Prime Business Africa
By Fred Chukwuelobe
Reports indicate that the Enugu Zonal Passport Production Centre of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has been shut down and its equipment dismantled.
According to multiple accounts, the centre received no prior notice before officials arrived to remove the machines.
This is no small matter. Enugu (South East Zone) was the last zonal passport production centre to be launched – yet it has now become the first to be shut down. Other zones are still operating, at least for now. Symbolism matters in Nigeria, and this symbolism is ugly.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelOfficially, the NIS says it has ended decentralised passport production, replacing it with a single, centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at its headquarters in Abuja. This is the first time since the establishment of the NIS in 1963 that passport personalisation and production have been consolidated in one location, ending decades of multiple production centres across Nigeria and even abroad, it says.
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The new Abuja facility reportedly boasts a massive increase in capacity – from about 250–300 passports per day per machine under the old system to an estimated 4,500–5,000 passports daily, with machines capable of producing roughly 1,000 passports per hour. On paper, that sounds like efficiency. In reality, Nigerians know that “efficiency” often masks politics.
I spoke with top-level NIS officials familiar with the development. They expressed deep concern about the disengagement of the South East Zone and confirmed the following:
1. Passport production is indeed being centralised, and the decentralised zonal system is being dismantled. Passports were still being printed in Enugu until just days ago, and printing in other zones will continue only until their machines are removed.
2. There are strong political undercurrents around this policy shift. Senator Adams Oshiomhole is reportedly leading opposition to decentralisation. If that opposition prevails, Enugu risks being left with nothing – no production centre at all – after having been the first to lose its facility.
So the question is unavoidable: why was Enugu chosen first?
Some will say, “They had to start somewhere.” That is not an explanation; it is an evasion. In a country where federal decisions routinely carry ethnic and regional undertones, sequencing matters. Who is picked first sends a message.
The NIS owes Nigerians a transparent, credible explanation. If this is truly about reform and efficiency, then the criteria for shutting down centres should be public, fair, and evenly applied. Anything less feeds the suspicion – earned, not imagined – that some regions are perpetually shortchanged in the name of ‘reform.’
Political leaders from the South East must speak up now. Silence today will become permanent disadvantage tomorrow.
Chukwuelobe is a Public Affairs analyst
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