When Rosalynn Carter said, “A leader takes people where they want to go. A GREATER leader takes people where they do not necessarily want to go, but ought to be”, she may have had President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR in mind. When President Tinubu decided to pull the then Honourable Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, member representing Akoko North East/Akoko North West Federal Constituency from the Green House and name him as one of the members of the yet-to-be-announced Federal Executive Council (FEC), he may have seen what the young Tunji-Ojo did not even see in himself, needless to mention the public. And true to Carter’s submission, President Tinubu as a greater leader took young Tunji-Ojo where he may not have thought of being to where he ought to be. And today, the Honourable Minister has not only lived to his expectations, but has turned out the ‘Poster Boy’ of the Renewed Hope administration.
Akin to what Walter Lippmann described as ‘final test’, President Tinubu, in his determined guts to replicate an army of young ‘Jagabans’, typical of reincarnation of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu – in deeds and actions; Mr. President is proving, in the words of Lippmann that, “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” One of such young Tinubus is the Minister Tunji-Ojo who has shown his capacity and capability in the last one year. Unlike many others, Tunji-Ojo remains on the lips of many Nigerians, a corollary of his milestones in the Interior Ministry. It will take only cynics to undermine the sterling and quality deliverables of the Minister in the last 365 days.
Minister Tunji-Ojo does not look like somebody that is swayed by the tantrums of his adversaries. For him, he believes in the words of John Peter Zenger that, “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” Today, his impactful leadership is felt across the country as well as beyond the shores of Nigeria. This write up is not meant to launder the image of the ‘Poster Boy’, a sobriquet he has earned for himself among patriotic Nigerians. Rather, it is meant to speak to verifiable facts on his achievements in the last one year.
What therefore can be described as the score card of the Honourable Minister, Ministry of Interior? This writer appeals that people disabuse their minds, if not for the sake of the country which has since witnessed a possible turnaround since the appointment of this young, agile and promising Nigerian, but for the sake of conscience. It is germane that people embrace open-mindedness in assessing his stewardship in the last 365 days. As these milestones are unveiled, individuals can go on fact-finding mission to confirm the veracity or mendacity of these claims. Facts are sacred and can be controverted with superior evidence. A synopsis of his landmark achievements is hereunder listed based on each of the agencies under his stewardship;
Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS)
• Promoted 4,598 personnel from the service to new ranks in 2023.
• Clearance of over 200k passport backlogs in 3-weeks to redeem a national emergency that has been a source of frustration for citizens seeking to obtain travel documents.
• Redesigned the passport enrolment portal to become a seamless and automated system where every citizen has an NIS office on their mobile phone.
• Deployed expertise to commence the upgrade of the passport enrolment portal into a contactless technology.
• Commissioned 30 new patrol vehicles deployed to secure the Nigerian borders.
• Commenced and completed the construction of a command and control centre housing a 1.4 petabytes capacity data centre in the NIS headquarters, Sauka, Abuja.
• Installation of e-Gate facilities as border security measures across all international airports namely: Lagos (21 e-gates), Abuja, Port Harcourt (4 e-gates), Enugu (4 e-gates), and Kano (4 e-gates).
• Activated Document Verification Officers (DVOs) role as mechanism to authenticate persons enrolling for passport at their Local Government Area of origin.
• Cleared over N10 billion in debts to technical partners within the first 6 months of resuming office.
• Constituted a committee to redesign visa enrolment process for short-stay visitors in line with the #RenewedHope agenda to open up the country for tourism, and foreign investment.
• Commissioned the Arrival “E” of MM International Airport as well as the remodelled main entrance/exit gate and Quarter Guard at the Zone ‘A’ Hqs in Lagos.
• Commenced the enhancement of the international passport to meet global standards.
(Vanguard)