Angry lawyer demands N’Assembly to step in over soaring foreign passport fees

Justice Osai Ahiakwo, a public affairs expert, has spoken out against the recent increase in the price of foreign passports for Nigerian citizens.

The “economic summersault” he called it casts doubt on the federal government’s claims to alleviate people’s hardships.

The 32-page passport is now priced at N100,000 and the 64-page booklet at N200,000, according to Ahiakwo, who spoke exclusively to XANDERTECH in Calabar. He called the hike “a reintroduction of taxes at the detriment of the people.”

He remembered that in only one year under President Tinubu’s watch, the price of a 32-page passport went up from N35,000 to N50,000, while the price of a 64-page passport went up from N70,000 to N100,000.

Many Nigerians are upset about the most recent NIS hike, saying it makes it even more difficult for regular people to get the international travel documents they need for school, work, or health care.

Furthermore, detractors argue that the rise further exacerbates inequality by expanding the gap between the well-off and everyone else.

Because “such increases are being implemented without statutory backing,” according to Ahiakwo, “it is disheartening,”

The attorney argued that neither the Nigerian Immigration Service nor the Minister of the Interior have the authority to unilaterally increase fees under the Immigration Act.

In his view, the National Assembly should have jurisdiction over matters pertaining to passport fees, as is the case in other democracies such as the US (where Congress monitors pricing decisions made by the US Department of State) and the UK (where parliament approved the most recent hike in passport fees).

Passport prices in Nigeria cannot be set unilaterally by the Immigration Service, which is an arm of the executive branch. “The legislature needs to step up and make them listen,” Ahiakwo declared.

Legislators, he said, should call a meeting with the Interior Minister or the Comptroller-General of Immigration to explain the increase and end the “arbitrariness” that has been causing Nigerians so much suffering.