MAKE no mistake about it ,Nigeria has perhaps the most porous borders in the World, whether on the land , in the sea or through the Air, Nigeria’s border is as porous as a hot knife slicing through a sleeping butter.
So ,where is the Nigerian Immigration Service in the midst of all these ?
As is any thing that is Nigerian, The Nigerian Immigration Service is mostly concerned with the Money Raking Ventures in the Service ,the issuance of International Passports ,the issuance of Work Permits and Expatriate Quotas.
The core of Immigration duties ,which are ensuring that undocumented foreigners are not allowed into the Country, ensuring that a Company does exceed its expatriate quota, the insistence of work permit for foreigners working in Nigeria ,precluding illegal emigration and other sundry duties are largely unattended to .
So you find that the so called Fulani Herdsmen comprises of undocumented foreigners who got here by the sheer incompetence of our Immigration Service.
The Service has also been unable to do anything about Citizens passing through the dangerous and labyrinth like trajectory to Libya enroute Europe.
They are unable to stem the criminal gangs that run the organized crime called human trafficking, which by the way goes side by side with organ harvesting and organ trafficking .
We have a preponderance of artisans from Lebanon ,Israel and China and other third world countries, which are in their Millions in Nigeria running portfolio companies, with many of their unqualified staff who have expropriated Nigerian Jobs ,with out work permits and /or expatriate quotas. The worse part is that Nigerian Soldiers are used to escort these artisans to and from work ,just because their skin is white. A desecration of our symbol National Defence.
There is no thought for the Security Implications of these highly reprehensible Security Breaches. Many of these Foreigners may be Secret Service Agents or Agents of Terrorists wrecking havoc on our helpless and hapless Citizens .
Recently, a Nigerian Senator raised an alarm that a large number of Chinese Nationals in Nigeria are prisoners in China brought to Nigeria to serve their Prison Terms under the guise of working in Nigeria, turning the whole of our Country into a huge Jail.
As anything that is Nigerian ,the issue was swept under the carpet.
The Nigerian Immigration Service should wake up to its responsibilities as it is the most dysfunctional Arm of the Armed Forces .
The Commander In Chief should therefore rejig the structure and modus operandi of the Service to ensure optimum operational module .
If we get our immigration policies right ,we will get our security right .
In this light ,we should also synchronize our National Identity Database to create a single National Identity Number or Social Security Number with a synchronized biometrics that will create a National Crime Lab and install CCTV Cameras all over urban areas in phases. We should also have data base of all Foreigners in Nigeria with biometrics captured. Efforts to enlisting and training a large proportion of our Citizens as informants of the Secret Service as it is done in other climes where security is of utmost national interest.
Until all these and more are done ,our insecurity will be intractable.
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