“My son had secured admission to three universities abroad which were all lost because there was no passport to process a visa.

I paid about 55 thousand naira for a passport booklet in Lagos and I was asked to bring some of the documents. I provided all except this consent letter and the application lingered because I could not get it from my ex-husband from July 2022 to October 2022.

So I got advice to go to another state, and I decided to go to Awka, Anambra State. I bought flight tickets for my son and I amounting to 110 thousand naira each, the hotel bill was 25 thousand naira per night and we had to stay 5 nights. This is what the consent letter hurdle cost me.

On getting to Immigration I told them I want an express service because my son had secured admission to two universities in Canada and Sweden respectively. I was asked to pay an additional 90 thousand naira, which I did, and I submitted all necessary documents including my ex-husbands’ passport data page which I managed to get but I was still asked for a consent letter from my ex-husband. I told them I couldn’t reach him and that I am his mother but they didn’t believe me. They accused me of child trafficking and claimed I was not the mother of my child. I cried and my son cried too.

They held me for questioning for almost an hour while refusing to do anything until we provide a consent letter from the Father. They didn’t regard me as the Mother of my 17-year-old son despite all the evidence I provided.”

This is a story shared by a single mother in the Wevvo Community whose child almost lost a scholarship opportunity because of the extra hurdle created to hinder Mothers seeking to obtain passports for their children.  There are so many other such stories of challenges faced by single mothers in Nigeria.

Women are abused and exploited when the Nigeria Immigration Service doesn’t implement its policy on consent letters. Sign this petition to ask the NIS to act now. 

#AcceptLettersfromMothers

#MyMothersConsent

(Image Credit: NYSC Info)