“Corruption” and “419” come in different ways and sometimes with such high sophistication that an ordinary eye cannot see it.
“Corruption” and “419” come in different ways and sometimes with such high sophistication that an ordinary eye cannot see it.
The Nigerian consulate in New York is in total mess. I was opportune to visit the Nigerian Consulate with my little cousin to renew his Nigerian Passport.
Prior to this, I helped my cousin fill the application forms for new passport online at Nigerian Immigration website and was asked to pay the sum of $65USD for the new passport of which we paid. Me and my cousin waited for two weeks to go for his interview at the Nigerian consulate in New York. Having checked in and having been searched we proceeded for him to be interviewed.
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419 and Corruption:
First question the thick Igbo lady and Yoruba man asked my cousin was if he had paid for the passport renewal and of which he answered them in affirmative, Yes.
I peeped through the Laptop computer on the lady’s desk and the internet browser showed she was on the Nigerian consulate website whereas the Yoruba man was on yahoo website. Both of them asked us to provide proof that we have paid the said amount. My cousin brought out a printed copy of the email receipt from the time we did the application and payments. They looked at it and said it is insufficient. So, I retorted by asking them, since you guys are on the internet with Nigerian government Laptops, why can’t you type my cousin’s name in it and check if he has paid or not? These corrupt officials responded that their computer is for official purposes. I asked them that the interview for my cousin is an official business and that is why our government gave them the computers with internet to verify these hitches like whether my cousin actually paid for the passport or not?
Both of them threatened to deny my little cousin the opportunity to be interviewed for his new passport unless we do things properly. I asked the lady, how can we do things properly?
She smiled, and told us that there is a store across the Nigerian Consulate with the name Variety Store. She told us to hurry and get the Variety store verify that we paid the money for the passport. Me and my little cousin proceeded to the Variety store.
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Corruption : The Indian Connection
On reaching the store, we met some Indians (2 males and a female) with numerous other Nigerians and would be Nigerian visitors in the store. We were about fifteen people excluding those leaving and coming in the store. After waiting for 15 minutes, the Indian man asked me what brought us. We told him that the Nigerian consulate sent us here to verify that we paid for our passport. The Indian man told us that it will cost us three dollars to print every page of the document. So we gave the Indian man my cousin’s name and he just went to the Nigerian Immigration website and printed the verifications. My little cousin asked me why the lady in Nigerian consulate did not do that for us? And he continued, beside the document we gave her was same thing that this Indian man printed for us? He went further and told me how can we pay three dollars for a black and white page of paper when it costs $0.10cents elsewhere? My little cousin was too innocent and young to understand these things. He reminded me that the highest amount of money people pay to print out a page in the whole of USA is $0.10c or at worst $0.25c for colored documents per page?
I told him that there are few explanations to these things, it is either that the Indians are giving a kick back to the employees of Nigerian Embassy , or that the members of the consulate eat free inside the store, or that the store is owned by some clique within the consulate. While we were still talking an official of the consulate came in with Nigerian attire and the Indian lady gave him something wrapped in some papers and was put in a bag. He left without saying a word back to the consulate. My cousin asked me what was that and I told him that am not sure what it is.
The Indian woman heard me and she became furious and she told me that she must report me to the man in charge of the consulate. I asked her if she knew the man in charge of the consulate? At this point, the two other Indian men walked up to me and told me just to pay the three dollars a page and leave the variety store. Some Yoruba and Igbo ladies told us that we are not the only people that know these high level of corruption going on but that we should just drop three dollars for those fools. An Igbo lady joked that at least Nigerian police take bribe but the Nigerian consulate in New York takes kickbacks and we all laughed about it.
I pulled my wallet and brought out my credit card to pay the Indian, the three dollars. To my surprise, the Indians say it must be cash, this is the only way they can cover the evidence that somebody paid them and that they are collecting three dollars from each Nigerian (For a page of every document printed). I said ok and went to use an ATM machine within their shop, As I was about to withdraw a twenty dollar bill, I found out that I have to pay like another 4 dollars for using the ATM. At this point, my little cousin was freaking out. I laughed and paid $4.00 to withdraw $20 dollars. Most ATM in USA charge a dollar ot at worst $2.00 to withdraw money. I went back to the Nigerian consulate having paid three dollars to the Indians. The Nigerian consulate sent us back to the Indian store, this time to get $20USD money order, this is in addition to the $65USD we paid online. We enquired, why another $20USD and no response on the purpose of the money. We had to withdraw another 20USD from the machine and got charged another $4.00USD. The fee for the money order itself was $2.50 cents for $20USD money order. It is worthy of note to mention that I pay about $0.50 at walmart to obtain money order and most places charge less than a dollar for money orders. M e and my cousin printed three pages @$3 each per page, used ATM twice @$4 each time, we paid $2.50 for money order. So in essence we spent $19.50 cents in the Indian store for service charge. Very ridiculous and times that by about 50 people that visit the consulate each day and you get about $975.00USD. My cousin asked me why Nigerian consulate refuse to collect a check, a credit card nor cash? I told him, if the Consulate collects checks, credit card or cash then the Indians will not make money for kickbacks to the consulate officials.
Finally we went back to the consulate and we were sent to the 12th floor . We saw a computer at that floor with printer. I told my cousin that am going to make the Nigerian consulate workers angry. He asked me how? I told him to watch me.
So I went on that computer, typed in the Nigerian immigration website on the browser, at this point a lady walked up to me and asked me what I was doing with the computer? I told her, I needed to print out proof that I paid the embassy. Her facial expression changed, she said” will you go to the Variety store and do these things. I asked her, “why do I need to go over to the Variety store when our government provided these computers for us?” She turned off the computer. I told her, “I was kidding with her because I noticed something sinister was going on between them and the Variety store.” She told me, “ she does not have time for me and that I can say whatever that I want to say.” She said ,”they do not engage in any corruption,” I asked her, “ if I did accuse her of corruption?”
I reminded my little cousin on our way home that when Kennedy was shot in Dallas, the Secret service knocked at the door of the man that shot the president. As soon as the man saw the Secret Service, he told them that he did not kill the president. So the Secret Service asked him, “who told you that the president was shot?” That was how they arrested the killer. So, for the Lady to have told me that they do not do corruption means that they are in fact engaging in corruption , since nobody accused her with or of corruption. This leads me to Jean Paul Sartre who claims that nobody can deny what “is” because you only denies what “is not” since you do not know of what “is not”.
Jean Paul Sartre, an existentialist French Philosopher (who had the honor to reject a Noble Prize awarded him) argued , “nobody argues in a vacuum or vacuo” .
“The basis of Sartre's existentialism can be found in The Transcendence of the Ego in which he says that the thing-in-itself is infinite and overflowing. Sartre refers to any direct consciousness of the thing-in-itself as a "pre-reflective consciousness." Any attempt to describe, understand, historicize etc. the thing-in-itself, Sartre calls "reflective consciousness." There is no way for the reflective consciousness to subsume the pre-reflective, and so reflection is fated to a form of anxiety, i.e. the human condition. The reflective consciousness in all its forms, (scientific, artistic or otherwise) can only limit the thing-in-itself by virtue of its attempt to understand or describe it. It follows, therefore, that any attempt at self-knowledge (self-consciousness - a reflective consciousness of an overflowing infinite) is a construct that fails no matter how often it is attempted. Consciousness is consciousness of itself insofar as it is consciousness of a transcendent object.”
The above explains the consciousness of the word corruption which the lady at the embassy brought up and then tries to deny it.
Conclusion:
President Goodluck Jonathan should sack everybody working at the Nigerian consulate in New York immediately.
The reason is that they are highly corrupt and even if they say they are not corrupt, they are enriching Indians at the expense of Nigerians. Can Indian consulate do same for and with Nigerians?
Also, the people working there are not computer savvy and are not educated. Any person that went to the likes of Gboko college of education in Nigeria or yeye school like Katherine Gibbs college in New York has nothing to do at that consulate. They embassy officials lacked professionalism. The workers lack training in etiquette and have the big man mentality of a typical Nigerian governor. The workers have no names and when you ask them their names they get angry. They keep leaving the embassy anytime without being on launch time.
We need young, vibrant, educated youths with sound etiquette at that consulate. The noble work of ambassadors/diplomats cannot be left in the hands of nincompoops and ignoramuses who are after petty business and kick backs from Indians.
My people, please pray for Nigeria. It seems that Nigerians that are not in power are more corrupt than the ones in power. I hope this my assertion is not true, so help me God!
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