The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is a government organization tasked with overseeing migration in Nigeria. The background of the Nigerian immigration service is provided below.
Nigeria Immigration Service’s history.
Since being separated from the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in 1958, the NIS has undergone a number of changes over the years. The Chief Federal Immigration Officer (CFIO), as it was known at the time, was given responsibility for the department’s core immigration duties, and Mr. EH Harrison was the first person to occupy that position. The Immigration Ordinance of 1958 was inherited by the department as it was developing for use in its operations.
The department’s initial operational scope was limited, and it kept a low profile and employed a straightforward approach to achieving the desired goals and objectives of the government. Just the Business and Visa Sections were established during this time.
However, the Immigration Department reached its maturity on August 1st, 1963, when it was formally established by an Act of Parliament, Cap. I71, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria. The Director of Immigration became the title of the organization’s head. Therefore, the initial group of immigration officers consisted of former NPF officers. As a Civil Service organization, it was transformed into a department under the direction and control of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs (FMIA).
On October 1st, 1992, after some structural changes and a government white paper, the title “Director of Immigration” was changed to “Comptroller General of Immigration Service,” giving the Service a paramilitary status. As a result, CGI Garba Abbas, the previous Director of Immigration, became the agency’s first CGI.
In order to be better prepared for the implementation of contemporary migration management, the Service has made great strides in its reformation and restructuring efforts in the years since. The organizational and operational structure of the Service underwent changes during this time period, changes that were unavoidable in order to accommodate the new responsibilities as well as developing regional and sub-regional political alignments. These added responsibilities for the Service included the creation of the ECOWAS and African Affairs division, Aliens Control, Border Patrol Management, and other such things.
Additionally, the Service was given the task of issuing all Nigerian travel documents, including passports, in 1988.
When the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC) were introduced in June 1998 and 2001, respectively, the Service embraced the use of ICT in its operations. Since then, it has made significant advancements in the use of ICT in its processes and operational procedures, most notably with the introduction of online payment for its facilities, which paved the way for Nigeria’s e-revenue collections and made it the first government organization to accept e-payments.
Under the direction of the then CGI CJ Udeh OFR, the NIS launched the e-Passport on May 17th, 2007, in an effort to improve upon the MRP and in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards, establishing the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the first nation in Africa and one of the first nations in the world to do so. Because it contains the biometric information of the owner, the e-passport has emerged as a key weapon in the fight against transnational crime. This makes multiple acquisitions and identity theft more challenging.
In 2009, Nigeria was admitted to the Board of the international organization ICAO as the only African representative in recognition of the achievements of the Nigeria Immigration Service as demonstrated above.
This development led to the installation of e-passport machines in all of the federation’s states and in a few Nigerian embassies abroad, and the NIS has been dispatching personnel for passport intervention to all parts of the globe in accordance with the federal government’s foreign policy of citizen diplomacy. To get and process passports for Nigerians living abroad, it is implied that the mobile passport-issuing equipment is used.
The creation of a well-equipped forensic laboratory for the examination of travel and other documents is another important development in ICT. Additionally, it should be noted that the NIS staff members manning this laboratory are highly skilled as a result of their extensive exposure to local and international trainings on document fraud detection and techniques.
The National Assembly enacted the Immigration Act on May 25, 2015, strengthening the NIS’s legal foundation even further. Thus, the Act repealed the now-outdated 1963 Immigration Act and established the Migration Directorate for the Service as a new Directorate.
Since the NIS was established in 1963, there have been eight (8) substantive Comptrollers General, three (3) Chief Federal Immigration Officers (CFIO), three (3) Directors of Immigration, two (2) acting Comptrollers General, and the current Comptroller General is CGI Muhammad Babandede MFR. In order to modernize and standardize the Service’s operations while maintaining prompt and effective service delivery to its many publics, he is making enormous strides and breaking new ground.
