In most countries of the world,
citizens are required to use both
their national driver’s license and
the international passport for
driving and travels, respectively and
as means of identification.
These documents are important
because some of the holder’s bio-
data on them are captured and
stored in a form that can be
referred to in a system for
anything.
The information could be used to
trace an individual in the case of an
accident or crime. The system
bearing such data is supposed to
have a link to the vehicles
registered by such individual.
Where Police crime records are
kept and protected, it could as a
link to the record of the holders
conducts, movements, and crimes of
any sorts.
The driving license, in particular, is
therefore a very important
document of national security value
and importance. It is for this
reason that many governments
accord it importance. In such
countries, any intending driver must
go through and pass requisite tests,
including language, sand sight tests
for the safety of the driver and
other road users.
The language test is very important
because a driver should be able to
read and understand road signs and
directions. In Germany, for
example, you must pass the general
Dutch language test before you get
a driving license as it reduces
accidents and confusion on roads. In
most countries, including Great
Britain, from where most of our
traffic laws and rules were lifted, a
citizen gets one driver’s license for
life at an affordable rate or fee.
In this country, for a very long
time, you could get a driver’s license
seated in the comfort of your
house. All you needed was to give
your agent your passport pictures;
he goes out and in a few days
return with your driver’s license.
This system, coupled with massive
illiteracy level among drivers,
especially the commercial drivers,
made life very difficult for traffic
law enforcement officers, some of
whom exploited the situation,
extorted money from such drivers
at every corner and turn. In those
days the validity of the driver’s
license was 10 years, after which a
holder must renew.
Someone then decided to
modernize the document, plasticize
it, and reduced the validity period
to only five years. Today, the FRSC
has the responsibility for the
driver’s license, with the assurances
that the plastics will be ready
within hours of one’s records being
captured, but that is very far from
what obtains.
The new driver’s license comes at a
cost of about N12,500 and in some
cases up to N15,000. You could wait
for up to five months to receive the
plastic card. Assuming only 85
million(about half of Nigerian
population) can drive, this
translates to an income to the
FRSC of not less than N1.062
trillion.
With this type of money, it
becomes difficult to understand
why an applicant will have to wait
for five months after his data has
been captured to obtain his plastic
driver’s license; and during this
period he must be visiting the FRSC
for update of validity periodically,
thus subjecting citizens to
avoidable hardship.
The temporary or paper license
could be made valid for six months
or more during which period the
holder could be telephoned at any
time to come and pick up his plastic
card. Of equal concern is the short
validity of the driver’s license which
brings every holder back to pay
another sum every five years,
during which costs must rise for
many reasons.
The Nigerian International
Passport, which they call the e-
passport, also costs about N15,000
to obtain, no matter what you may
be told. In the 1980s the validity of
the passport was for 10 years.
Later it became renewable every
five years, but must expire at the
end of 10 years, leading one to
wonder why the new e-passport
should not be valid for a life time.
The policy of one life one passport
will save costs, bring our own
practices close to what obtains in
other nations of Europe and the
Americas, and reduce the drudgery
intending Nigerian travellers go
through at immigration offices
across the nation. Most passport
offices are often crowded, with
officers processing new
applications, renewing old ones, and
other related issues, and these
officers know that everybody will
come back after 10 years.
What a colossal waste of money of
Nigerians. Again if only half of
Nigerians travel overseas in a
period of five years, you are talking
of another N2.75 trillion every five
years. In spite of these, it is either
that the booklet is scarce in one
region or state, or the capturing
machines will become faulty, with
applicants spending long hours in
long queues just to own the
International Passport.
In some immigration offices in
Lagos, people start queuing as early
as 6 am for their applications.
Under such a situation people start
jostling to cut corners, to jump the
queues; some officers begin to
exploit the situation for corrupt
practices and it all brings stress to
poor and hapless citizens.
If I may ask, why can’t Nigerians
have one driver’s license, one
International Passport and one
National ID per life? It is so in
America, Brazil, Mexico, and
Europe, to name a few.
If our National Driver’s license and
the e-passport processing now
conform to international standards
as the Minister would want all of us
to believe, why do we still have
short validity in these documents
that Nigerians carry about?
The answer may well be either that
the government officials have the
tendency to continue to milk the
people until they say enough is
enough, and cry out loud or someone
thinks that Nigerians are happier
when they suffer more indignities!
We surely do not need to pray to
know that the time has come with
the vision 20-20-20,for Nigeria, to
begin to treat her people better,
and to bring the validity and
processes for the driver’s license
and international passport to
conform with what obtains in other
countries.
Mr. CLEMENT UDEGBE, a legal
practitioner, wrote from Lagos.
Vanguard Nigeria

How many passports nigerians must have ? You talk of international Passport is there national passport
As far as i know a passort doesnt need to be called international passport

The different in passport is diplomatic and ordinary passort

With this type of money, it
becomes difficult to understand
why an applicant will have to wait
for five months after his data has
been captured to obtain his plastic
driver’s license; and during this
period he must be visiting the FRSC
for update of validity periodically,
thus subjecting citizens to
avoidable hardship.

I dont understand this too, funny thing is they will look you straight up and give you a 'valid reason' why it's not ready in 2 weeks! Like it's not rocket science, employing temp staff to reduce the wiating list is not too much considering the profit they will be making