Saturday, February 2, 2013

DUBAI PALAVA


As we went through immigration formalities at Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos, my palms  felt clammy, my throat was patched like I had not had a drink in days. My armpits were soaked in sweat as I took shorter strides along the queue as if unwilling to get to the Immigration Desk. Finally it was our turn. My travel companion and elder sister Odion, thrust our passports forward towards the Immigration Officer, "where are you going?" he asked rudely. "We are going to Dubai" Odion and I answered in unison. The Officer eyed us with disdain, looked at one of the passports and said "Benin girls going to Dubai, to do what?" he managed to pronounce Dubai as "Dubayie". "Move there" he said, pointing at the general direction of his partner Desk Officer, then  shouted "Next!"

It was September 2005, it was my first trip abroad. I had heard so many horrendous stories about Nigerian Immigration Officers that was enough to both scare and humble a small town girl for a lifetime. But that was not the real issue. The issue was that the birth dates on our passports did not correspond with those on our visas.

Earlier in September my sister and I had decided to go into clothing retail business. The plan was to travel to Dubai and buy in bulk then resell to our classmates at the university campus at a profit. Since we had a ready market we were convinced buying from a duty free market like Dubai was the best choice. Armed with this idea and some guts, we went to discuss with our parents who not surprisingly had confidence in our business prowess and were more than willing to loan us some money. Owing that there was no UAE embassy in Nigeria, our mother who is a regular traveller to Dubai spoke with her local travel agent concerning obtaining UAE visas and return tickets for us. Everything went pretty well, we received our tickets and obtained our visas just two days to our travel date.

Then we discovered that our agents had taken the liberty to update our dates of birth in the visa application. It would seem that my final year law student sister was born in 1971 making her about 34 years old while I a 300 level student of international relations was just about to hit 31 years of age. It was not just hilarious, it was down right dumb considering that we looked younger than our ages, preposterous! Upon discovering this we had confronted our agents, mad that they had the audacity to go ahead with such sensitive matters without seeking our consent. Their explanation was that there were entry limitations into the UAE for women under 25 years of age and they wanted to ensure by all means that we were able to enter the UAE legitimately.

Odion, Dubai, UAE 2012, Photo Credits, Omon Imohi
Legitimately indeed! Our mother was livid and threatened them with all manner of lawsuits. I caught one of them "yimmuing" at her and made sure to tell her in our language (owan), this further exacerbated the situation and she seized their land line telephone to my gratification. In the end, since it was just two days before we were scheduled to travel and we had already purchased a non-refundable ticket, we decided to go ahead as planned.

Presently, the second Immigration Officer, a woman, said "what are you going to do in Dubai?" Again, Odion responded "holiday and shopping." "Hmmmm," she answered "two pretty Benin girls going to Dubai." She pronounced Benin as "bini". "Which school are you from?" she continued, this time I replied "Igbinedion University." Her already hard face became even harder "Na una dey chop our money!" she looked like we were to blame for all the troubles in her life and the country at large. Without even asking to see our visas, which were in pieces of paper, she stamped our passports mumbling "make una carry una wahala dey go". I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't realise I had been holding my breathe. I couldn't believe the Immigration Officer had not even asked for copies of our visas.

It was a pretty much uneventful journey except when odion decided to deal with the woman sitting in front of her who insisted on reclining her chair so far back that for Odion to watch a movie she would have had to lie down sideways or recline her chair as far back too. It surprises me how some people travelling in the economy cabin want to travel in style as if they were in first-class. Anyway, Odion made the lady 'damn the day and sweat the minute' she decided to fly on that plane. My dear sister, after insistently begging the woman to straighten her chair a bit at dinner time to no avail, took laws into her hands. She used her knees to push and wedge the lady's chair for the rest of her journey. I laughed and laughed each time the woman stood up to threaten to beat Odion up. To our chagrin she kept saying "Do you know who I am?"  To which the young man sitting beside me finally couldn't bear it any longer and cut in "Who you be? Respect your age and sit down. This is economy if you want to sleep as if you are in your room, next time buy business class ticket." At this time everyone sitting close by burst out laughing.

We arrived Dubai sometime early the next morning and joined the rush to queue at Passport Control. I have to say that till date Dubai International Airport is still one of the finest airports I have ever travelled through. Before proceeding to passport control visitors to Dubai had to had to have an eye scan (Iris Scan). So my sister and I along with other passengers were guided to the eye scan machine by an Airport Official. This was my first time seeing anything of the kind. Even my novels and all the tales I had heard of travels never mentioned eye scan. The notion behind this security technology is akin to the thumb print thing, it is believed that no two people can have the same iris. Well I gingerly went over to a vacant Iris Scan machine where an attendant waited, he didn't say a word to me so I proceeded to do what I saw other people doing. I placed my face close to the machine and focused my left eye on what seemed like a camera lens. The machine immediately beeped. The next thing I knew, a man in an all white sparking robe and a red and white keffiyeh (Arab head dress), walked up to me and said in strong Arab accent "what is wrong?" I said "I don't know."

He looked into my 'blue' eyes and said in disgust "go and remove that contact lens, then go back to the scan." I quickly went to sit in the waiting area, luckily I had my contact lens solution and my glasses in my handbag. I took it off and went straight back to the Iris Scan machine. This time the scanner beeped more loudly and when the man appeared again and said "who are you?" fear gripped me. He collected my passport and copy of my visa and then said "follow me." By now I looked around for Odion but couldn't find her, I was abandoned to my fate. Tears rapidly filling my eyes, I slowly followed the man thinking "this is deportation, like I have seen in the movies." It was a long walk till we reached an office where there were about four men dressed in complete military attire. Sitting on a long metal bench by the wall were three young women and a man. The man was handcuffed while some of the women wore hair askew, they looked like they had been wearing the same make-up for days.

The man with the flowing robe handed me over to one of the Military Officers who proceeded to grill me, asking questions about who I am, what I came to do in Dubai and so forth. By now he had noticed that the date of birth on my passport did not correspond with the one in my passport. The man asked if I got the visa through an agent and I shakily nodded. He looked at me for a long moment and said "look at those people sitting there, we are deporting them back to your country. They are drug mongers and prostitutes. How am I sure you are not one of them?" If you have ever watched Border Control UK or Border Control Australia, you will understand my next move. I quickly started begging saying, "I am just a student who came with my sister  for holiday and to do some shopping, the eye scan did not work because I just took of my contact lens". I was begging not because I had done anything wrong or did not know my right but because I could just imagine being displayed on NTA news as one of the deported hustlers from Dubai...it would give me eternal disgrace!

The Military Officer picked up the telephone on his desk and called the robed man who had brought me in to inquire if truly I had been wearing contact lenses. He must have answered in the affirmative because shortly after he dropped the phone the Officer picked up my passport, flipped the pages, typed something into the computer and the next thing I heard was the low stirring of the printer beside him. I couldn't believe it when he handed a paper and my passport back to me saying "Be careful next time." I thanked him profusely and quickly left the office before he changed his mind. An orderly escorted me from the office back to Passport Control where he put me ahead of those on the queue. As the Passport Control official, a young lady dressed in black hijab stamped my passport, I heard a familiar voice coming from the next counter. I turned to see Odion arguing with the official saying "so what if I am 34 years old?" The female official was saying that even she who is 28 years old did not look that young. That she could not believe Odion is a day older than 21. By then my passport had been stamped so I had moved ahead to wait for Odion, praying that the lawyer in her will not cause her to argue to the extent that she'll be deported.

When she finally came through to arrivals the first thing she said is "Idowu I didn't know you don't have liver  o!"

And that was the beginning of another memorable experience. 

18 comments:

  1. ..Lol..well I think visas and plane tickets cost money. Tourist also spend their hard earned money abroad..I believe border authorities could use a bit of customer service training.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I tell you.. Nigeria Airport Officials are the undisputed champions of rudeness until you show some naira bills.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lol. Though it's annoying when one's been subjected to ridicule by some "unscrupulous elements" but it's part of the fun if you love going coast to coast. Am happy you experienced it dear.. I had a worse one than yours.. Anyways, I LOVE THE PIECE! #MoreVaselineToYourElbow.

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks Deola. Keep coming and you'll get more juicy stories

    ReplyDelete
  5. This was a roller coaster experience...and funny too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Priscilla.. glad you liked it. Watch this page for more on my narrow escapes, escapades and adventures

      Delete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lol...so u remember wat I said den..our first dubai experience! And dat silly ugandan boxer or wat did she call herself den :D.....

    ReplyDelete

  8. It’s obvious you know your topic and you appear fervent about it. I’m developing a fresh blog plus I’m struggling to make it look good,
    Customer Service Training Dubai

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was surprised to learn the same about your blog--- I loved it.I am a big fan of your blog.i am so excited by read of your blog's content.really great post.Thanks for sharing.Arun Panchariya Dubai

    ReplyDelete
  10. I agree with your point of view of this article. This is a good article. Very timely given us so much useful information. Thank you!

    Arun Panchariya

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is a fantastic website and I cannot recommend you guys enough Full of useful resource and great layout very easy on the eyes. Please do keep up this great work.

    Arun Panchariya

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a great blog, i am searching in google from couple of days” but did not find any great way, but my search came to an end after visiting your blog.!!!Do you have any more related blogs or ideas related to like your this blog, it will help me in my further research work…Will keep following your blogs…

    Arun Panchariya || Arun Panchariya UAE || Arun Panchariya Dubai

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. We actually learnt from these a lot. Our Team thanks you for this help, which help us to make a successful Web Blog.

    Arun Panchariya UAE

    ReplyDelete
  14. Stumbled on your blog. I cannot stop laughing. Those immigration people are just something else. Nice job. You've given me work to do as I plan to read all your stories

    ReplyDelete

  15. Your post really gonna help the people like me who are looking for such terms and info.provincial nominee program canada

    ReplyDelete

  16. Do you Need Personal Loan?
    Do you Need Business Loan?
    Are you in need of a loan?
    Do you want to pay off your bills?
    Do you want to be financially stable?
    email:(easyloanoffer1@gmail.com)

    Fill The Application Form.

    1)Full Name:
    2)Country:
    3)State:
    4)Address:
    5)Sex:
    6)Occupation:
    7)Amount needed:
    8)Loan duration:
    9)Loan purpose:
    10)Telephone

    email:(easyloanoffer1@gmail.com)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hello, my name is Mr William a Business Contractor' I live in Washington District of Columbia. I was been awarded a contract, but due to my lack of finance i could not meet up according to agreement made, after i try to get a loan! I was reject by many banks and other financial institute that i almost gave up all hope for the contract. I almost called the company to tell them that i won't be taken the contract anymore, only to be saved when i was thinking and searching one night through the Internet I saw an advert about a loan company named First City Loan Home whom can give a loan for as low as 5% interest rate with no collateral or credit card needed. I applied for a loan with First City Loan Home to my greatest surprise the CEO of the company approved my loan which i used to finally finance the contract. I said to myself i need to share this good news with everyone cos if you need any loan of any type with no collateral or credit card for as low as 5% interest rate I advice you to contact First City Loan Home at their email: servicesline1@careceo.com

    ReplyDelete

Make a comment on this article