Since coming to power over two years ago, the Tinubu government has introduced a raft of policies that not only completely reconfigured the Nigerian economy but also handed Nigerians a new reality, one tinged with perennial lack, hardship and uncertainty
The primary responsibility of any government, whether civilian or military, is to improve the people’s lives. Ensuring that every policy and initiative is geared towards making sure ease and comfort are brought to most people. No one is better positioned to gauge and determine the impact of the actions and decisions of the government than the very people on whose behalf these decisions are taken. The government’s spin doctors may tweak the facts and bend reality to the will of their paymaster but the truth will always be the exclusive reserve of the governed.
Since coming to power over two years ago, the Tinubu government has introduced a raft of policies that not only completely reconfigured the Nigerian economy but also handed Nigerians a new reality, one tinged with perennial lack, hardship and uncertainty. While the government has implored the populace to endure and persevere, which many people are actually willing to do, the actions and body language of the government have left much to be desired with many now thinking if these policies are actually promulgated to pull the nation out of economic doldrums or to destroy whatever is left of their hitherto fragile but decent and modest socio-economic realities. Rather than make decisions that will ameliorate the pain and hardship inflicted on the people by its poorly thought-out neoliberal policies, it has continued to pummel the people with harsher and crippling policies.
On Thursday, 28th August, the federal government announced an increase in the price of international passports. According to a statement by the Nigerian immigration service, a 32-page passport will now cost 100,000 and anyone who wants a 64-page booklet will have to pay a whopping 200,000. It is worth noting that this is the second price increase in less than two years. In August last year, there was an upward review of passport price which raised the 32-page, five-year booklet from N35,000 to N50,000, and the 64-page, 10-year booklet from N70,000 to N100,000. Like with every insensitive and logic-defying policy and decision that this government has become synonymous with, it attributed the passport price hike to the need to ensurthe e quick delivery of passports and eliminate corruption. These reasons are as pedestrian as they are callous.
Nigerians, now physically defeated and mentally subdued, are not expected to reject this fresh burden heaped on them by an inconsiderate and tone-deaf government. Their ability to adapt to any unpalatable and deplorable condition occasioned by every economic downturn and financial squeeze has become not just an Achilles heel but a curse. But something has to be said for leaders who take advantage of their citizens, and this government’s obsession with making life excruciatingly tough for the people is becoming legendary. It’s deeply worrying that a government will peg the price of something as basic as international passports at ₦100,000 and 200,000 in a country where the minimum wage is ₦70,000 which many business owners and subnationals are not even paying.
Also, these new prices are not the fixed or base prices. They don’t include the unofficial and undocumented fees one is expected to pay to sleazy and unscrupulous immigration officers before one can be attended to and their passport request processed. These corrupt officers will not attend to you until you speak the language of bribes by greasing their palms. One can’t help but wonder about the kind of thought process that goes into these decisions. Does this increment reflect any increase in the status or power of our passport? No, it does not. So why increase the cost? It is increasingly difficult to see how we can make it as a country. Few individuals will toil, scrape, scramble, and find their way. But as a country? It is impossible with the quality of people we have at the helm of affairs at the moment.
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