On Monday, August 21st, 2023 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated a new set of ministers, about 45 of them, to head various ministries of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Among the inaugurated ministers was the 41-year-old Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, who was assigned to head the Ministry of Interior, a ministry that has hardly been headed by a younger Nigerian like him.
Arguably, Tunji-Ojo’s Ministry of Interior was one of the ministries with bottlenecks of challenges, and backlog administrative duties left unattended to by the predecessors. He inherited a ministry overseeing correctional centers that had been hijacked by prison-breakers; Nigeria Immigration Service with a backlog of passports that were left unprocessed, and an entire ministry that would have a magic hand to rewrite the history of Nigeria, regarding internal affairs.
No one would have projected, accurately, that it would take Bunmi Tunji-Ojo less than two years to recognize a ministry that has once presented Nigeria badly in the international community.
Within three months of his inauguration as Minister of Interior, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo has been able to perform what is regarded as seven wonders in this article.
Backlog of Passports
Bunmi Tunji-Ojo met in office, over 200,000 applications for International Passports by citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and within three months he cleared the backlog with no negative feedback from the applicants.
Unlike in the past, when his predecessors turned Application for International into a school admission process that would have to the piled till a certain season when less than 10 percent would be processed, only for a ceremonial purpose, Tunji-Ojo has set the ground running in the ministry, and a challenge that any of his successor would not want to leave unbeaten.
Lucrative Decongestion of Correctional Centers
There is no gainsay stating that Nigerian correctional centers are overwhelmed, overcrowded, and need to be decongested.
The tradition in the past was ceremonial decongestion practices where some executive officeholders used the mercy of their offices to set free some prisoners, which has greatly been selective and politically influenced with no financial gain for the country.
Unlike in the past, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo has partnered with private sectors to raise over N500 million to pay for the fines owed by over 4,000 inmates to set them free, thus, decongesting the Correctional Centers without costing Nigeria the fines that were due to be paid by the inmates.
e-Fencing of Nigerian Border
In the past, as billions of naira were wasted on recruiting and maintaining personnel for Nigerian Border Security, the lives of the security operatives were not spared. This has been brought under check by Bunmi Tunji-Ojo’s initiative of merging border security and technology.
Within three months in office, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo has empowered Nigeria Immigration Service officers with technology to enhance border security.
Paramilitary Welfare
Interior Minister, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo has been working tirelessly to ensure the welfare, salaries, and commission of the ministry’s staff and that of the inmates are improved.
He stated this, less than a week ago, and with how he has been delivering on the previous promises, the staff is working in harmony with him to put an end to jailbreak, and other atrocities that have bedeviled the ministry in the past.
Passport Automation
What would have been unnecessarily delayed over four years by others who would have been dancing around the country for personal gains, a few hours ago Tunji-Ojo promised that the Next Phase of Nigeria Passport Automation will take off next week.
Hr categorically claimed that the Passport Automation System is 99% completed and latest by next week, the system will be accessible to Nigerians for processing their passport application seamlessly.
E-gate and the International Airports
E-gate is an electronic method of processing information of air travelers to ease the journey for the citizens and block extortion of the air passengers.
Recently, while assuring Nigerians of the readiness of E-gate for deployment into all the international airports in Nigeria, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo promised: “Once you are a Nigerian coming to Nigeria, you have no business seeing an immigration officer except if you are a person of interest.” This will save time, reduce physical contact with immigration officers, stop extortion, and upgrade the practices at Nigeria’s international airports to the international standard.
Fast Passport Processing Time
Apart from clearing the over 200,000 backlog of unprocessed Passports he inherited from the immediate past Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; the incumbent minister has fast-tracked the processing time of the application for the international passports.
In the past, applicants spent a couple of months to years before their international passport was ready or, at worst, entered into a deadlock.
Under Bunmi Tunji-Ojo’s overview, Passport processing time has been wonderfully reduced to one or, a maximum of two weeks.
