The International Passport

A Nigerian passport 

I came across this story on a friend's page and just had to share to encourage someone who's been through an unnecessary difficulty. 

I'm also happy to rest from all the shit nonsense.

You will never look at issues the same way after reading the story below. God is indeed awesome  

... This friend of mine is gorgeous.

Her eloquence is staggering and her diction perfect. 

She carries herself regally, with a foreign air even though she has never stepped out of Nigeria before.

But she never fails to mention when she is comfortable with you that the day she will step her foot in America, the Whitehouse will know that a PERSON has landed. 

She will make something out of nothing and success will be her middle name.

Her dreams and desires were so infectious that once you heard about them, you instantly began to cheer her on and wish her well.

But not everyone is her friend.

Her colleague hates her with a passion.

They are both tantalizingly beautiful.

And also where my friend is liberally spiritually, her colleague is rabidly religious.

Where my friend is a natural networker and sublime extrovert, her colleague is trapped in a self created morbidly repressive bubble.

My friend is the soul of her office, her colleague is the heart.

At the end of August last year, my friend went to her bank to withdraw some funds, to her surpise she couldn't gain access to her account because of her lack of a BVN.

Ironically, she had done her BVN months before and was shocked that the bank said she didn't have one, especially when she had accessed her account in the same bank, but a different branch a week and a half before that.

It was a lot of bantering and argument which ended in her having to go get an international passport as a identification document since she doesn't have a drivers licence.

She needed it to redo the BVN and when she arrived at the passport office at Ikoyi it was bedlam.

There were offers for her to pay under the table for expedited service by one of the gentrified touts who were agents to the immigration officials. 

She bluntly refused.

She would go through the official channels.

They told her it would take her months instead of the same day or 3 days service they were offering her at cut throat rates.

She responded - So be it. I don't gives bribes.

The immigration officers and their agents laughed in her face but it didn't faze her.

She gathered all the documents she needed. 

It was painstakingly slow.

Every office needed her to pay a bribe to get her documents through. 

She refused. 

So it was come tomorrow and when she did, come tomorrow

 again and again and again.

And she did.

Doggedly.

And it was telling on her job.

SInce she had to go there during her lunch breaks and sometimes return back a half hour late. Yet each time she returned back late, she also worked late to make up for her absence.

There were times she was tempted to give in and just pay the bribe.

Other times, she found herself angry at God, asking why she needed to go through all the hassle since she had actually done her BVN months ago.

But still she peservered as she stuck to the path she had chosen.

No bribes come what may.

One day she came back two and a half hours late because of traffic only to meet the furious face of her boss.

Her colleague who hated her had gone to her boss and reported her with an over exaggeration of her absences.

When the boss asked her why she took longer breaks than was allowed, my friend remorsefully explained truthfully all that had transpired, ending up with giving the reason why she had returned even more late that day as it was the day for capturing - taking your picture and biometrics - and she couldn't miss it since if she did, she would be sent right back to the end of the line to start waiting again.

The boss not believing her excuse asked her how she had survived for nearly three months without access to her salary and the likes.

My friend explained that she borrowed money from family.

Her boss gave her a final warning.

Her colleague gloated as the days that followed she was the office crown jewel. 

A position that was usually that of my friend.

My friend took it in her stride and strove to be nice to her colleague even when everyone else told her that it was her colleague who had ratted her out and had been previously bad mouthing her to every one with power, who cared to listen to her. 

A week and a half later she went to pick up her passport during her lunch break.

There was fuel scarcity and on her way back she was caught up at the traffic that was caused by the NNPC fuel station on Alfred Rewane road in Ikoyi.

Once it was ten minutes after lunch break, her colleague while in a conversation with her boss made an offhand comment about my friend not having returned back from lunch.

It was right about the time, my friend's call to her boss came through, in which she explained that she would run late because of the traffic.

Her boss told her that if she wasn't back in twenty minutes she should consider herself out of job.

My friend jumped out of her Uber and flagged an Okada.

It was a race against time as the motorcycle rushed to her office on Victoria Island.

She arrived there in nine minutes.

As she hurried to her desk, the angry eyes of her colleague watching her, her boss had called down from the atrium just above them.

- You're lucky.

The next day during lunch she walked down the street to the bank in order to do her BVN.

Lo and behold, the man behind the computer said to her.

- Madam, I can see here that you already have a BVN.

She was stunned. 

There was no explanation as to why they handn't found it all those months ago. All they could say was - We are very sorry Ma'am, we will ensure this does not happen again, but while you are here, is there anything else we can do for you?

She was too tired to be angry and too puzzled to be concerned.

There was no whys or how from her.

She just withdrew some money and headed back to work.

She got there before lunch time was over.

And as she settled down at her desk, one of the top honchos at HR walked to her and whispered.

- This your boss means you o. 

- Ah, did he report me about coming late for work?

- That would have been good if it was just that.

- I don't understand.

- He refused to second your nomination.

- My nomination?

- Yes.

- For what.

- I shouldn't be telling you this.

- You know my mouth doesn't run.

- I trust you. Okay. Management is starting a new trial program. For our star employees. Succession planning things. Eight months fast track course at Tepper School of Business.

- Where is that? 

 - Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. US.

- Okay, so?

- You have been nominated for it.

- Me?

- Yes. Your boss didn't want to second the nomination so DMD overrode him and seconded it himself. It is between you and our dear witch.

She pointed to my friends colleague who had been bad mouthing her. 

My friend looked over and her face fell. 

She knew her colleague was the smart one. There was no competition. Her colleague will get picked for the course. Being liked wasn't as good as being brilliant.

- Why are you looking like that?

- You know they can't pick me over her.

- We will see about that. Just tell me you have an international passport and leave the rest to me.

My friend nodded.

- Great. I was so afraid you didn't have one. Because if you didn't there is no way I can make a case for you. The notice is too short.

My friend felt her begin to beat. 

The HR honcho continued.

- We choose who will go today, send the name to Pittsburgh and the passport has to be at the embassy tomorrow for the visa, so we get it out before Christmas and first week of January it is wheels up, Pennslyvania baby.

My friend felt her mind begin to daydream. She reined it in. She couldn't risk being broken hearted.

When the HR honcho left her desk, my friend fought to keep her mind on her work but found it straying to her colleague who as the day progressed was laughing more frequently than she normally did. Chatting more. Walking around more with a lightness. And on like her usual taciturn and mean self even teasing the departmental secretary. 

Then just before the close of work the email arrived.

She clicked on it in trepidation.

And when she read the words - You have been nominated - her heart leaped,and her pulse raced, but she still held her breath until she read the words - Kindly, submit your international passport to the...

It was then she burst out in tears.

And through her sobs, she kept whispering;

- I am so sorry Father for being mad at you for the BVN, I am so so sorry. So so sorry. Please forgive me.

She wasn't the only one crying in the office that day.

Her colleague was also crying.

But not out of joy.

My friend flew out yesternight aboard Air France.

Business class.

Her excitement knew no bounds.

The White House is on notice.

Lagos.

Jude Idada