The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David Shikfu Parradang last month clocked two years in office in that capacity. In this write up DGOssip247, examines his achievements so far
On June 10, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David Shikfu Parradang completed two years in office, having been appointed the substantive Comptroller General of the Service in June 2013 by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Parradang took over the rein of Immigration as 13th Comptroller General after the Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration, R.B. Musa acted for six months.
As the 13th Comptroller General of Immigration and within this short period of two years, he has brought a remarkable change and transformation within the Service. As it is often said those who make impacts in lives of organisations don’t need many years to do this, but commitment to their commission.
Parradang understood this from day one and has exhibited commitment to bringing the required transformation to the Immigration Service. The CGI’s transformation agenda cuts across all strata of Immigration including staff welfare. As someone who understands organisational structure and the importance of reward system in getting the best from the staff, he has provided motivation beyond imagination therby helping them from looking for crumbs in the service.
Parradang, who joined the Nigeria Immigration Service in 1982 as an Assistant Superintendent of Immigration, was born in 1959 in Plateau State and holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from University of Lagos. His wealth of experience spanned many years as Command Comptroller and Special Assistant to two past CGI. He was a Comptroller in Kano, Kwara and Enugu state commands.
Also he had served at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, as well as Diplomatic Desk and Passport office, Ikeja, all in Lagos State. Before his appointment as CGI by the then President Jonathan, he was the Assistant Comptroller General State Co-ordination in the Directorate of Operations/Passport at the Service Headquarters.
Within this two years, the CGI has been able to obtain government approval for the immediate establishment of a Border Patrol Corps and introduction of suitable fatigue and appropriate technology for effective border policing; establishment of 30 additional control posts across the country to complement the existing 84 control posts totaling 114; establishment of 27 additional patrol bases bringing the total to 72 patrol bases across the country there by significantly reducing the distance between control posts and making border patrolling more watertight and a lot easier.
Other achievements are the establishment of a Special Border Patrol Corps to effectively man and police the nation’s borders where 1, 500 Special Border Patrol Corps had been trained and deployed in 2014; timely composition of a committee to fashion out a blueprint to move the NIS forward; and immediate establishment of a branch of the High Court Registry within the office complex to forestall incidence of presentation of questionable breeder documents by applicants and reduction of touting at our Passport Control Offices.
The Service spokesperson, ACI Chukwuma Obua revealed that the CGI has been able to increase the number of foreign missions with Immigration Attachés and passport issuing facilities from 33 to 36; obtaining approval to send 18 NIS officers to nine foreign missions and deployment of same to facilitate acquisition of e-passports to Nigerians living in the Diaspora with ease; and sustaining ongoing repatriation of irregular/illegal immigrants all over the country with over 2,454 of them repatriated and nine deported in 2014 alone. On staff welfare, the CGI ensures prompt and accurate payment of salaries and promotion of officers and men on merit and due regard to precedence.
He also initiating disciplinary action against some officers alleged to have tampered with their last dates of promotion in order to qualify for the next promotion interview; addressed anomalies in promotion exercises and detection of officers and men with fake credentials/academic qualifications and doctored record of service.
According to information from the Service, in 2013-2015 alone a total of 39 comptrollers were promoted to Assistant Comptrollers General, 76 Deputy Comptrollers to Comptrollers, 142 Assistant Comptrollers to Deputy Comptrollers 291 stagnated Chief Superintendents were promoted to Assistant Comptrollers. Also a total of 5,799 officers were also promoted in the Superintendent and Inspectorate cadres with stagnated inspectors well considered within the years under review.
The rank and file was not left behind with the total of 8,228 promoted. Having motivated the staff, the CGI has insisted on zero level tolerance for corruption as demonstrated by the immediate redeployment of some Passport Control Officers due to either weak supervision of officers under their charge or questionable conduct; Zero tolerance for corruption and acts of indiscipline: In 2014 alone a total of 318 disciplinary cases were received compared to 174 the previous year where 31 personnel were dismissed, three suspended, 20 had their appointments terminated, 37 had their salaries stopped, seven got letters of warning, nine de-ranked, one interdicted and 75 cases still on-going.
He re-introduced sporting activities in the service beginning with a fortnightly workout/exercise at the SHQ to ensure that officers and men are physically and mentally alert to carry out their duties.
The CGI has been able to install passenger registration system (ePARS) at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu and airports used for Hajj operations like Bauchi, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Ilorin, Katsina, Kaduna etc.
According to Obua, this facilitates automatic clearance, monitoring and authentication of e-passport and other travel documents.
This was fully done by the officers of the Information and Communication Unit of the Service, introduced new domain to take care of official emailing and guaranteeing secure communication among officers; Provision of Electronic Data Management System (EDMS) for archiving of e-passport; restructuring of visa on arrival portal; and Visa reforms with introduction of Visa-on- Arrival to take care of huge investors and the abolition of Re-Entry Visa in line with global best practice.
He has made possible an electronic archiving of passport and passport files which is an additional window in passport administration so that all documents attached to each passport application could be retrieved real time when the need arises and a remarkable and steady increase in revenue generation by the service from N9,084,525,208.88 locally and $13,906,549.02 off-shore; (N13, 433, 157,711.17 locally and $13,078,625.20 offshore); and (N16,058,384,154.00 locally and $15,346,980.00 off-shore) in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. For effectively securing the boarders, the CGI has encouraged proper collaboration of staff with other security agencies posted to the boarders.
It is also pertinent to state here that it was during Parradang’s tenure that 13 Nigerian job seekers died in the Service recruitment exercise. However, their relations have been given automatic enlistment into the service as compensation.
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