My Blog

Also unlike last time, this time we are in the company of some locals. Our business partner spends half his time in Nigeria. He has a guesthouse and drivers. He has a local cell phone.

He waited for us outside the airport. It took us about an hour to go thru what seemed like 3-5 different lines and as many checkpoints to clear immigration. There were plenty of officers, but every one wanted to see the passport. First there was the guy with a desk in the middle of the line. Then a lady who directed you to another line.

Then there was guy #1 at the podium, who looked at your passport, and put it at the bottom of a stack that the final officer was working thru. Serial vs parallel processing. Good for hooking up computer hardward, bad for processing passports.

Our business partner waves at us. We work our way thru the crowd. We approach a gate of sorts where an opening is large enough for one person and whatever he or she might be carrying, but no more. It is a one-way gate surrounded by bodies and baggage. As we approach... we hear an altercation between someone just outside the gate and one of the officers.

Man: Get your hands off me!
Officer: -unintelligible, but talking and shoving-
Man: I will miss my flight! You will make me miss my flight!

There is pushing and things look bad. Our ever-practical business partner says, "we'll just wait here a minute". We don't need much convincing.