FG Announces Another Rate Hike 

Ever hoping to tax itself out of current financial distress, the Nigerian government has announced a massive hike in cost of passport

El Salvador Launches Innovative Passport Scheme to Attract Global Talent

In a bid to bolster its intellectual capital and foster a diverse community of experts, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has unveiled a pioneering initiative. Under this program, the country will offer 5,000 free passports to highly skilled professionals across various fields including science, engineering, medicine, art, and philosophy. Valued at an impressive $5 billion, this initiative represents a significant investment in attracting global talent to the Central American nation. President Bukele, known for his bold policies and efforts to combat corruption and crime, views this move as a strategic step towards enhancing El Salvador’s societal development and future trajectory. The program promises a welcoming environment for talented individuals and their families, offering incentives such as zero percent taxes and duties on relocation, including assets and commercial items. This initiative aligns with recent reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment and underscores El Salvador’s commitment to becoming a hub for talent and innovation.

Nigeria To Begin Local Production Of Passport

The Nigerian Government has rolled out plans to begin the local production of international passports in the country. The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made this known in a post via his official X handle on Wednesday night. Tunni-Ojo revealed that he met with a local technology company that presented a proposal for localizing international passport production. “Today, I had a meeting with an indigenous technology company presenting a proposal on localizing our international passport production,” he wrote. The production of international passports by Nigeria in other countries appears to be constituting a delay in the process of acquiring the document. The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) unveiled the fully automated passport application system on March 8, 2024. With this, applicants, including Nigerians in the diaspora, are expected to enjoy a seamless experience registering for new passports and renewing expired ones. In another development, Tunji-Ojo recently convened a brainstorming session with the Ministry of Interior’s technical partners, top immigration officers, and ministry officials. The minister said the mission is to revolutionize the visa application process, particularly for short-stay visitors, so that Nigeria can streamline procedures, reduce stress, and enhance accessibility through automation. “It is my belief that by fostering a more welcoming environment for tourists eager to explore our vibrant culture and rich artistic heritage, we are on another step towards achieving the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.

Niger, others hold Nigerian Passports – Interior Minister Tunji-Ojo…as lawyers call for the need to break the old order of governance

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has revealed that some foreigners who have no business doing so are in possession of the Nigerian passport. He said there were Ghanaians, people from Niger Republic, and the rest who hold Nigerian passports but added, “What we have been able to do is to introduce a verification system into passport application and issuance.” Meanwhile, the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau SAN, has said there is a need for young lawyers to be properly mentored, as the need to break the old order of governance is necessary. Speaking at the National summit of the NBA young lawyers forum, in Abuja, Maikyau emphasized that the young lawyers are positive that with the right guidance and mentorship, they would be able to scale through all the challenges and attain the prestigious ranks in the profession. This was revealed at the ongoing Youth Leadership Summit of the Young Lawyers Forum of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) themed “Breaking the Old Order of Governance and Advocacy”. The event is aimed at bringing stakeholders together to brainstorm on issues revolving around good governance and advocacy. In his keynote address, the Minister assured Nigerians that with lawyers in President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the government would succeed. Tunji-Ojo listed lawyers advising Tinubu to include the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, Chief of Staff To the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Principal Secretary to the President, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola. The minister expressed his confident that with the caliber of lawyers in Tinubu’s government, the administration was on track to getting things right in the country. He said, “this administration has no reason not to get it right. I say this emphatically (because) we have one of the most celebrated lawyers today, the Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Chief of Staff To the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, Principal Secretary to the President, Mr. Hakeem P. When we look at the people advising the president, they are lawyers.” Further in his submissions, the Yakubu Maikyau, maintained that the country remains the greatest country on the face of the earth potentially saying potential makes no meaning to you until one converts it to an experience. “If have 10,000 naira in your pocket, you will die of hunger unless you convert it into an experience of getting food which you will eat to deal with that hunger. That is the case in Nigeria,” Maikyau said. The NBA president however admitted that the generality of Nigerians are unhappy with the results the country has gotten so far despite various processes of governance and advocacies. He agreed with the lawyers on the need to break from the old order of governance and advocacy. He said he was committed to adjusting to any changes that would occur in the course of interaction between lawyers of the older and younger generations. On that note, Maikyau announced a mentorship program for young lawyers saying young lawyers would be assigned to law firms, to learn the “attitude and approach to work” among other things. According to him, two young lawyers from the three zones of the NBA would kick start the pilot program and would spend six months at different law firms learning the rudiments of the legal profession. Speaking to newsmen, the Chairman, NBA YLF, Governing Council, Abdulrauf Tijjani Aboki said the youth wing’s objective is to promote the rule of law and break from the norm, especially on how to do this right. Responding to the recent insecurity challenges, Tijjani said the NBA would continue to support every effort aimed at promoting the rule of law. “The issue of insecurity does not know lawyer, doctor, or journalist, if it happens, it happens. But the NBA as an association can do what it can, we can lend our voices, we can prosecute cases Pro-bono(free of charge),: he said, explaining that the Executive and Legislative arm of government has alot to do regarding addressing insecurity.

Surmounting the Tunji-Ojo Hurdle

As President Tinubu promises not to spare anyone found culpable by the probe of the fraud at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alleviation, shall we now call this frenzy a hurricane? Because that’s what it is beginning to look like. For many, the jury may still be out on the streets. But it will seem like President Tinubu don vex. That’s why one can, for the want of a better moniker describe the current disruption in the executive branch as the reveling of a Hurricane Tinubu on the Three Arms Zone which, to all intents and purpose, it is safe to say, Nigerians are savouring the storm. But many fear that President Tinubu may not have the liver to go the full hog in the battle to clear the swamp. As we say, Nigeria is so lucky. It does not suffer natural disasters, except that the effect of bad behaviour of our public officials’ wrecks havocs greater than the worst tsunami. What should have been a land flowing with milk and honey, Nigeria has been despoiled by the successive reign of kleptocratic and ruinous rulers who simply steal public funds just for the fun of it. The theft of public funds by politicians, civil servants and their associates exerts the greatest pressure on the public purse in Nigeria. It has been estimated that from independence in 1960 till date, over US$582bin had been stolen from the public treasury in Nigeria by those into whose care it was entrusted. Stealing by public officials in Nigeria has become so bad that it is the major feature that describes successive regimes since the dawn of the Furth Republic in 1999, such that every succeeding administration, from the President Olusegun Obasanjo government, through late President Yar’adua, till date, had been more corrupt than its predecessor, not only in terms of their ranking in the Global Corruption Perception Index but the actual heist. The greatest shocker was the eight years of unmitigated disaster that was the Buhari reign of banditry, theft, cluelessness, and ignominy. So, when the lid blew open on what has now been termed as BETTAGATE at the cesspool called the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, not a few Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief, hoping the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu had found an opportunity to get Nigerians to ‘vibe to its rhythm’, unbeknownst that the Tunji-Ojo hurdle would prove to be a litmus test too complex to decipher. Certainly, it proves how broad it is that ethnic bias is a Faultline in the fight against corruption. But President Tinubu must know better than to drop the ball at this point, just to save the career of a wily dealer whose ugly backside was revealed too early before attaining a crescendo when he would make the kill. Mr. President must know that he is the boss at whose desk the buck stops. It is his presidency for crying out loud! If he allows this buildup to stall, it may be sunset at dawn for his presidency. Bettagate presents a great opportunity for him to recalibrate and relaunch his regime’s chequered agenda. Before the big seizure at Hajiya Halima’s drawers that provided the tip-off leading to this cache, Nigerians gazed in vain into the midnight sky, on a daily basis, hoping they could locate a sign that gives confidence to hope in President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda. The same Minister Betta Edu was one of the early signs that a gadfly of a lady constituted a major distraction to the realization of this agenda. Like her predecessor, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Faruk, she baffled Nigerians on a daily basis with unbelievable tales about how she was empowering Nigerians with magical cash transfers, even as many discerning individuals struggled to trace her footprints on the nation’s poverty landscape. As they say, it is many days for the thief, and one day for the owner of the house. Even the least endowed could tell that the economic empowerment strategy being deployed by the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry was nowhere near tackling the poverty challenge. Many expect that President Tinubu would be swift in clearing this Augean stable currently littered with the Bettagate scandal. But it would seem that the President has buckled, unable to surmount the Tunji-Ojo huddle. Many had foretold this difficult juncture with exactitude, basing their confidence on the suspicion that Tunji-Ojo represents the interests of some deadly masquerades at the seat of power. Recall that this was the same Tunji-Ojo of the infamous “Honorable Minister, off your mic” as he prevailed on then Minister of the Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio from spilling the beans about how he and other members of the National Assembly benefitted from contracts awarded by the commission. It is déjà vu all over, as it would seem like we are back at the President Muhammadu Buhari era when, as Senator Shehu Sani poetically put it, members of the kitchen cabinet caught stealing were deodorised with fragrance while others, who were not members of the cabal, were sprayed with insecticides if caught. This is why one can not, therefore, help but to be reminded of the pledge by then candidate Tinubu when he promised that his would be an administration that would continue from where Buhari stopped. In what seems like a resort to the usual distraction and subterfuge, the president has announced the suspension of the NSIP programme. Many think this is just to divert attention from the call for suspension of Minister Tunji-Ojo, pending the conclusion of ongoing investigation by anti-graft agencies to determine the extent of his involvement. To date, the white paper issued based on the probe of the NNDC contract scam is yet to see the light of day. Meanwhile, the same man pleading with the honorable minister to off his mic is now a minister of the Federal Republic. Is there any wonder, therefore, that he is enmeshed in another contract scam? This may be why many think

FG confers 385 citizenship to foreigners on naturalization, registration

The Federal Government has conferred 385 Nigeria citizenship on foreign nationals from different continents across the world. The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made this known at the 1st 2023 Conferment ceremony of Nigeria Citizenship by Naturalisation and Registration on Saturday in Abuja. The minister said one of the objectives of the present administration was to lay a solid socio-economic and political foundation that would elevate Nigeria into one of the 20 great economies of the world.  He said to achieve this vision, the federal government was determined to encourage and attract foreigners, investors, resourceful individuals, and people with rare talents and unbounded energy into the country. “Today’s conferment ceremony will be granted to 385 foreigners who have gone through diligent checks by the relevant agencies of state as stipulated by the constitution and have fulfilled all statutory and administrative requirements. “I need to state that the acquisition of Nigerian citizenship is a great privilege and not everyone that applies becomes successful. “However, that we have a high number of foreigners willing to become Nigerians is an indication that the ongoing efforts to make Nigeria a destination for investment and peaceful coexistence is beginning to yield good fruits. “As we continue to welcome foreigners to do business here who, after interacting with us, are now desirous of becoming one of us.” The minister said that it was under the present administration that the largest number of foreigners had been naturalised. “Between 2011 and 2013, a total of 266 foreigners became Nigerians. In 2017, 335 people took up Nigerian citizenship. “But last year, 286 foreigners and today at this ceremony, 385, making a total of 671 have acquired Nigerian citizenship. “I am still not pleased with this figure. In Europe and America, thousands of foreigners are inducted into citizenship every year. “They do this to attract youths and people in their prime who would like to contribute to the development of their countries. “The bane of the smooth pathway to Nigerian citizenship however is the constitutional requirement of continuous residency in Nigeria for 15 years.”  This, he said, was a huge disincentive, considering that in the U.S. and most European countries, it is five years. Aregbesola added that some of these countries have made a habit of snatching young and resourceful brains, who after four years of schooling and working for just one year, through easy pathways, to obtain migration to their countries. He, therefore, urged the relevant institutions of state to reconsider this in the next effort at amending the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “We ought to have easier pathways to citizenship for foreigners than currently obtains. “Also, while the foreign wives of Nigerian men can automatically become citizens through registration, this same privilege is not available to foreign husbands of Nigerian women. “This discrimination has robbed us of the gains we could have gotten from this category of foreigners, if there is a pathway for them through registration, as obtains for their opposite sex.” According to him, the Interior Ministry has sought and got the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to execute new pathways to permanent residency for eligible foreign nationals. Aregbesola added that the ministry had been invested with the power to grant permanent residence to foreign nationals who had demonstrated exceptional talents, knowledge, and skills in rare fields of Science, Technology, and Medicine, among others. He expressed optimism that such privilege would no doubt attract more people of talent and resources to the nation and give them the confidence and assurance to stay permanently in Nigeria. The minister, however, congratulated the new Nigerians who have scaled the hurdle to proudly become Nigerians, adding that Nigerians are among the greatest people on the earth and well-revered across the globe. He assured them that they would not regret the decision they have made to become Nigerians, reminding them, however, that every privilege goes with responsibility. “You will be required to make the best contribution ever to Nigeria’s development in every area, including the defence of its territorial integrity if need be and promotion of the welfare of the people.” He, however, welcomed them all to Nigerian citizenship. However, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, while confering the citizenship on them, urged them to be good ambassadors of Nigeria.