By Augustine Ehikioya
For his meritorious service to Nigeria and taking Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to an enviable international standard, the immediate past Comptroller General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede was on Tuesday in Abuja honoured with an award by the Spanish government.
Also for making a long established relationship to happen between Spain and Nigeria, he was decorated with the award known as “Officers Cross of the Order of Civil Merit” by the Embassy of Spain through His Excellency, Felipe Juan Pablo.
The event monitored by Security Watch Africa (SWA) was witnessed by friends of the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria, well meaning friends of the former Immigration Boss, family members, Captains of Industries and Business Executives.
Babandede who was known for his high level diplomatic relationship and networking has always endeared the diplomatic community with his friendly and amiable dispositions, which earned him a rewarding service duty tour as the best Comptroller General of Immigration Service since its inception in 1963.
It was also reported that many turnkey projects were executed, completed and put to use under his administration for the benefits of the service towards delivering world class Immigration Service to the world and the Nation.
He was said to have provided conducive working environment for the officers and men, befitting accommodation for the most senior class of officers and the junior ones.
Many analysts believe that Nigeria will keep celebrating Babandede for taking giant steps that has brought honour to Nigeria among the Comity of nations, “making Nigeria Immigration Service a reference point globally and in Africa, in the area of deployment of technology to solve and deliver Immigration Services.
“Especially with the building of the state of the art infrastructure housing the new Immigration Headquarters Command Structure known as the Nigeria Immigration Data and Command Control Centre (Technology Building) at the NIS headquarters, commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR.
“Nigeria is celebrated for having credible database and record of all travellers who might have entered or transited through Nigeria or departed by Air, Land or Sea using the Human Mobility Index, also with seamless connectivity with the INTERPOL I-24/7 tool, hundreds of thousands of Stolen and Lost Travel Documents were tracked for Operational, Intelligence and Administrative purposes, Nigeria Immigration Service database on migrants is second to none in Africa.”