Muhammad Ajah
21 October 2009
analysis
Abuja — The use of electronic passport, or e-passport, by the Nigerian pilgrims for the first time from this year's hajj is a test case, for the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and a challenge to hajj administrators and agencies.
The Saudi authorities early this year informed NAHCON of the decision to ban the use of the conventional hajj passport. A circular on the issue stated that only a national passport would be accepted from pilgrims, thereby heralding the end of hajj passport.
Officials of the commission immediately visited the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Abuja to discuss the matter, and requested prompt and adequate arrangements for e-passports for all the 95,000 Nigerian pilgrims to this year's hajj, particularly for the 85,000 pilgrims who would be under the State Pilgrims' Welfare Boards (SPWBs) and Agencies.
The NIS CG pledged to make such arrangements.
NAHCON took the next step at the general meeting it convened in March to convey the message to the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The officials of the Nigerian Immigration were also present.
The Immigration explained to the State officials and hajj operators the main features of the e-passport, the differences between it and the traditional hajj passports, the conditions, procedures and requirements for the acquisition of the national travelling document.
The officials of the State pilgrims were also educated on the roles they were expected to play to facilitate the whole process, especially with the rural dwellers that constitute over 60% of the Nigerian pilgrims.
With this, intending pilgrims started obtaining their e-passports in April. At the beginning, there were few complaints from some states of the sluggishness of the process, inadequate enlightenment for the rural intending pilgrims who, according to the immigration directive, were expected to undergo the process in person. There were also the complaints of over-charging and sharp practices in some quarters. However, the Commission and the Immigration Service worked closely together and monitored the progress. These attendant problems were effectively resolved. And by now, all the intending pilgrims for this year's hajj have obtained their e-passports while the issuance of hajj visas by the Saudi Embassy in Abuja and Consulate in Kano has begun.
The biggest fear for NAHCON over the e-passport was how the Saudi authorities would handle it, especially considering that the Hajj administrators in the Kingdom use a lot of stickers which are mostly placed on paper passports during hajj operations. There was also the fear that most of them were not familiar with the fragility of the Nigerian passports and thus may damage it. This informed the decision of NAHCON to send a team to the Kingdom to parley with the Saudi Ministry of Hajj, the Muassassah and the United Agents, on the e-passport.
The delegation led by the NAHCON Commissioner in charge of Planning, Research, Statistics, Information and Library Services (PRSILS), Dr Saleh Okenwa, met on September 2009 with the Saudi Deputy Minister of Hajj Affairs, top Saudi immigration personnel and board members of the Ministry of Hajj in Makkah to discuss the Nigerian e-passport.
After two hours of deliberations, the need to extend the parley to the Muassassah Establishment and other hajj interests in the Kingdom became apparent. Dr Okenwa and the Nigerian Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration took their time to explain to the Saudi officials the peculiarities of the e-passport which need careful handle to avoid damage.
The Assistant Comptroller explained the security features embedded in the front and back covers of the passport, which invalidate it when tampered with. The features, he said, would assist the Immigration authorities all over the world to detect the people on stop-and-watch lists when read through appropriate security machines.
He added that the e-passport has been made in such a way that the slightest mishandling would invalidate it because the reader machines and verifier machines will not be able to work.
He mentioned the following as things that render the e-passport invalid: stapling of any kind on it, slightest tampering/altering, sticking on the data page, detaching of page(s). As for equipments to be installed for the clearance of an e-passport passenger, he mentioned the following: computer systems, verifier machines for thump print identification/biometric capture devices, cyber for data storage, reader machines. He displayed a Nigerian e-passport which had a Saudi hajj sticker on the data page and noted that the sticker had rendered the passport invalid. He, however, suggested that stickers can rather be placed on the visa pages.
The Commissioner explained the passport appendix which the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) introduced to cater for the detachable pages the former hajj passports used to have, but which are not provided for in the e-passport. According to him, the appendices are made up of: Nigerian Consulate page which is to be detached on arrival at the Hajj terminal by the Consulate in Jeddah, the Saudi Immigration page detached on departure by the Saudi Authorities, the United Agent's page, the Car Syndicate page, the Muassassah page and the Adillah page.
On the best way to handle the document, he suggested that Saudi field workers, some of who are employed during hajj operations, should be enlightened on the fragility of the e-passport and that it should be stored during hajj season in compatible containers like boxes, and not bags and sacks.
The Assistant Comptroller suggested to them the need to employ modern technology like auto-gate device, in order to decongest the large number of pilgrims at their entry points within the shortest time. Auto-gate is a device where an installed automatic gate before the Immigration at airports will open for a passenger after placing the international passport on a reader and verifier machine. If the passenger has a problem i.e. if he is in a watch/stop list of that country or he has tampered with the e-passport, the gate will not open and the machine will ask him to see Immigration officials. With this device, the Immigration will have less work to do at the airport and passengers will not have to queue for long to be passed.
The Saudi officials asked the Nigerian delegation, among other things, to request the Nigerian Government to consider the possibility of a one-year e-passport for Nigerian pilgrims, which will contain the detachable pages as used by countries like India and Iran.
Back home, NAHCON is set to record a greater success than it did in the 2008 hajj exercise. With the cordial and continuous partnership between the regulatory body and the State boards, agencies and tour operators, the Nigerian pilgrims are awaiting nothing less than a Hajj Mabrur this year.
Ajah wrote from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Abuja.
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