The desperation to travel out of Nigeria

The desperation on the part of many Nigerians to travel out of the country is believed to have reached an alarming level in recent times.



And indeed Vanguard Metro’s visit to some embassies in Lagos revealed scenes of absurdity involving many Nigerians, both young and old, desperate to flee their country at the slightest opportunity.

At all the embassies visited there was almost always a crowd of visa seekers jostling and fighting desperately under the sun or rain to be attended to. To them, the visa they seek is as important as the Holy Grail, which explains why they are prepared to sacrifice anything, including their dignity, comfort and personal safety in their quest for it.

This development only goes to confirm that all the campaigns and other efforts by government and its relevant agencies to discourage Nigerians from travelling out of the country on flimsy grounds have so far come to nought.

What Vanguard Metro saw in one of the African embassies located at Sinari Daranijo Street, Victoria Island was astonishing and unbelievable. It was a Thursday and it was raining heavily when Vanguard Metro got there at about 5.45am. Yet the number of visa seekers was over 300 and the applicants had been divided into two queues with the first one being for first time travellers, work and study permit applicants while the other queue was for corporate clients, frequent travellers, transit and medical visa.

“How did these people get here this early?” queried a fellow who was a first time visitor to the place. Another fellow who identified himself as Tope had responded thus: “For anybody to be among the first 20 on these lines, the person must have been on the queue by 4.00am”.

This was a shocking revelation which was confirmed by another visa seeker by name Ajayi. According to him: “I have been trying my luck for the past one week, only to be getting here by 6.00 am and meeting many people. I then requested for a friend to bring me down here in his car yesterday and we slept in the car to make our being on the line by 4.10 am this morning possible”.

Also easily noticeable were the ubiquitous touts as they went about rendering one service or the other and collecting money from desperate applicants. The Police were not left out as officers and men from the Maroko and Bar Beach Police Stations used the opportunity to make brisk business for themselves as they were seen arresting and searching people and ‘penalising’ those “with questions to answer”.