Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Nothing has made the Bible verse Joel 2:25 in which God promised; “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.” like the appointment and performance of Mr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo as the Honourable Minister of Interior of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.
He resumed office as Minister of Interior on August 21, 2023, 5 days after he was appointed and from that day, things have never remained the same again at that parastatal.
From its days as Ministry of Internal Affairs to Ministry of Interior in 2007, I am bold to say that Nigerians are have never had it this good since the ministry was created in 1957.
In recent history, the Ministry of Interior and various ministers of Interior are only known for announcing public holidays or facing backlash for shoddy recruitment exercise into various paramilitary and regimented services under its administration.
Talking about recruitment into the various regimented services under his administrative control; which are the Nigerian Correctional Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, Federal Fire Service, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and it must be stated for the records and posterity’s sake that this is the first time in the history of these various agencies that the outcomes and lists of selected successful candidates was never debated, disputed or discredited. A demonstration of commitment to merit and national cohesion.
This is one man whose conduct from the first day he resumed office is guided by Alexandra the Great and legends of his mould who are remembered based on what they did and we don’t and can’t remember their faces or what they look like.
Before Olubunmi Ojo’s era, Nigeria’s passport and holders of the passport were always disrespected at various port of entry of many countries all because we had two passport regimes and a whopping 96 passport processing/production centers when most countries have between 1 or 2 with only France having 3.
His reforms has restored sanity and we have just a single passport regime and just one passport processing centre in Abuja which was built at zero cost for the ministry and the Federal Government.
One of the numerous benefits of the technological innovations embarked upon under his leadership led to security forces intercepting seven high-ranking Boko Haram and ISWAP commanders at Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Katsina upon their return from Hajj earlier this year. This huge breakthrough was evidently due to digital reforms that integrated national identity records with immigration databases and INTERPOL.
This is also of huge import on our homeland security with introduction of technology into our border control activities and operations.
Another great virtue and quality of his sterling leadership is his responsiveness to crisis, his thirst for dedication to duty, promotion of punctuality and good service delivery by agencies and personnel of various agencies under his administrative control, and also quick to acknowledge shortcomings and see to prompt resolution of such.
An example is his recent intervention to the plight of Nigerians in United Kingdom
Thousands of Nigerians living in the United Kingdom have been complaining that routine passport renewal has turned into a frustrating ordeal marked by months of delays, unanswered enquiries, missed travel plans and lingering uncertainty
In a swift response to this crisis, the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo ordered the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to deploy a dedicated Passport Intervention Team to the United Kingdom to help clear pending applications and facilitate new passport enrolment and renewals for Nigerians living in the country as part of efforts to ease and streamline passport services for Nigerians in the diaspora.
The verdict on the past three(3) years of the stewardship of Mr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo is unanimously adjudged to be the one of the few best in public service of our dear nation. So commendable are his achievements that both harshest critics and most passionate supporters of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration see him as the “poster boy” of the RENEWED HOPE AGENDA” of Mr. President.
It is obvious that Mr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo is doing a very good job and deserves all praises and adulations and Nigeria and Nigerians have never had it this good with the Ministry of Interior, especially since 1999 with the advent of democratic rule in Nigeria.
Deyemi Adedimeji Saka
(PR Consultant & Public Affairs Analyst)