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A reporter with PRNigeria, Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, has missed the chance to take part on this 12 months’s version of the Mandela Washington Fellow in the US of America after approval of his journey bills by the US Authorities.
The rationale given for this was that officers of each; the Nationwide Identification Administration Fee, NIMC, and the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, couldn’t repair a ‘easy’ drawback together with his passport, for about three months now.
Lawal, Head of Investigation and Particular Initiatives at PRNigeria, was billed to journey for the fellowship programme in Could (this month), and shortly got down to repair some ‘points’ together with his passport in February 2022.
However an pointless delay in fixing the difficulty with the PRNigeria journalist’s passport, for over two months and nonetheless counting, compelled the American Embassy to completely revoke the fellowship supply they gave him even after offering different travelling services.
Lawal mentioned the “carelessness” displayed by the officers of NIMC, and NIS had not solely “traumatised” him, but in addition put paid to his journey to the US, for the fellowship.
In a put up on his Fb account, titled: “Staff Day: How NIMC, Immigration Officers Sabotaged my Mandela Washington Fellowship Provide for the US,” Lawal, additionally the writer of 101 Faux Information on EndSARS, mentioned: “The 2 authorities companies ‘refusal’ to problem my Worldwide Passport on time, was the final straw that put paid to my anticipated dream journey to the US, the place I used to be presupposed to take residence for 6-weeks of the Fellowship.”
The put up, titled, “How NIMC, Immigration Sabotaged my Mandela Washington Fellowship Provide,” reads partly: “Each Washington and the US Embassy in Nigeria exhibited an important diploma of consideration and empathy by severally extending the deadline for submission of my passport for Visa issuance and all the time known as me up every now and then to get appraised.
“However repeatedly I missed the deadlines due to the 2 Nigerian public service entities, ultimately resulting in the revocation of my supply for the Fellowship.
“In reality, after receiving the notification of the award from the US Embassy, I acquired admission for the programme on the Rutgers College, New Jersey… and subsequently obtained a flight ticket for the pre-departure orientation and different paperwork on the undertaking.
“Although I had obtained an Award of Excellence from the Nationwide Affiliation of Info and Media Research College students in addition to the Campus Journalism Award in 2020, I additionally gained a fellowship with Worldwide Centre for Journalist African Academy for Open Supply Investigation earlier than I capped it with the Total West African Truth-Checker on Kwame Karikari Truth-Checking Analysis Fellowship.
“Subsequently, the supply by the federal government of the US of America would have been the icing on the cake that may additional expose me to the worldwide scale of accomplishment.
“Shocking I initiated the method of renewing my passport in February 2022 after I was shortlisted for the Fellowship interview.
“First NIS official mentioned that my NIN information didn’t tally with my NIS information and I’ve to use for re-ordering and harmonisation which was ultimately accepted after over two months of foot-dragging.
“They later claimed that the approval needed to be carried out by their ICT ‘Technical Companions’ which I got here to grasp was run by foreigners – IRIS Good Applied sciences.
“The foreigners working the IRIS system virtually run the present within the manufacturing of passports for NIS HQ. In reality, NIS employees fidget even on the mere point out of their identify. These guys concern IRIS like kilode.
“To chop lengthy story brief, IRIS stored my file for 2 weeks and returned it with out implementing, querying that the accessible paperwork didn’t match with my NIN information! Shocked, some useful immigration officers discreetly verified my NIN information from the NIS database and confirmed it was appropriate.
“By the point the file was returned to IRIS with a printout of the proof, they mentioned the NIMC server was down. This went on for weeks with out even a ray of hope for a optimistic consequence.
“Finally, a really high feminine Immigration officer who acquired wind of my predicament waded in and intervened and ordered for my file and growth! They claimed they couldn’t discover my file: that it was MISSING.
“How can my file simply disappear out of the blues? It is not solely humorous, it is pathetic and this makes me really feel sorry for such type of woes many Nigerians need to undergo.
“I would not deny that the feminine ACG and the general public relations unit of the NIS did their finest to intervene, however time was restricted, and so, a easy problem that might take solely a most of 1 hour cumulatively to appropriate, took ages and led to the loss/revocation of a golden alternative.
“This can be a manifestation of the rot, ineptitude, negligence, inefficiency and complete disregard for the worth inherent in our nation’s public service. It’s a flagrant violation and abuse of not solely my human rights however my proper and privilege as a citizen of the nation I’ve laboured tirelessly to serve with all my may.
“This can be a fellowship that’s extremely aggressive with contributors from over 49 African international locations participating. This can be very painful that after excelling in my media and Journalism profession, on the verge of my worldwide glory, my very own nation simply fails me… I really feel so dangerous and betrayed by employees in these public establishments. As I’m traumatized and betrayed by public service employees, how can I want anybody Comfortable Staff Day in?” he mentioned.
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