Executive Order: Immigration blazes the trail at Lagos Airport – investigations

Just three months into full implementation of the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in the country, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos has
positioned itself as the flagship for all other agencies.

NIS has clearly shown that it is a good ambassador to follow on how to facilitate increased flow of Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) into the country without compromising its core statutory duty of ensuring Nigeria’s security by maintaining control of the entry point, checking all individuals entering or leaving.
Through good leadership and committed followership exemplified by its Comptroller General (CGI), Muhammad Babandede (MFR), officers and men at the Lagos Airport have facilitated entry of, at least, 20,000 genuine foreign investors into the country through issuance of visas on arrival as directed in the executive order.

This would not have been possible with the former policy, which allowed only foreigners who had procured visas through Nigerian embassies and commissions in their home countries.
That was an era many foreign investors claimed was cumbersome and frustrating.
The introduction of the executive order in June has, no doubt, placed higher responsibilities on the Lagos Airport Command of the NIS, which the service has proven itself worthy of accomplishing without losing focus of its primary roles as the strategic protector of the nation’s gateway.
Seeing itself as a service that must maintain international standard always, the NIS at Lagos Airport, unlike some other security agencies, was not caught unaware when the executive order was introduced.

The service sprang into action immediately the directive came from the presidency.

Among other provisions, the executive order
stated: “Any official caught soliciting or receiving bribes from passengers or other port users shall be subjected to immediate removal from post and disciplinary as well as criminal proceedings in line with extant laws and regulations. All relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the airports shall, within 30 days of the issuance of this Order, merge their respective departure and arrival into a single customer interface, without prejudice to necessary back end procedures.”
With visionary leadership provided by the Comptroller General of the NIS, fixing into the working of the executive order did not, for a second, pose a constraint on the operations of the Lagos airport command of the service.
The MMIA command had mandated every personnel on duty to always appear in proper uniform with non-detachable name tag, just as those manning the then few available counters were instructed to, in addition, always display their table name labels.

With this, it was easy for the officers and men of
the service in the airport to adjust when the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) provided more space for the operation.

As if the leadership of the service both at the headquarters and the command had a premonition that an executive order that would compel the service to operate at global standard was on the way, African Business Travel News learnt that the service had embarked on transfers and deployments in and out of the command.
The incoming personnel, most of who had not worked in international airports, were retrained and given new orientation about their new postings.
So, when the executive order came, getting who to do what, where and how in the airport was not an issue at all.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that visas are now issued to foreigners on arrival at both E and D wings of the airport from its initial E wing while no fewer than 20,000 visas have been issued at the airport since the policy came on stream in June.

The issuing of visas on arrival has, however, reduced the number of foreigners who have to go to home offices of Nigeria abroad to procure visas, as many of them now prefer to get their visas on arrival at the command.
Further investigations by African Business Travel News (ABTN) in the terminal revealed that all counters for immigration processes for both arriving and departing passengers are tagged.
A FAAN source told our correspondent that it was the Comptroller General who ordered the latest move for proper identification of its officers, especially those who have to interface with passengers.

According to the source, NIS believed that with this move, it would be easier for passengers to properly identify any officer who requests for any form of gratification from them and take the necessary step to report such officer to the appropriate authority.
The source said: “Immigration boss ordered all the officers to tag their counters to check against corruption in the system and also key into the ease of doing business policy of the Federal Government.
“Personally, I would say it is a good development as it will check against low level corruption among officers and also ease passenger facilitation.”
While some agencies in the airport are still battling with how to be compliant with the implementation of the executive order, commendations have started pouring in  from airlines and passengers for the leadership of NIS at the airport.
Particularly, every official of foreign airlines operating in the airport who spoke on the condition of anonymity, gave kudos to NIS for being innovative and proactive, especially when the airlines were apprehensive about the ability of the Service to carry out the new policy of issuing visas on arrival without giving them additional burden.
The airlines officials, who claimed that bringing a passenger without visa into the country could earn them penalties when such passenger is denied entry, are happy that NIS has perfected a lot of online processes which allayed their fears.
The airlines also claimed that the service has actually restored the confidence of foreigners coming to the country with the courteous and friendly approaches they give passengers, especially during the processing of visas on arrival.
Similarly, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) has also commended the NIS for a job well-done on their collaborative efforts at ensuring that activities of human traffickers at the airport are eliminated.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a top official of NAPTIP told African Business Travel News (ABTN) that more than before; the agency now enjoys better working relationship with NIS in the airport.
The source, who affirmed that despite the fact that NAPTIP does not have personnel deployed permanently to the airport for obvious reasons, said the NIS in the airport, without delay, always notified the anti-human trafficking agency of any interception or arrest made.
“Unlike before, when we had to struggle to get information on arrests of suspects engaging in human trafficking or their victims, things have really changed. We don’t need to waste our meager resources parading the airport without getting result. All it takes us now is getting a call from the airport command of the NIS and we move in to pick the suspects,” the source said.
With the harmonisation of the embarkation and disembarkation cards to facilitate the arrival and departure of passengers, departure passengers are no longer required to fill customs forms.

Since an NIS official on duty at the entry control post has the general task of admitting or refusing entrants to the country, after checking travelling documents and the purpose for visiting the country, foreigners are not allowed into the country unless their entry has been authorised by an immigration officer, so the checks apply the relevant immigration legislation, rules and policy in line with the executive order.
With the executive order, issuance of visas on arrival has become an easy task in the airport as many foreigners coming to Nigeria for the first time happily expressed their delights at the speed they got their visas at the point of entry.
A Canadian, who simply identified himself as Todd Guozd, said if he had not come to Nigeria to witness the new development, he would never have believed that getting a Nigerian visa on arrival was possible not to talk of being a seamless effort.

“I visited Nigeria for the first time last week for a business transaction. Despite all the bad things I had read and heard about immigration officials in Nigeria in the foreign media, I am delighted to tell you that I now have an entirely different and interesting story to tell.
“On arrival here in this airport, I met very friendly officers on duty. I had done all the necessary things concerning my application for visa on arrival on line through a portal provided by the service. I didn’t have to go Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa, Ontario. I filled my application online, got a response almost immediately and then went to book my flight to Lagos. Everything was seamlesslyaccomplished in a matter of days. And that was all.
“I got the visa at the entry point and I was not the only one who went through the seamless process of getting visas on arrival in Nigeria. It is a delight. I have a very great good report to take home. Nigeria is doing great with her immigration”, Todd, who was waiting to catch his return flight to Canada, said.
Just as foreigners are singing the good praises of NIS personnel at the Lagos Airport, many Nigerians returning
home from their foreign trips insisted that if the change the present administration promised the nation has started with the immigration at the Lagos Airport, then the nation has taken the right step.

They are optimistic that the change would soon catch up with the rest of the nation, especially those in public service.
Nigerians returning from Saudi Arabia after performing
this year holy pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina claimed  that Immigration officers at the airport are no longer hostile with passengers.
Alhaji Abdulraaf Jimoh, who claimed he had performed the pilgrimage to the holy land more than three times and embarked on many foreign business trips through the Lagos Airport, said he has witnessed a rebirth that was very difficult to believe in the operations of immigration service at the airport.
Jimoh, who alleged that he used to have tough encounters with Immigration officials while returning to the country from those foreign trips,
said: “In the past, I had many tales of woes to tell with some
immigrations on arrivals. If they were not asking you directly for what you had for them from the trip, using their usual slogan ‘welcome my Alhaji’, ‘wetin you bring for boys and girl’, they would apply delayed tactics to force you to part with something by keeping you waiting on the usually long queues.
“But what I witnessed today was quite different from the past interface I had with the immigration officials. I witnessed a very smooth facilitation process in the operations of the immigration. They are very courteous and business like just  as what you witness in Gatwick or Dallas airports. Truly, Nigerians can change for better in many ways if we are committed to do so.”
However, like every agency anywhere in the world, the airport command of the NIS has some challenges to contend with to make it more effective in its operations and remove some stigmas mistakenly placed on it and its officials in the airport.
While it is the globally acceptable practice that on arrival in an international airport, immigration counter is the first point of contact, it is observed that the situation at the Lagos Airport takes an exemption and this needed to be corrected, especially as the executive order on ease of doing business in the country gains momentum.
A situation where Port Health officials, who wear uniform that looks similar to that of Immigration officials, demand for passengers’ travelling document on arrival, would no doubt create confusion and possible ambiguity on who has the statutory role to interface with passengers concerning their documents.
This may be so because many regular travellers around the world, who are used to normal protocol of having the immigration service as first point of contact on arrival, are getting confused.
This could, however, be resolved, if the medical personnel have to be on ground for any emergency reason, be allowed to wear their normal white apron or overall coats with sewn-in name tags, specifying they are from the Port Health Services.
It is also no longer fashionable anywhere in the world for any
operatives of other security agencies other than Immigration Service to clear passengers.
A situation where passengers are made to go through a clearance before getting to the Immigration Desk, as it is obtained at the Lagos Airport, could be tortuous and confusing to passengers.
When these challenges are, however, put under checks by appropriate authorities, the situation where men of Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS), Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), Port Health Service (PHS) and Aviation Security (AVSEC) of FAAN are mistaken for those of the Immigration Service and vice versa would no longer be obtainable.