Many Nigerians in the Diaspora are at risk of deportation due to the scarcity of Nigerian passport booklets abroad, forcing them to organise a protest to state the danger to their stay and livelihood in their host countries.
Some Nigerians in Diaspora with the Nigerian In Diaspora Network (NDN) subsequently staged a rally in Germany on Friday to express their misgivings over the current predicament.
The Chairman, NDN, Mr Victor Ojeabulu, expressed how the predicament, need to be felt urgently or create more hardship for Nigerians by putting them at risk of deportation.
“We are here today to make a special appeal to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We want to let him know the predicament in which our people are going through here in Germany.
“For some months, our people have not been able to obtain their Nigerian passport and a lot are going through hell; those working need to renew their passport for them to continue work,” he said.
Ojeabulu said that women, in particular, were finding it difficult to get passports for their children.
He noted that women who were supposed to get their children registered officially by the state for them to continue their lives could no longer do all that due to a lack of passport booklets.
“It is very sad and as a mouthpiece of the people, the Nigerians in Diaspora Network, we felt we have to appeal to the Federal Government.
“I do not see any reason why our people should be going through all that, it is not responsible for our people to go through all these,” Ojeabulu said.
Also speaking, the General Coordinator, NDN, Mr Odijie Irabor, said the passport to people abroad is the most important single identity document required for international relations.
Odijie urged the Federal Government to guarantee that the document was made available to its citizens in Diaspora quickly.
He explained how the scarcity had hit all countries and this could lead to a major risk for Nigerians abroad.
“Today we are on a distress call on the Nigerian government to urgently address international passport dilemma in Diaspora.
“Most times this happens when Nigerians need this international passport urgently to renew their residency or embark on crucial documentation procedures in their respective countries.
You can imagine how it sounds to return to your host government authority with a frivolous excuse why we cannot present our international passport on-demand,” Odijie said.
The tremendous revenue capacities of passport allocation have been grossly miscalculated. Odijie noted.
He urged the Nigerian government to look into the issue and investigate the abnormal scarcity of the document by its staff for personal gains.
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