Nigeria’s Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, has promised a new era of passport registration, retrieval and renewal for citizens.
The minister made the promise during the ‘Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola Colloquium 2020,’ which held on Saturday, May 30.
The virtual conference which was live on Youtube, Facebook, Zoom and Twitter, had as its theme: ‘Government Unusual-Innovative economic solutions to unlock mass prosperity.’
Some of the seven panelists drawn from the public and private sectors were Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Kebbi Governor Abubakar Bagudu and Bismarck Rewane who is a member of President Buhari’s economic advisory council.
“A new era will arrive in passport delivery in Nigeria,” Aregbesola vowed as he re-echoed a promise he made to one of the panelists, development economist and Country Director of DAI, Dr Joe Abah, who did a nice job of reminding him at the commencement of the session.
“Just take away the coronavirus months,” he said in between laughs.
Nigeria’s passport processes can be cumbersome, tardy, frustrating; and could take months from registration to retrieval.
The minister also spoke about how he focused on the majority at the expense of the minority rich as governor of the southwest state.
“I reversed that model completely. Instead of focusing on the top of the pyramid so that wealth trickles to the base of the pyramid, I did the opposite. Let it also be on record that during my time as governor of Osun, we did not incur debts to fund our social programs.
I also believe that an empowered, mobilised people cannot be a debt burden. What we did in Osun was focus on human capital development because when you do that, you reap in the nearest future,” Aregbesola said.
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