Nasiru Yusuf Ibrahim

The Islamic Forum of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to reconsider plans to centralise passport booklet printing and security personalisation at a single facility in Abuja.

KANO FOCUS reports that the Forum said the proposed centralisation could create serious logistical challenges, increase costs for applicants and disrupt access to international travel documents, particularly for residents of Northern states and emergency applicants.

The position was contained in a press statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the Islamic Forum of Nigeria, Alhaji Dalhatu Muhammad Gwarzo, on Wednesday.

The Forum said it was concerned about ongoing initiatives by the NIS and the Ministry of Interior to change the country’s travel document infrastructure by centralising passport booklet printing and processing in Abuja, warning that the policy could lead to the closure of passport offices in many states.

It argued that passports currently produced at regional facilities in Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Enugu and Calabar already utilise modern security features, including polycarbonate technology, embedded chips and uniform security standards.

According to the organisation, concentrating passport printing strictly in Abuja would therefore provide no additional security value but could introduce significant operational vulnerabilities.

The Forum said centralising physical printing would increase transit risks and financial burdens for ordinary citizens, particularly those in remote Northern communities.

It noted that applicants from states such as Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano and Borno could be forced to undertake costly trips to state capitals or Abuja simply to track passport production and dispatch.

The organisation also warned that a single-location model could expose the passport issuance system to serious disruption in the event of mechanical maintenance, hardware failure or power interruption at the Abuja facility.

It recalled that Nigeria had previously operated a centralised passport issuance system before 2000, under which booklet printing and data corrections could only be authorised in Abuja.

The Forum said the system resulted in backlogs, institutional corruption and widespread public distress before the government decentralised passport processing to state commands in the early 2000s.

“Abandoning local printing capabilities to return to a central model disregards the key lessons learned from those historical bottlenecks,” it said.

The Forum further argued that the scale of national demand made centralised production risky, noting that existing regional hubs collectively possess printing capacity exceeding 30,000 passports daily, with no major location issuing fewer than 1,500 passports per day.

It said replacing the regional network with a single central printer capable of producing barely 10,000 booklets daily would create an immediate operational deficit.

*Northern, emergency applicants at risk*

The Islamic Forum said the proposed policy could have particularly serious consequences for applicants with urgent medical, academic, religious and other travel needs.

It warned that citizens travelling abroad for emergency medical treatment could be unable to withstand lengthy courier delays from Abuja, while international students facing visa deadlines could equally be affected.

The organisation also expressed concern about intending pilgrims preparing for Umrah and Hajj, saying seasonal disruptions in local commands could prevent them from obtaining passports in time.

To avert what it described as a potential nationwide administrative disruption, the Forum called on the Federal Government and NIS to urgently review the centralisation roadmap.

It advocated retaining and upgrading regional passport printing hubs, particularly high-capacity centres such as Kano and Port Harcourt, to maintain decentralised production and provide redundancy in the system.

The Forum also called for state comptrollers to be granted explicit operational authority and local equipment to process and print emergency booklets for verified medical evacuees, students and seasonal pilgrims.

It said addressing the concerns would help create a modern, secure and accessible passport system for Nigerians.

The Islamic Forum appealed to Nigerians to support its position while urging the NIS to reconsider the proposed policy.