Nigeria Hurdles

Don’t get me wrong - Nigeria is a beautiful country, and once you are in, you can enjoy the Nigerian culture - in my case in particular the one of the Yorubas, but certainly there is much more to discover. I spent there about 8 days, having joined a group tour of a UK tour operator, well organized.

Now comes the „however“, and this is what I would like to elaborate a bit more. My however relates to the hurdles of getting in and out of Nigeria. In theory, all is easy. You will get your visa online, once you pay the exorbitantly high visa fee of in my case USD 273.48. And you need to disclose your bank account and all movements on your account of the last 180 days. I first though to evade going into details with my bank statement and showed only that over the course of the last 180 days I had always sufficient funds. Which was not accepted, they insisted on me disclosing everything I did in the last 180 days. Ok, so you have to swallow this bitter pill.  Once you play by the rules you will get your visa in no time.

The Nike Art Gallery in Lagos is a MUST. There you will be exposed to the creativity of Nigerian artists. Absolutely fantastic. This piece is made from plastic scrap (BTW, Nike is the name of the artist who founded this gallery, she was present when I was there)

Two days prior to arrival you have to fill in a landing card, online. So you have to register first at a Nigerian website with username and password, then you start the procedure. And you will get your landing card sent by email immediately thereafter. Not a big thing except for the bureaucracy.

Mokoko is jokingly named as the "Venice of Africa". Indeed, you visit the village on stilts with a boat. But whether you get elevated feelings? I did not. Mokoko is located in Lagos.

Even then this is not sufficient, you have to fill in a health declaration, which is rather comprehensive, also online, and once you have it completed, you get the health declaration by email immediately.

At a market in Abeokuta

So I stored all three documents on my mobile phone, and printed them also, to be on the safe side.

Wherever you go, you will be surrounded and accompanied by children

Arrival at Lagos Airport. Not a modern one, I would even say not worthy of a city that big (Abuja is modern, well that’s the capital).  Always what you do is following the crowds, and eventually you will also be shown where is the right queue for you (the one for foreigners, that is). I presented my mobile phone with these 3 documents stored, and moved ahead from station to station, unsuspecting.

Yoruba art in the Osun Grove in Osogbo, breathtaking and a World Heritage Site.

Eventually you are in, have mastered the immigration process, and I was welcome by the guide of the tour operator, so I felt safe in the chaos of the arrival hall. Same chaos outside towards the parking ground.

Osun Grove, Osogbo. Full of Yoruba art

I would suggest to change money at the various exchange offices that you will pass by on the way to the parking lots.  Exchange rates are fully ok. And better don’t change with the money changers that approach you outside. For the 8 days in Nigeria I changed 120 Euro, which was sufficient (I had to pay for lunch and dinner, breakfast was included).

This guy swallowed razor blades, fire, and pierced his lips and tongue with a stick

Credit cards can be used in the better restaurants, but not always. Some accept no cash, which makes sense. The highest denomination is 1,000 Naira, which at an exchange rate of around 1,550 Naira to the Euro is a bit more than 60 Euro cents.  And you get not only 1,000 bills, but also 500s. So you will have wades of cash in your hand. So if you are in a group, and all pay cash, it seems like an endless counting of bank notes.

Some restaurants did not even accept international credit cards - my Mastercard was refused at a Burger King, so do not rely on a habit to pay everything by card. You will definitely need cash.

At the Osun River Goddess Festival

And yet I felt trapped when it was time to depart Nigeria. You have to fill in the Exit card. So you go into your account and fill it in. At least I thought so. But in my account there was no exit card to fill in. I started to feel stressed, clicked everything in my account, no move, no appearance. I failed to complete the exit card.  That was real stress, as you do not know what will await you at immigration.

Eventually, when contacting our guide, we were advised that probably my landing card was not scanned upon arrival. And when your landing card is not scanned, you are not in the country - at least not electronically. And if you are not in, you cannot get out. (For a while I thought that if I fill in a new landing card, I could get an exit card. Which the system already refused when trying, because you need a future date - and from hindsight this would not have made sense, as you also cannot get this extra landing card scanned when you want to get out).

Our guide advised us to explain the situation to the immigration officer. I departed from Abuja airport, and fortunately there your documents are not checked until you arrive at the immigration desk. (I ignored the officer in the exit hall who approached me and requested cash as a gift….)

Osun River Goddess Festival. Sacrifices are made to the goddess that you will be protected for another year

Now, at immigration, I explained why I had no exit card. The officer wanted to take a look into my account to make sure my story was true. So, make sure that you still have internet access, or in my case the officer typed in a password for a WiFi access, so I could prove what I said.

And all of a sudden, all was easy. Joking with the immigration officer, he stamped my passport, and I was relieved.

And after passing the security, you are in the departure area.  All good.

Also Abuja has a Nike Art Center. This motorbike is made from used tires

So, if you want to avoid hassle once leaving Nigeria, make sure your landing card is scanned upon arrival.

In my view, although Nigeria has a lot of attractions to offer, it is no wonder that tourism there is under developed. The curious ones who climb over all these hurdles will however generously be rewarded, no doubt about it.