"The white man is here", says the protocol officer to the guy standing at the immigration counter. This guy looks more like a police officer from one of Karachi's police station, looking with contempt at the documents of this hungry herd of people trying to enter his oil-rich country. He has corruption written all over him and the people standing in the irregular lines seem as if they are waiting for aid at one of UN's humanitarian relief depos. The Lagos airport's arrival lounge and relevant areas are pretty modern and well maintained, though I have read stories of regular power outages at the airport!!! But as you leave this area and descend towards the immigration counter things suddenly become very depressing. The protocol officer cleanly bypassed the waiting lines with me and took me across the immigration counter, got the visa stamped and escorted me outside the airport building. His presence there was extremely important.
Outside the airport building its more like the cantt railway station than an international airport. The driver was five minutes late due to the traffic jam in one of the worst areas that connect the business district, Victoria Island, to the airport. This area oozes poverty. The people, the vehicles, the roads, the neighborhood and the police tell you the depressing story of Africa. Microsoft, my host in Nigeria, had sent a sealed letter with the driver with information on who he was, who were my contact people here and some other basic information. The driver Marcilinus turned out to be a jolly young guy who worked for Hertz. As we set out for our destination, we passed through this dreaded area. Something bad had to happen.
On the road there were two different kind of policemen trying to regulate the wild traffic. In dark brown were street police and their name printed on their shirts and batons in their hand. The other ones, wearing yellow shirts, were supposed to be the traffic policemen but looked more like hoodlums. They turned out to be exactly that. Two of them stood in front of our car and asked us to pull over. I in my normal practice had not put on the seat belt and there was the fatal mistake. It gave them a reason to stop us, now we were in their territory.
They were beating on the window, motioning us to come out. The driver lowered the window and asked for the reason. He told us our road safety violation, yeah, ROAD SAFETY VIOLATION, look around and tell me that again!!! They were clearly looking for money and seeing the WHITE MAN, they knew it was good day for them. They asked me to come out but the driver told me to stay in and keep the door locked and windows sealed. He went out and tried to negotiate, but I realized that wasn't the tough guy for such situations. They were asking 20'000 Nairas!!! Or else, go to their office, where the driver said, they could rob you clean and no one would object. Finally, we had to settled for $40, which is over N4000. Sad way to begin work.
The driver, Marcilinus, being a church going gospel listening devout Christian took it on his conscience and told me that he would return me the money from his own pocket, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully. I didn't want the money and wanted to let this guy go, but I let him do it for now. I have decided that before I leave, I will return him this money. He dropped me off at the rest house and in an hour or so came back to clear his conscience.
Sad start or not, I settled in my room for now and decided to sleep off the weariness that has accumulated as result of the ten hours of sleepless flying.
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