Six 6000 three part 2...
on Jude Timothy (Ghana), 14/May/2010 10:07, 34 days ago
Once we had entered Togo it was only an hour before we reached Benin and then a further four before we arrived at the border with Nigeria. However apart from being the longest, most involved and costly the Nigerian Immigration Service was also by far the friendliest. The officials seemed genuinely interested in were we had come from, what we were doing and where we were going and equally pleased that we were visiting their country. We eventually crossed the Border into Nigeria well after dark. We had been warned that although we were not that far from Lagos no one could predict the length of the journey because of the traffic heading to the city. This however was no great surprise to us being, as we were,‘seasoned travellers’ on African roads and we immediately imagined the sheer weight of traffic, the atrocious road conditions or the usual African habit of exaggerating everything, especially when it’s bad, and more so when it’s bad and the Nigerians are concerned.So we were not surprised to find a long queue of slow moving cars, lorries, vans, buses and bikes all vying for the best position on the road and the fastest moving lane. There was obviously a bottle-neck somewhere and it wasn’t long before we came across it. Just a few hundred metres and only minutes from the border we were stopped by a soldier waving his rifle to slow the traffic passing by him. He quickly checked the passengers in each vehicle before choosing the ones he wanted his colleagues to pull over and check.We being on a bus from ‘out of the country’ were prime suspects and so it was little surprise that we were stopped and our passport, visa and vaccination certificates sought.Fortunately all our papers were in order and we were allowed to continue our journey. However we hadn’t even managed to pick up any great speed before we were stopped again, this time by the Drug Enforcement Authority. Despite their title they didn’t seem interested in our luggage but rather just ‘our papers’. Again we survived all the scrutiny and once again were soon on our way.Now you have to remember that less than 10 minutes earlier we had just passed through the more than rigorous Nigerian Customs and Immigration Services, where all‘our papers’ had already been checked and found to be in order. Now the Police and Drug Department and other agencies were checking us again. I’ll leave it to you to surmise why this might be... just on the off chance that I might ever want to visit this wonderful, beautiful, friendly, not atall over officious and incorruptible country again.To cut a very long journey short, we were stopped like this over thirty times. I only started counting after the first half dozen or so and reached twenty odd before losing count again. Occasionally we were pulled over to the hard shoulder, but more often than not we just stopped in the middle of the road. Seldom was anything searched, and if it was, it was just a cursory glance at the boxes and bags in the boot. A quick note to anyone contemplating smuggling anything illicit into Nigeria, such as drugs, contraband or jam... firstly DON”T... but if you are determined, ensure that your yellow fever vaccination certificate is in order, this should allow you to pass with little hassle.In all we were stopped by the Police, Drugs Authority, Immigration, Customs, Alcoholics Anonymous, Girl Guides, and the KKK. It seemed that anyone with a uniform, a torch and a gun had the authority to pull us over to check that our papers were in order. Most but not all carried guns some had long truncheons, a few baseball bats and one was armed with a particularly nasty looking golf club (not a joke !). Eventually we passed through this phalanx of officialdom and found ourselves on a clear road to Lagos.You have to hand it to the Nigerians. To be able organise that every official employed in the region is there greet us personally is obviously some undertaking and one I wouldn’t have avoided it, even if I could.