Bureaucracy!

Not unique to Nigeria, but significantly more apparent than somewhere like my home country is the often difficult or irritating level of government bureaucracy that one must go through to get things done sometimes. I experienced this first hand for the first time when I had yet more visa trouble.

Getting a call on Wednesday last week from AIESEC I was told that the Lagos immigration office decided they could not extend my visa as planned and therefore I would likely have to leave the country within 5 days. This was slightly unacceptable to me since I had not planned to leave until December, and nor did I even have a plane ticket at the time. So I was forced yet again to find a way out.

This first of all involved a trip to Osogbo, the state capital of Osun state (where I stay). After talking to a few immigration officers I was directed to come back the next day with a letter from this and that (I think the guy was making up the conditions on the spot), some document copies, a member of my workplace and a "yet to be determined" amount of money. With some trouble I managed to get back the next day with all they asked, but after several hours of negotiations I still failed to get my visa extension. Although no-one could really tell me why, they said they didn't have the authority. I don't know exactly what changed between July and October but anyways they said I had one last chance if I went to Abuja. So in a last ditch attempt to stave off deportation (well that may be a slight exaggeration but I would have had to leave for sure) I went to Abuja with an official letter from the Osogbo office (very important in Nigeria).

Luckily I was able to ask a "contact" to help me there. For finding my way to the right person with a friendly attitude there might have been some trouble. To cut a long story short after two days, and a deal of luck (but nothing illegal or corrupt!) I managed to get what I came for. I guess you could say my experience was therefore mostly painless in the end. But it reminded me of the great mess of official bodies Nigeria seems to have, both inside and outside of government.

You notice signs everywhere, but especially in Abuja the capital, for innumerable organisations, agencies, associations, clubs, unions, committees, boards, representatives, monarchs, governments, workgroups, and chairs. For whatever group you can patch together, there is an organ that will represent them. This goes from the local village progress committee right up to big unions of workers (popular ones being the motorcycle riders, hairdressers and my personal favourite – concrete block manufacturers and tipper owners association).