The British High Commission in Abuja is undergoing an expansion programme of its visa section to ease visa issuance to Nigerian applicants, the outgoing Entry Clearance Manager of the High Commission, Mr. Tim Bridges has said.
In a farewell dinner by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Mr. Bridges and his wife, Zoe on Monday, the celebrant said that there has been significant improvement in the visa section since 2003:
"I first arrived here in 1995 when there was one UK based clearance entry officer. There was no clearance entry manager in Abuja. When I left in 1998, there was still no entry clearance officer manager but there were two officers. So at a stroke, in a mere three years, I have doubled the size of the visa section. I thought when I came back; I could never manage that again.
"When we arrived in 2003, there were five UK based entry clearance officer and one clearance entry manager. We have just completed a successful bid for a section in Abuja. In April 2007, the visa section will comprise 25 entry clearance officers, four entry clearance mangers, one clearance secretary director of immigration and probably about 70 locally employed staff. We are going to be a very large section indeed, being among the top six in the world," he said.
He said that the expansion will translate into more visas for intending travellers: "The good news for Nigeria is that in 2003, we issued 20, 000 visas; in 2005, we issued almost 40, 000. We have pretty much doubled the amount of visas in Abuja and the figures in Lagos are also the same. This a reflection of the fact that we have put in place a system which makes it easier generally for the majority of Nigerians to apply for visas.
"You don't have to wait outside in the rain and being preyed upon by the touts. They don't have to try and get through to telephone numbers that just never answer. We don't think that at the moment there is any suppression of demand. Anyone who wants to apply can apply. So the doubling of number of issuance of visas is a reflection that so many more people are applying. And that I will like to see as a success for myself and for my section.
He added that the visa section has rebuilt effective relationship in the High Commission, saying that "if there is a perception of recalcitrance, difficulty and obtrusiveness in the visa section, then everybody else feels the repercussion.
On his opinion about Nigerians, he said "In Nigeria, the smile of joke and a friendly greeting will defuse almost any potential hostile situation and will take you further in Nigeria than almost anywhere else in the world, infact further than anywhere in the world that I have ever been. We have met in our travels only hospitality, never hostility; only kindness, never cruelty; hopefulness, not hindrance; welcome, not "wahala"; and always friends never foes. "
Mr Musa Fari, the new Charge de Affairs to Senegal who is representing the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said that the end of Mr Bridges duty tour signals another phase of cooperation between the two countries.
He praised the Mr Bridges for his hard work and for making the relationship between the High Commission and the ministry smoother and symbiotic, saying "Mr Brid-ges has gone an extra mile in his work. As a colleague, I want to say that we appreciate you for everything you have done for this country.
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"We have learnt a lot about way you have conducted affairs. We appreciate the great wealth of experience imparted on us; we appreciate the transparency of doing things especially curtailing with visa racketing. We appreciate it a lot that when people say 'we went to the embassy and we didn't get a visa', we fully understood what they were saying. They are saying this simply because they didn't get. But there are many who got the visas and they didn't say they got. Giving people about 200, 000 visas, it is a lot visas issued in a year. We recognise the progression in our relationship, economically, politically and socially between the UK and Nigeria," he said.
