There are strong indications that the Nigeria Immigration Service will begin special screening of visitors entering the country from Kenya, Libya, Somalia and other African countries that are battling terrorism.

This, according to findings, is in line with the Federal Government’s announcement of a new policy that permits other Africans to get visa on arrival in Nigeria, beginning January 2020.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on Wednesday at the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development in Africa, held in Cairo, Egypt, announced the new visa regime for Africans.

“We in Nigeria have already taken the strategic decision to bring down barriers that have hindered the free movement of our people within the continent by introducing the issuance of visa at the point of entry into Nigeria to all persons holding passports of African countries with effect from January 2020,” he said.

The Federal Government last year announced visa on arrival policy for selected categories of people.

Over 2,000 of such visas were given to potential investors at Nigeria’s main airport in Lagos in July.

The government has also been considering new types of visas for applicants.

However, top immigration officials at NIS headquarters in Abuja told Sunday PUNCH on Saturday that the service would begin the special screening of visitors/passengers coming into the country through airports and land borders from countries battling insurgency or have become transit points for terrorists.

According to immigration officials at Lagos and Abuja airports, some of the countries that have issues relating to insurgency whose citizens or residents may be subjected to strict screening include Kenya, Somalia and Libya.

A top immigration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter explained, “With this new visa regime, we are going to pay special attention to visitors and passengers coming from countries that have issues with insurgency or terrorism. These include Kenya, Libya, Somalia and others.

“Before now, we have an online visa application which visitors from mostly African countries and others outside Africa must fill and submit online. When they get here, we still screen them before we issue them visa and allow them in.”

The official further said, “But some are taking advantage of the visa on arrival to come for other activities such as tourism and church activities. This is because sometimes, they find it difficult to get approval from embassies.

“The majority of people coming are Chinese citizens and other church worshippers who come to Synagogue Church in Lagos. Most of those who come for religious tourism are from Africa. They come in large numbers, especially from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda and a few other African nations. They come strictly for church-related programmes.

“But we carry out extra checks on those from countries like Syria due to terrorism and others in Africa such as Libya. We also scrutinise Kenyans, but the majority of those who come to Nigeria are for church-related purposes.

“They go through security checks and we have a stop list that guides us. On entering Nigeria, the system will alert us of a suspected terrorist because we already have their names with us. The system is installed at the airport. When any Kenyan comes, he goes through the security checks to ensure he/she is clean. We send back inadmissible persons. But with this new regime, security screening will increase.”

According to another top official, the 1975 Protocol on Free Movement created the platform for interaction among West Africans, East Africa, Central Africa and North Africa.

On how prepared the NIS is for the new visa regime, another immigration official said, “We will soon get a formal directive through a circular on the matter from Abuja.

“However, we have taken proactive steps to handle whatever traffic by expanding our operations in the D and E arrivals to accommodate more foreign migrants at the Lagos airport, which is our flagship airport.”

Online visa application no longer compulsory for Africans

The NIS said it was no longer compulsory for other Africans visiting Nigeria to submit an online visa application before coming to Nigeria, following the announcement of the new visa regime.

Explaining the development, the spokesperson for the NIS, Mr Sunday James, said, “Visa on arrival is not free; the one for Africans is given the priority of being issued at the point of entry after due diligent clearance without prior application until they get to the entry point.

“It is a liberalised process worth commending the Federal Government for, an uncommon approach to immigration diplomacy in integrating African nationals.”

The immigration spokesman, however, explained that although it was no longer compulsory for African visitors to apply online before coming into the country, those interested in applying online could still do so.

James explained that the NIS was going to tighten the noose on immigrants in the coming days as it stepped up efforts to implement Buhari’s directive.

The NIS said visiting Africans would be subjected to tight security clearance and airport protocol, noting that each visitor would undergo passport validity verification, watch list checks, suspect index, wanted list records, Interpol diffusion record and risk analysis index.

The spokesman stated, “The issue of online application is a matter of choice for Africans. On arrival at the entry point, they will be subjected to immigration security clearance, which includes passport validity verification, checks on a watch list, suspect index, wanted list records, Interpol diffusion record and risk analysis index, all in an effort to step up national security.

“So, visa on arrival at the point of entry is not the way people think; nobody can infiltrate and enter the country without proper security clearance and checks. The NIS is statutorily ready to tighten security at entry points while imbibing international best practices.”

Experts react

A retired Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, lauded the policy, saying it would engender transparent visa processing while making it easier to monitor foreigners in the country.

He said, “It is a laudable idea; it would make it easier to know those visiting the country and thus boost national security.”

A security specialist, Kabir Adamu, said he was in support of a more transparent and beneficial visa regime, noting that a lot of countries practised a transparent system that Nigeria was trying to imbibe now.

He called for enhanced capacity for NIS personnel and modern technology to ensure that those who constituted security risks did not enter the country.

Lagos airport receives over 200 foreigners daily –Official

Meanwhile, an official of the NIS at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos said the flagship airport received about 200 foreigners every day.

These, he said, included Africans and other citizens of the world.

“Not too sure, I will need to confirm the statistics, but in some days, we have an average of 200 foreigners that come in daily through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. The visa on arrival is meant for genuine business people to ease business transactions in the country,” the source said.

The immigration spokesman on Friday said Buhari gave the directive to ensure the country broke the barrier and also integrate the “African brothers.”

“Ideally, we are supposed to be a united black nation, but most times when our people want to travel to other African nations, they have this problem of obtaining visas, so the government has decided that on its own, it is going to demystify that bottleneck so that any African coming to Nigeria does not need to apply for visa in their country before coming. At the point of entry, the immigration officer should be able to carry out his check and issue him the visa for a fee without delay,” he said.

On how many Africans visit the country on a daily or yearly basis, a top immigration official said, “We have various land border posts in Lagos, Cross River, Borno, Oyo, Zamfara and other states. So, it won’t be easy to collate all these statistics in a go.”

On preparedness for the implementation of the new visa on arrival policy, which is about two weeks away, the official said, “I can assure Nigerians that the service has never joked with any government policy. We will implement it to the letter. It was just like when they started ECOWAS, people did not believe it would survive.”

The Comptroller-General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede, had on Friday, said the visa on arrival policy for all Africans announced by Buhari would not compromise national security.

He explained that the policy was meant to accelerate African integration and bring down barriers that hindered the free movement of people within the continent.

He said, “The visa on arrival at the point of entry is an effort to accelerate African integration. Nigeria’s strategic decision is taken to bring down barriers that have hindered the free movement of our people within the continent by introducing the visa at the point of entry into Nigeria with effect from January 2020.”

A statement by the NIS spokesman noted, “The Comptroller-General of Immigration is assuring Nigerians of the service’s commitment to ensuring high-level professional ethics in delivering the services without compromising national security.”