Wandering Thoughts: Passport too we can't manage?

Sometime last year I had to apply for a Ghanaian passport to enable me make a trip abroad. It amazed my work colleagues when I said I was going to the Passport Office at Ridge to place my application. They were amazed because they had expected me, as a journalist, to have had one by then.

The truth is I had tried but given up my chase for a passport in 2011 after a “goro boy” (a passport contractor) at the then Foreign Affairs Ministry near the Tema Station in Accra demanded GH¢50 from me to have my passport processed within a month. This was in spite of my buying an “express” application form at GH¢100 which promised or rather guaranteed that I got my passport in three weeks. I refused his offer. A friend took his word for it and had his passport in three months.

I kept the form nonetheless and later when I tried submitting it, I was told I had to buy another form because it had expired. I was less perturbed about getting another form at GH¢100 again since time was running out for me. I had read many complaints on Facebook and mainstream media over the frustrations some applicants had to go through to acquire a passport.

Less worried and hoping I wouldn’t suffer the same fate as they did, I headed to the Passport Office and got there as early as 6:30am. Let me note, before my trip I had placed a call to a friend to help me acquire the passport within three weeks and he told me to ask for one lady upon my arrival. He also asked me to get to the office early.

I did just that – going straight to the security point and asking to see the lady. (Take note that there was a long queue at the entrance of the office which was heavily guarded by policemen). I was told to wait a while and that she would come for me. After waiting for some time and with no sign of her, I placed a call to my friend and presto! ‘Our friend’ came for me.

I went through the process successfully, somewhat embarrassed at the process I had to endure to acquire a passport. The lady asked me to come in three weeks to check if my passport was ready. I headed back to the office excited at the prospect. Back at the office I couldn’t help but share my joy with everyone.

Soon the three weeks had passed and I headed back to the Passport Office to pick my passport. And there, sitting in wait for me, was a huge disappointment.

Here is what happened at the security check point.

Me: Please I’m here to pick my passport.

Security Man: Were you asked to come today?

Me: Yes. The lady who processed my application gave me this date to come and pick it up.

(At this point I picked out a piece of paper which had a serial number and pick up date written on it. I showed the paper to the security man).

Security man: It’s not ready. Go and come back.

Me: But I was told it would be ready so I should come today.

Security man: Madam, I said it is not ready. Go and come back. Don’t waste our time.

At this point I was getting frustrated and infuriated and asking myself how was this man supposed to know if my passport was ready or not? I then placed a call to the lady and she told me the same story. At this point I didn’t want to involve my friend again so I just left the premises disappointed and vowed not to go back there.

Be it as it may, I got my passport sometime in July after a work colleague intervened on my behalf. Even then, there was no normalcy. I had been told my passport number to confirm it was ready, however the security blockade played back the same “not ready, go and come” garb. At the end of the day though, I left with my passport in hand.

But why all this long narrative, you may ask.

Here is why:

Every day, scores of Ghanaians queue at the Passport Office just to get their “ticket to heaven”. I believe many travels have had to be abandoned because of the frustrations one has to go through in the process.

I acknowledge the efforts being made by the Director of Passports, Mr Alexander Grant Ntirikwa to bring sanity to his office. But I believe those reforms would fail if the main problem is not identified and solved.

On Wednesday morning, I heard Joy FM’s Kojo Yankson and his co-host, Nhyira Addo making a point that the best way to resolve the problems at the Passport Office was for it to be privatised. I beg to differ. I believe Ghanaians and for that matter the public service can effectively manage the affairs of the state if certain bureaucracies are removed.

After my experience at the office on two occasions, I came to the conclusion that the problem at the place was because it didn’t have any designated point of access. Immediately you get there, the first barrier you encounter is at the security check point. As I stated earlier after I was turned away on my first attempt to pick my passport, I was asking myself how the hell does this security man know my passport was not ready when he would not even place a call or cross-check from any database?

I believe that if the Passport Office was made open right from the security point (I know many will disagree with me on this point on the grounds that it is a security zone), with designated front office personnel to take application forms, sanity would prevail at the office.

Here is what I mean.

I walk into the Passport Office and directed by a security person to the appropriate front office to place my application.

The receptionist, well-dressed and smiling of course, takes my application form to process and asks that I wait. She completes the process and gives me a date for pick up.

I walk out of the premises saying thank you to everyone and I exit.

I return on the appointed date to go through a similar routine, announcing my business for being there. I get to the front desk office and the receptionist goes through a database to verify if my passport is ready. She picks it up for me and away I go. No excuses. If there was no need for me to go there because for some reason it was not ready, a simple SMS should have told me the night before. The same SMS could give me another date.

Seriously I don’t think this is beyond us, unless, as one of my colleagues puts his frustrations, systems are implemented in Ghana to exploit everyone, especially the poor and unconnected. I agree with him in this instance, for why else should we go through hell for simple “tickets to heaven?”