By Andrew Iro Okungbowa
One was billed to travel to Accra, Ghana, two weeks ago for the debut of Accra Weizo, put together by the organisers of Akwaaba and Abuja Bantaba. It was designed as a networking platform for all the players in the travel and tourism trade in West Africa with the underlining spin of being an integration platform for tourism in the west coast. As a debuting event, it generated quite a buzz within the industry and one looked forward to covering the event. Two days before the departure date the organiser of the event called to say that the earlier confirmed flight to Accra has been cancelled and that the only option left was travelling by road.
I was disappointed by the sad news and almost cancelled the trip as I had never gone on that route before. I have always had to turn down every such opportunity in the past due mainly to the unpalatable tales from friends and professional colleagues who had travelled that route. I decided this time to go on the trip, promising myself that it may not be as bad as painted and that it could, after all, turn out to be a most cherished adventure. As a travel writer one always look forward to adventure to the unknown, sometimes not minding what lay ahead. And from experiences, such trips always turned out just fine and memorable. But how wrong one was this time around! One could say in a way it was memorable but full of negative and horrible memories that one would rather not talk about.
However, one is constrained to write about it hoping that something fast could be done about the Lagos – Seme border. For many tourists, road trip is a most adventurous experience and many look forward to it with great excitement because of the scenic views it presents: countryside landscape and a taste of the local communities.
Travelling without passport
It never occurred to me that I needed my international passport or ECOWAS passport (I have both) for the trip since I wasn’t travelling by air again as initially planned. It was when we were about boarding the bus that it dawned on me that I needed a travel document. I hurriedly went to the customer care section with some of my colleagues to find out what could be done since it was practically impossible for me to go back home to get my document as it was too late for that. Then we were told that I had to pay an additional four thousand naira and provide some form of identification.
I was directed to the counter where I paid the money un-receipted despite my protestation. I was told I could get off the bus if I insisted as they don’t usually issue receipt for such payments. What this meant was that I would have to make a similar payment on the return trip. It was a painful reality. But following encouragement and pleadings from my colleagues, I decided to proceed on the journey.
Extortions/illegal tolls
From what I gathered from the bus’ protocol officer and some of the passengers who are familiar guests on the route, the money collected from me and other passengers with one issue or the other were meant to settle the army of Beninoise and Nigerian security agencies who line the route all the way from Badagry to Seme border. From the Customs, Immigration, NDLEA, Quarantine to the police, the place teemed with all sorts of agencies whose relevance at the border post was hard to justify. There were health officials, even though they were nowhere near an abandoned cubicle marked with the words – Ebola. You couldn’t help wondering aloud whether there would be any more security personnel left in Lagos with all these uniformed men and women on the route. A mild drama occurred in the bus at the point when the bus protocol officer was collecting the travel documents of the passengers for processing at the immigration point. One of my colleagues was travelling on the route for the first time with his international passport and for this, he was requested to pay one thousand naira because his valid document was classed as “virgin passport”.
That sounded familiar complaints from people travelling through our airports with a new passport. The immigration officials often come up with all sorts of tales to fleece the innocent and already intimidated passenger. But despite all the threats of the protocol officer, my colleague stood his grounds, refusing to part with any money. Once the protocol officer realised that he was a journalist, he backed off and told him that on getting to the border post he would have to get off the bus to clear his passport himself, a challenge my colleague gladly accepted. I recalled that we had to stop about five before the Lagos – Seme border for checks with some immigration and NDLEA officials coming into the bus to physically check on the passengers and ask all sorts of questions from some of the passengers randomly.
Unfortunately for one of the NDLEA officials, he called out one of my colleagues, I guessed he probably suspected him because of the different stamps of countries that he had travelled to on his passport and perhaps expected to extort some money. But he was disappointed the moment my friend told him that he was a journalist and he quickly moved on to other targets.
Border post or market?
One was pleasantly surprised by what you see and what goes on at the border post at both Lagos and Seme ends. By the way, my colleague who had earlier refused to pay the one thousand naira had to go off the bus, accompanied by some other colleagues, to sort out his passport issue. They came back with the report that the immigration officer did not bother with them once they discovered that they were all journalists. The same ritual is observed with all the uniformed men and others strolling into the bus at will and interrogating people randomly and carrying out physical search, causing all kinds of embarrassment to the passengers and delays without regard to the fact that the passengers are on a long haul and had previously been checked and questioned at over five checkpoints before reaching the border post.
Watching the activities at the border post, you can’t help wondering if border posts should operate this way. There wasn’t any decent structure in sight; the environment was untidy and seethes with all kinds of cubicles and ramshackle structures. It seemed more like a jungle where the strongest and fittest survives. But in this case, it is the amount of cash you can muster that gets you going because everyone is at the mercy of the interrogating officer from any of the agencies. Travellers may be unduly delayed or have their trips aborted at the whim of a security personnel. It took over an hour or thereabout for the protocol officer to clear the bus and passengers at both ends of the border post. For me, what happens at the border post is bad for he image of this country and is not what should be encouraged. That this has gone on for years unchecked is scandalous. This actually hampers economic development and travel and a flagrant disrespect of the ECOWAS free movement protocol.
Passing through the other border posts you would then understand that what happens at Lagos – Seme border is shame to the governments of Nigeria and Republic of Benin. Both countries should get together urgently, particularly the Nigerian government to change the situation. The over 10 (I learnt 17 on a normal day) check points between Badagry and the border post are simply ridiculous. Were the men at the border post conducting their businesses properly as required by law, then all the other checks are not needed while the policing of the highways by Customs and Immigration in search of illegal goods and immigrants would be totally disregarded. At the Benin – Togo – Ghana border posts, what you get is seamless and effortless checks devoid of all the drama and nuisance at the Lagos – Seme border. For instance, at the Cotonou – Lome border which is known as Condji (Hila/ Sanwee), the officers at both ends are well behaved and cultured, the environment pleasant with proper border post structures from where the officers operate.
No passenger is harassed by anyone as one or two of the officers simply carry out the checks and give the bus all clear signal. Passengers are simply required to disembark from the bus and walk through the border post while the bus conductor identifies his passengers as the protocol officer clears all the documents with the officials inside the office. All of these take less than 10 minutes to get through while the passengers are allowed few minutes by the driver to change their money if they so wished and buy whatever they wanted from the hordes of hawkers milling around. At the Lome – Ghana (Aflao), the process is no different. Just to give you an idea of how stressful, torturous and frustrating the journey that is estimated to last six or seven hours could be, we didn’t get to Accra till 12 midnight and we left the Lagos bus terminal at about 7am.
On the return journey we did not get to the bus terminal till 11.30am. We actually arrived the Seme – Lagos border post at about 6pm but all the checks and stops resulted in the delay while I was made to understand that if it were on weekdays, it would be a nastier experience because of the heavy traffic and that we may not arrive at the bus terminal till the next day.
http://newtelegraphonline.com/the-pains-frills-of-travelling-via-the-lagos-ghana-corridor/
