A lot of people have been asking me what it is like, to live in Nigeria after being away for so long. My usual response is usually that living in Nigeria has its negatives and its positives and I am learning to appreciate both the good and the bad. I also remind them that living in America also has the good and the bad sides, and that overall where you would prefer to live will depend on what is most important to you at a particular time. Personally, I love living in Nigeria as much as I love living in America because I love living :) but thats not to say that I can't nag about the bad things.
So some of us know that some stressors that are associated with living abroad are traffic tickets, really high rents, high taxes, how difficult it is to save, etc. In Nigeria the biggest stressor is lack of good lawmaking and law enforcement and believe me when I say it could be as frustrating as it is scary, depending on where and how you encounter either one. I had my first encounter with poor law making almost as soon as I reported for work in Nigeria. I was scheduled to take a course in Europe even before I reported to work in Nigeria. Looking back, I wish I had been proactive enough to get my Schengen visa before leaving the US. By the time I got around to it, I didn't have 3 weeks to wait for a visa.
So I arrived in Nigeria about 6 weeks before the start of my course in Europe, thinking I have a lot of time to get my visa. My first shocker came when I found out that I couldn't apply for a visa through the company until I got a series of approval to go for a course which has already been paid for by the US end of the company. Oh well, that is not a big deal I thought, I already informed my boss about the course during my assignment preview trip so I should be able to get it approved really fast. It wasn't as easy as I thought to get my trip approved because of people chasing and IT issues, but that is not the heart of my story so I will save you the details and say it ended up taking me about 3 weeks!!!!
When I finally got my approvals and started the visa application process, I was informed that I had the "OLD" Nigerian passport and that I need to obtain a new passport before I could apply for a visa. I politely told the guy in the travel team that my passport is valid until September 2014 and I had no intention of getting a new passport before then. Never in my American thinking mind did I think that a Government who issued an international passport and said it was valid until 2014 could turn around and say the passport was no longer valid. I even educated him that my two children have two versions of the US passport and that the fact that the US decided to change the passport before my older son's passport expired doesn't make his passport invalid. After failing to convince me, the guy took my passport and submitted the application because I insisted.
When I discussed this with other colleagues, they told me to go ahead and apply for a new International passport as they were sure that my passport will be returned as embassies are no longer issuing visa on the "OLD" passport. I really just felt they were somewhat ignorant because, I had submitted my passport to the Dutch embassy in Houston just a few weeks earlier and they didn't have a problem with issuing a visa on my so called "OLD" passport. The only reason I didn't get the visa then, was because they needed three weeks to process the visa and I had less than one week in the US before I had to resume for my assignment in Nigeria. Some colleagues even offered tips and advice on how to get a new passport fast, one person introduced me to a woman who worked for immigration and who asked me to pay more than three times the official passport cost for a quick new passport!
I didn't really do anything about applying for a new passport and a few days later I wish I had. With only a little over 2 weeks left to my trip, I was informed by our travel person in Abuja that my passport was rejected and that I would have to send a new passport to Abuja to get my visa. A colleague who missed a training course because of the same thing told me how we went about getting his new passport, and believe me when I say there was a Million and one steps to it. First you applied online, then you get a print out, next you go to some specific banks to pay, and then to your local Government to get a letter of something, next you go to the court to get something else, after which you get someone to sign a guarantor's form for you, and then you go to either Benin or Asaba where my nearest immigration offices were, to take a picture and fingerprint, and most likely return there the next day or some days later, to pick up the new passport. The process took me over a week!
Now I had a week left! Thankfully I got the visa just in time to attend the course. Like I said living in Nigeria comes with the good and the bad, and for this trip the good part of living in Nigeria was that since there was no company credit cards in Nigeria, I was given cash for my hotel and meals and I was able to save enough to go shopping :)
Anyways for those of you who live outside Nigeria and do not have the luxury of passing the Muritala airport in Lagos where you will see an A4 paper posted in an inconspicuous place saying that the Federal Govt. have said that the old passport will be invalid for travel after December 31st 2010, please get a new international passport before attempting to travel in or out of Nigeria after that time...
Cheers.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Nigeria @ 50
I woke up on Friday Oct. 1st 2010 in Warri, Nigeria not feeling particularly excited. It was Nigerian's 50th Independent day and I really didn't feel like celebrating anything. It was a public holiday and I would have been happy to sleep in but my company had planned a children's party for Independent day and I had promised to take the kids. If you know Warri, you would know that there is no fun place for kids here, no movie theatres, no chuckee cheeses or similar places so for my boys it had been one kinda boring month so I couldn't find it in my heart to deny them this promise of fun..... little did I know what we were in for!
We finally got out of the house around noon and started heading to my office, which was the venue of the party. The party was supposed to start at 10am but like I said it was a public holiday, plus I usually take my time waking up when I don't have to go to work. As I drove along airport road, I saw a number of people walking around wearing green and white which are the Nigerian colors, some were carrying the Nigerian flag and some were crowded in cars and vans, with some people sitting on the cars. There were people giving out what looked like flyers and leaflets of some sorts. I took this all in and kept driving, I guess this is the way Independent day is celebrated in Nigeria, its been a while for me.
When I got close the entrance gate to my office there was a lot of cars parked around the entrance so I knew driving into the premises was not an option. There were also rows of cars parked on the road beside the entrance. I considered parking across the road, but the thought of taking my two little kids across the busy road with no cross walk and the kind of drivers we had in Nigeria felt too unsafe, so I drove to the second entrance gate to my office premises. On getting there, I noticed there were not a lot of cars around so I drove to the gate to see if it was open. I saw a small foot gate open and some people on the inside on foot so I went ahead and parked my car close to the gate. After I got my kids out in the heat and walked to the gate, I saw it was now shut and some police and military people by the gate asked me to go to the other gate as this gate was now locked. I asked why, and all they said was "use the other gate". I shook my head, and said to myself that this is why Nigeria is one of the hardest country to live in. Anyone with a little power could decide to do whatever is in their power to make people miserable.
We got back in the car and drove towards the main gate. We had to park on the road about 5 blocks from the gate because that was the only place where parking was available. We also had to walk on the road along sides moving cars and bikes, terrifying as it was. I had already asked my older son twice if he still wanted to go to the party and he said yes, so we braced everything and kept going. We passed the entrance gate and walked another 3 blocks or so the arena where the party was going on. On getting there, things were quite chaotic. There were people everywhere and the only points of attraction for kids were 2 bouncy houses and one train and there were a lot of kids waiting to for a chance to get in. The kids were standing in long lines in the heat. My older kid wanted to get into the spider man bouncy house so I put him on the line and handed him a cup of cold water which I had the good sense to bring along. My younger son fell asleep in his stroller while we were walking so I found a seat in the shaded area for my nanny to sit with him.
After my kid had been on the line for about 30 mins in the heat, we heard an announcement telling everyone to go and sit down and like a bad dream, the bouncy houses were deflated. I took my son and got him a sit beside his sleeping brother and the nanny. I went in search of our prepaid party snacks for the second time and met a huge line of angry people trying to get their snacks and coordinators doing nothing to make the process faster so that people could get the drinks and food which was included in the cost of the party tickets. I went to the makeshift market place and bought some ice cream and went back to were the kids were sitting and we all had ice cream. Believe it or not that was the highlight and the only thing nice about our outing that day. I must say that it wasn't that nice since we had 4 liters of the same brand of ice cream sitting in our freezer and we could have just enjoyed some of it in the comfort of our home.
Anyway after we had our ice cream, we chatted with a few people sitting around us, and one woman was surprised that my older son answered NO, when she asked if he enjoyed the party. I was quite appalled at her surprise, we all partook in what I would have to tag the most horrible children's party I had ever witnessed and here was someone, surprised that a child said he had no fun. I started to think about how Nigerian that was, everyday we witness more atrocity happen in a country filled with God given natural and human resources, and we see how bad our country is, yet we cringe and when people say horrible things about Nigeria. I am Nigerian, but Nigeria is one of the saddest country I know because we are too blessed to be in such a horrible condition.
And coming back to my children's party, believe it or not even when it was obvious the party was over and I went to attempt again to claim my prepaid party snacks, I met some people who were on the line for hours and still didn't get any food, who told me that some of the organizers came and took all the remaining food away and told them to go home since they could not stand quietly in line. When I asked one of the organizers about my food, she told me that it was finished and that they suspected that people stole some already used tickets and collected snacks multiple times and this was probably why they were short. I didn't believe her at all, I believe that someone had decided right from the very beginning of this party to take home most of the party food and this was why the snacks were not distributed from multiple points so as to ensure that people did not wait for an unnecessarily long time for food that they already paid for.
I will definitely send an e-mail feedback to organizers of this failed party when I get in the office tomorrow, and ask for them to kindly reimburse my money. I will let you all know what response I get. I will put my money in the fact that I will get a "not so good" response. That is if I get any at all! Oh well, I did know that not all my Naija Xperiences would be good. I just wished I spared my kids this mess of a children's party.
To be contd.....
We finally got out of the house around noon and started heading to my office, which was the venue of the party. The party was supposed to start at 10am but like I said it was a public holiday, plus I usually take my time waking up when I don't have to go to work. As I drove along airport road, I saw a number of people walking around wearing green and white which are the Nigerian colors, some were carrying the Nigerian flag and some were crowded in cars and vans, with some people sitting on the cars. There were people giving out what looked like flyers and leaflets of some sorts. I took this all in and kept driving, I guess this is the way Independent day is celebrated in Nigeria, its been a while for me.
When I got close the entrance gate to my office there was a lot of cars parked around the entrance so I knew driving into the premises was not an option. There were also rows of cars parked on the road beside the entrance. I considered parking across the road, but the thought of taking my two little kids across the busy road with no cross walk and the kind of drivers we had in Nigeria felt too unsafe, so I drove to the second entrance gate to my office premises. On getting there, I noticed there were not a lot of cars around so I drove to the gate to see if it was open. I saw a small foot gate open and some people on the inside on foot so I went ahead and parked my car close to the gate. After I got my kids out in the heat and walked to the gate, I saw it was now shut and some police and military people by the gate asked me to go to the other gate as this gate was now locked. I asked why, and all they said was "use the other gate". I shook my head, and said to myself that this is why Nigeria is one of the hardest country to live in. Anyone with a little power could decide to do whatever is in their power to make people miserable.
We got back in the car and drove towards the main gate. We had to park on the road about 5 blocks from the gate because that was the only place where parking was available. We also had to walk on the road along sides moving cars and bikes, terrifying as it was. I had already asked my older son twice if he still wanted to go to the party and he said yes, so we braced everything and kept going. We passed the entrance gate and walked another 3 blocks or so the arena where the party was going on. On getting there, things were quite chaotic. There were people everywhere and the only points of attraction for kids were 2 bouncy houses and one train and there were a lot of kids waiting to for a chance to get in. The kids were standing in long lines in the heat. My older kid wanted to get into the spider man bouncy house so I put him on the line and handed him a cup of cold water which I had the good sense to bring along. My younger son fell asleep in his stroller while we were walking so I found a seat in the shaded area for my nanny to sit with him.
After my kid had been on the line for about 30 mins in the heat, we heard an announcement telling everyone to go and sit down and like a bad dream, the bouncy houses were deflated. I took my son and got him a sit beside his sleeping brother and the nanny. I went in search of our prepaid party snacks for the second time and met a huge line of angry people trying to get their snacks and coordinators doing nothing to make the process faster so that people could get the drinks and food which was included in the cost of the party tickets. I went to the makeshift market place and bought some ice cream and went back to were the kids were sitting and we all had ice cream. Believe it or not that was the highlight and the only thing nice about our outing that day. I must say that it wasn't that nice since we had 4 liters of the same brand of ice cream sitting in our freezer and we could have just enjoyed some of it in the comfort of our home.
Anyway after we had our ice cream, we chatted with a few people sitting around us, and one woman was surprised that my older son answered NO, when she asked if he enjoyed the party. I was quite appalled at her surprise, we all partook in what I would have to tag the most horrible children's party I had ever witnessed and here was someone, surprised that a child said he had no fun. I started to think about how Nigerian that was, everyday we witness more atrocity happen in a country filled with God given natural and human resources, and we see how bad our country is, yet we cringe and when people say horrible things about Nigeria. I am Nigerian, but Nigeria is one of the saddest country I know because we are too blessed to be in such a horrible condition.
And coming back to my children's party, believe it or not even when it was obvious the party was over and I went to attempt again to claim my prepaid party snacks, I met some people who were on the line for hours and still didn't get any food, who told me that some of the organizers came and took all the remaining food away and told them to go home since they could not stand quietly in line. When I asked one of the organizers about my food, she told me that it was finished and that they suspected that people stole some already used tickets and collected snacks multiple times and this was probably why they were short. I didn't believe her at all, I believe that someone had decided right from the very beginning of this party to take home most of the party food and this was why the snacks were not distributed from multiple points so as to ensure that people did not wait for an unnecessarily long time for food that they already paid for.
I will definitely send an e-mail feedback to organizers of this failed party when I get in the office tomorrow, and ask for them to kindly reimburse my money. I will let you all know what response I get. I will put my money in the fact that I will get a "not so good" response. That is if I get any at all! Oh well, I did know that not all my Naija Xperiences would be good. I just wished I spared my kids this mess of a children's party.
To be contd.....
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