The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has credited President Bola Tinubu with clearing promotion backlogs across services under the ministry and approving lifetime salaries for retired Comptrollers-General and Deputy Comptrollers-General of Immigration.

Tunji-Ojo made the disclosure on Friday during the closing ceremony of a specialised training programme on border control and immigration management at the Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters in Abuja, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

The minister said more than 50,000 personnel had benefited from promotions within three years of the Tinubu administration, describing the development as a major change in the management of the services under the Ministry of Interior.

“It has never happened before, but Tinubu did it. He also increased the volume of recruitment, where we now have no fewer than 40,000 new recruits at once,” he said.

Tunji-Ojo also cited salary increases and adjustments to allowances, including hazard and peculiar allowances, as part of the administration’s efforts to improve the welfare of personnel.

He said the President had extended the welfare measures to retired officers, particularly former heads of the Nigeria Immigration Service, whose pensions he described as previously inadequate.

“Previously, CGs had a pension of about N130,000; it was not encouraging. But what did the president do? He signed and approved salary for life for CGs and DCGs,” the minister said.

Tunji-Ojo urged personnel to respond to the administration’s interventions by improving their performance and ensuring that Nigerians receive better service.

“And all he asks from us in the service is to do our jobs well and make Nigerians happy. Everything we have asked of him, he has done. This is the least we can do,” he said.

The minister further described Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda as a long-term programme aimed at building institutions capable of functioning effectively beyond the tenure of the current administration.

According to him, the President’s policies are intended not only to address immediate challenges but also to establish structures that would benefit future generations.

“President Bola Tinubu has never been about the immediate, but the future. He understands that the most prosperous nations do not boil, cook, and eat their seeds; they plant them,” Tunji-Ojo said.

He added that the administration was focused on strengthening institutions that would remain relevant after the President leaves office, arguing that the lasting impact of governance should be measured partly by what is passed on to future generations.

The minister’s remarks placed personnel welfare, recruitment, promotions and institutional development at the centre of the administration’s record in the interior sector.

However, the figures and policy details cited by Tunji-Ojo, including the number of personnel promoted and the lifetime salary arrangement for retired immigration chiefs, were presented in his remarks. Further official documentation would be needed to establish the precise scope and implementation of the measures.