Today I wish to share a personal story of how to change peoples perception about Nigeria. The truth is to change the world, you will have to change yourself first. My Nigeria international passport got expired and being in Nigeria, it is quite faster to do it at home. I proceeded to the Nigeria Immigration Services(NIS) office, its really a shame that from the gate of the NIS, you will notice touts in Immigration Service uniforms, men with no shame, instead of directing or assisting you on how to get your passport renewed or done they are interested in exploting you, no concern about the security of those in the offices or visitors to their office (especially with the security threats in Nigeria) no search is carried out whatsoever, all they do is ask what you want and if you say, I need a passport, they direct you to hungry lions in officers uniforms. Anyway, before getting to the immigration office, I have made up my mind not to be a part of those that contribute to the evils that goes on in Nigeria by sticking to paying the right amount for my passport as approved by the FGN. On getting to their office, I was directed to a guy that told me to bring N20,000 for the renewal, I said why? He said thats the price and how much do I want to pay, I felt insulted with his question, I asked whats the official price, he claimed not to know. I thank him and went to another officer, he agreed to taking N18,000 when I asked him the official rate too, he declined. I left went back home and visited the NIS website, I saw that the official rate is actually N8,500 and paying at the bank including charges etc makes it N9,225, I filled the forms online, printed and went to pay at the bank. With this I proceeded to the immigration service office, I was taken to another officer since I claimed to have filled my forms online, he went through all my documents and got me a file and said, now your documents are ready to be processed, but I would bring N7,000 to get it processed, I asked him whats the N7,000 was for, he said the money I paid online was for Abuja, referring to the FGN and that the N7,000 is what is needed at their location and that that is the way it is done, I asked him if there would be a receipt, he said no receipt, but brought out a file with several signatures on it and showed me and said the signatures are the receipt, that for every signature as seen on the file it comes with a price (celebrating corruption), I told him, I am not willing to pay if theres no official receipt, when he saw that I have made up my mind, especially when I said I would only pay via POS and that even before such payment I want to see the Passport officer of the location, he asked one of the junior officers to take me to another superior officer of theirs and that the officer should explain that I am not willing to pay any dine. We got to the officer and when he saw my posture that I am not willing to change my stand, he asked me which agencies of government I worked for, I said none, he then asked for my international passport and when I gave him, he looked through and said I need to get a letter of introduction introducing me to the NIS, I asked why again, since I have filled the guarantors form, the next thing he said was, I didnt ask you for any money, but for a letter introducing you. I had to go and get it for him. The shameful part of it all was that truly for every file brought to his office for signature, there are Naira notes lined in the file, this he picks first before registering the file and signing it off, no respect or concern that I was standing in his office and seeing the show of shame. I also realised that every stage, I get to, I was asked who is the officer in charge of my file and I wonder, must there be one? Anyway, I also realised that it is possible to get your international passport the same day you took your picture if the printing and laminating equipment are working in order, as in, these officers are not doing you any favour as they claim when exploiting you, the process has been put in place as part of the NIS system. I did not pay any extra dine apart from the N9,225 to get my international passport renewed. My purpose of sharing this tale of mine is to show you that if you and I would stick with doing the right thing, Nigeria would be better off, if you do not give or take bribe or allow yourself to be exploited in any way by any government or civil officials you are contributing to the positive change we have all been talking about. We all have a role to play and lets stopping the blames at the foot steps of the government. A guy I never met found and returned my lost ipad at the MMIA Nigeria, the guy is a Nigerian, he played his role, even when I thought travelling to the US without it, means my ipad would never be seen again, a fellow Nigerian saw it and returned it to the airport authorities, when I told friends and families about it in the US, everybody was shocked as people no longer believe that there are still positives out of Nigeria. I have made up my mind to not be part of the Nigerias problem, what about you?
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 08:29:29 +0000
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