Tuesday 19 October 2010

Naija Border Agency

Is the Nigerian immigration an organisation at all? I have not seen such a degree of negligence in such a supposedly sensitive occupation. Very recently, I went through immigration only for me to find out that they had stamped a wrong date on my passport; the date of the previous day. I would rather they use up all the space on the page before starting a fresh page so I open it & hand the passport to them (waste of time), but I always check after I get it back.

I looked at the passport & saw the date. At the time I wasn’t sure what that day’s date was so I stayed pondering over it & waiting for my turn at the metal detectors. Suddenly I hear the guys behind me complaining bitterly about the same thing & turned around to take it up with the guy that stamped it. After they returned successfully, I went back too to get the right date stamped on, which he did without a word of apology (not like I expected one anyway).

Fast forward days later, I return home to Nigeria & ofcourse, immigration again, this time I was in a rush to catch a domestic flight to Port Harcourt so I grabbed my passport back & off to catch my flight. After I got home, I went ahead to inspect my passport to know if the lady stamped on the current page or started a fresh one. It took me minutes to realise there was no stamp on my passport, but before I panicked, I went through my old passport (that so happened to be attached to the new Nigerian e-passport) & find a very faint stamp for my arrival date, all I could see was OCT 2010 *smh*. I cursed & cursed & cursed the immigration woman, & her entire family. How could you possibly stamp on a passport that has been Cancelled Without Prejudice by your office?

What is the meaning of that? If any visa issuing officer decides to go through my passport(s) to marry Seen On Departure dates to their respective Seen On Arrival dates, I wish him or her the best of luck.

There’s a reason why the pages on the passport are numbered, so that things can be done orderly. Haphazard equals chaos, and is not and will never be the way forward for Nigeria.

Hiss

19 comments:

Myne said...

Naija for life. We shuffer and shmile. Do those workers even receive regular training in Nigeria?

Unknown said...

Bunch of ...a relative of mine experienced the same thing. I just don't understand why things are like that in this country. It is crazy!

SHE said...

Don't mind them. They are too busy being rude to people and enjoying the "power" of their uniform to pay attention to the work.

Semi-illiterates, all of them.

Unknown said...

Mehn! I feel you. Brings back so many memories of traipsing to Alagbon Crescent to get my resident's permit renewed whilst I was at uni. Inefficient does not even begin to describe the whole process. And the Ibadan office nko? That's an entire blog post in itself. Nigeria we hail thee.

Anonymous said...

Feel your pain...to them they have got the best job in the world and do not care about the nonsense they do.

bArOquE said...

@Myne, my dear I don’t smile when am suffering oh…I nag…you’re talking regular training, am talking regular duties…how difficult can it be to brand a stamp on a passport?

@LilyJohnson, I can’t comprehend these things. He may not even realise the possible implications of missing stamps or wrong dates. Its fucking unbelievable

@SHE, the rude ones are the NDLEA & Customs…those are the ones I don’t spare…I speak to them with earphones on & make them repeat whatever questions they ask then I answer with the utmost sarcasm.

I once told an NDLEA man that I wanted to be scanned & strip searched, that I was curious about how they went about it…well, I only got scanned…it took less than 2mins *mpscheew…he said they don’t strip search people (anymore)

@JustJoxy, “inefficiency does not even begin to describe the whole process”…you can say that again *SMH*

@Afrogenic, best jobs? They must be mad! I only pray they don’t put some poor soul in trouble with this height of laxity

@LusciousRon, I have that passport in my breast pocket right now, for near future travel purposes, & I just looked@it again…I reiterate, utterly ridiculous monkeys

~Sirius~ said...

HA!
Thanks for the heads up!

Now I will keep a watchful eye out.

Nan-Sense!

The Activist said...

We won't give up nagging or talking till there is necessary change. Things can't continue like this!

bArOquE said...

~Sirius, beta nan-sense oh...please keep that watchful eye out

~StandTall, it's just so sad...for how long shall we continue like this in silence?

Ms. Catwalq said...

When most people are insufficiently trained to do jobs, what do you expect. Most people are just working, they are not producing...
se there won't be a negative repercussions....

Afrobabe said...

Ya....that would be our Naija immigration!!

Hows you??See am still very much around, thx for checking up on me...

Chris Ogunlowo said...

Nothing works here. Nothing! Sh*t.

tobenna said...

At least they didnt ask you to pay to have it changed. You should be grateful :D
Go to the Nigeria-Cotonou border and see what immigration is doing there...

rethots said...

When we succeed in having a 'paradigm shift' then, people will be able to understand that duties (jobs they do) are not favours.

Hopefully, there will be more presence of minds and courtseies.

ibiluv said...

pele

no vex

she was also distracted

hoping to be bribed......

Nigerian Drama Queen said...

Oh Nigeria...gotta love it.

Mrs Somebody said...

I love u barouque

Mrs Somebody said...

I love u barouque

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