As the crises rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) get messier, there are new revelations that the presidency is on the verge of withdrawing the diplomatic passports of the members of both the senate and the House of representative over what has been described as a strategic move to secure loyalty to the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP.
However, this has been seen as a prejudice by the presidency towards the certain lawmakers for their loyalty to the splinter group, Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led “New PDP” and costly romance with the opposition parties in the National Assembly.
But a ministry of foreign affairs official who craved anonymity denied having knowledge of the latest development.
“It may interest you to know that our ministry has nothing to do with the issuance of diplomatic passport. In fact, if I want a diplomatic passport, my ministry would have to write the Nigeria Immigration Service to issue it to me.
“Do leave this ministry out of this issue; we have no role to play,” he said.
An immigration officer even queried if members of the National Assembly were entitled to diplomatic passports when his opinion was sought.
“Go and look at the convention guiding the issuance of diplomatic passports all over the world. The truth is, members of the National Assembly do not belong to the category of people that should carry diplomatic passport.
“It is only in Nigeria we have this kind of nonsense. People want immunity for notorious reasons. I know some big men go about with diplomatic passports. When I was working at the airport, I was shocked when I saw a rogue with one. We should learn to do things in line with international best practices”, he said.
Furthermore, another unnamed senior NIS official further queried: “We have our records showing that the Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of the former Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello (the Sardauna of Sokoto) and the Premier of the defunct Eastern Region, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, did not use diplomatic passports while in office. Are any of these lawmakers in the class of these great leaders?”
However, the issuance of diplomatic passports indicates: “Diplomatic passports are official documents normally given to professional diplomats and ambassadors by their governments, to facilitate their work when they are on posting to foreign countries. Its issuance is governed by rules under the 1815 Congress of Vienna that formalised the exchange of diplomatic agents among states.
“These rules are very restrictive and limit the issuance of diplomatic passports only to professional diplomats who are the personal representatives of their heads of state. Those to whom such passports are given are assumed to be persons of undoubted character and integrity.”
Sources within the the presidential cabinet noted that that the President Goodluck Jonathan is currently unease with the “treacherous attitude” of certain members of the National Assembly – particularly those who have openly declared their support for the ‘New PDP’.
Some principal officers of the National Assembly are already aware of the plans to review the diplomatic passports of members.
A lawmaker who preferred anonymity said he was aware that “the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and some principal officers have been informally notified”.
The passports were, however, to be automatically withdrawn after the tenure of the holders in the National Assembly.
It was reported that it had not always easy for the NIS to retrieve the diplomatic passports from former members of the Assembly.
A few members of the House who were shocked at the turn of events believe government was hiding under the supposedly wholesale review to target anti-presidency lawmakers.
“We learnt the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigeria Immigration Service have been put on notice over plans to review issuance of diplomatic passports”, the source said.
“It is an issue we are going to discuss at the Executive Session after we have returned from our one week oversight function.
“Since we started using diplomatic passports, the National Assembly has not recorded any case of abuse. We don’t know why the Presidency is trying to score political points with this”, it was revealed.
Diplomatic passports are issued to all members of the National Assembly which consists of 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives as a result of an executive memo issued by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2008 which directed the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to issue members of the National Assembly diplomatic passports.