According to him, the board relies on the agencies to get the records.
He, however, said the board since its inception had taken far-reaching decisions on repositioning the agency, adding that it would work with the committee to achieve more success.
Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Adams Oshiomhole said the interaction which was at the instance of the committee was to have first-hand information and an overview of the challenges faced by the service.
This, he said was to enable the committee to intervene, support, and evolve measures on how best to solve the issues.
Oshiomhole said that the service had lots of challenges, adding that the committee would look at the issues and would be guided by the laws to discharge its responsibilities for the good of Nigerians.
“The whole idea is not to wallow in lamentations but to solve the challenges and improve services to Nigerians.”
Members of the committee at the meeting took turns to ask questions on issues relating to delayed issuance of passports to Nigerians, illegal immigrants in Nigerians, and internal revenue generating profile and remittance of the NIS.
