Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan today July 30, 2014 launched a new 64-page e-passport in Abuja for frequent travellers and business persons. The 64 page e-passport will cost N20,000 and it takes effect from August 1, 2015.

Speaking at the launch of the travelling document which took place at the council chambers of the Presidential Villa, the President stated that “What affects every traveller is how efficient and committed our immigration officers work at our airports. Visitors that come into the country have different impressions about our immigration officers, so they must improve; they are the image of this country. How they handle visitors matters so much, if they conduct themselves poorly, it reflects on all of us.”

He continued, “The issue of the image of the country is what we will all work for, both people in government, the media and civil society and I always say that when people continue to paint their country with all kinds of colours, that is the way they will associate those colours with your green passport. I want a situation that whenever you travel to another country and you raise your green passport, people will appreciate you and not when you raise your green passport, people will begin to think that that green passport signify some suspicious character.

“We are not helping ourselves when we paint ourselves the colours that we are not supposed to bear. I wish to continue to appeal to all Nigerians that we must all collectively learn how we do our things, statements that we make, to paint brighter colours for our green passport. If our passport could be easily faked by criminals, then we will have problems. One thing again is that how can Nigerians be able to get passport easily especially those living outside this country,” he concluded.