I have heard and read of corruption in our missions abroad but could not believe it till I had a firsthand experience myself, a classic case of corrupt practices within the Nigerian embassy in Spain

The purpose of this write up, is to draw people's attention to the corrupt practices eating deep in Nigerian embassy in Madrid.

Do i begin with the police character report or the present e-Passport?

In 2008, the Government agreed to allow a representative of the Nigerian police to come to Spain, once in a year in other to thumb print Nigerians wishing to get police character report, as this was one of the requirements by the host country before any residence passport can be issued, it was reported that the fee fixed by the government was 40 Euros but when this officials and their collaborators came, the tune of the music was changed, and the fee was hiked to 170 Euros, poor Nigerians without any meaningful means of livelihood resorted to begging many charity organizations here in Spain to help them raise the money for the police character report, thereby inflicting untold hardship on the citizens of our great country in Spain. In Valencia alone, there were about one thousand citizens that paid the said amount for this police character report, by the time you calculate those in other cities, then you will have an idea of the amount of money in question, the writers question now is how much was remitted to the coffers of government?

The altitude of our embassy officials in Madrid Spain leaves much to be desired, can one explain the rationale behind after making the necessary online payment for the e-Passport, is asked to wait for this turn, fine, his tune, he must wait but for how long? Till thy kingdom come? . most times when the ambassador is there in the embassy, the passport processing moves quickly but as soon as he is gone, it takes more than 2 hours to process one passport application, this is so because they want to spend extra hours and at the end the tell the Nigerian government that they worked over time, of which they will be paid for from the coffers of the government, thereby bleeding the government dry by their incompetency, this is really disgraceful.

there are so many Nigerians that are still waiting list for their e-Passport, for which payment have been made for almost 6 months now, yet our official are not bothered, they are busy collecting bribes from the highest bidder. i have a friend that have stayed almost one year since he applied for the passport without getting any reply. they tell that they have so many applications to handle but this is all nonsense, even in Nigerian, how long does it take one to get a passport?

This is not an ordinary accusation because i have seen it happen on countless occasion, those that can cough out as much as 250 Euro bribe get their passport immediately those that cannot are made to wait for more than 6 months depending on the mood of the officials, what is the rationale behind asking one to bring his birth certificate when he already have the old passport where his date of birth is written boldly? because no matter the birth certificate presented to Nigeria embassy, they will surely reject it, they even reject birth certificates issued by the ministry of foreign affairs in Abuja, who is deceiving who? You pay extra 50 Euro for the birth certificate they issue. there are so many sorts of extortion in the embassy that even many Nigerian unaware of their rights or because of the intimidation they pass through at the hands of our people have little or no choice than to comply or risk been asked to leave, as many of them are without the relevant residence permit in Spain.

As a result of these corrupt practices by our so called embassy officials, it is a common thing to see the Nigerian passport in the hands of Non Nigerians especially the Ghanaians, these people collect money without minding who they are issuing passports to, i am not talking about those that got the passport on the normal way, i mean those that paid money, we all know that once money exchanges hands, an official have been influence against applying due diligence, i saw this Ghanaian guy the other day, in a money transfer shop with a Nigerian passport, i felt like giving him a dirty slap in the face for having a Nigerian passport, but on a second thought i had to restrained by self, knowing fully well that it is those in the embassy that have to be blamed. is it possible for a non Ghanaian or other countries from the West African sub region to get passport of these countries with proper check by the relevant authorities? These things can only happen in Nigeria and our corrupt missions abroad especially the embassy in Madrid, Spain. with Nigeria anything is possible.

Some Nigerians that are into the fast lane, now have in their possession 2 to 3 passports with different names exactly what the government is fighting against by introducing these e-Passport, how did they come in possession of these passports? It is all thanks to the bribery and corruption going on the Nigerian embassy in Madrid, these are they group of people giving our country a bad name and they are the same people that can afford to cough out large sum of money to the ready hands of these embassy rats

I called the Nigerian embassy the other day, the female voice on the other end lacked simple courtesy, it was just as if i was bothering her, when told that i have made a passport payment and waiting for response for almost 5 months now, i was told by the voice that the person in charge wasn't around, i should call back, when i did, the same voice said that people( fellow Nigerians) are disturbing them too much about the passport, is this how an official responds to those he/she is paid to represent? they are busy representing their own selfish interest and pockets forgetting that they people are watching.

I was opportuned to be in a western embassy recently here in Spain, it is in explicable how courteous those people there were, my wife is a citizen of Finland, in their embassy, she was treated like a queen and i find it very difficult to explain to her what is happening in my own embassy, there in the Nigerian embassy in Spain, Nigerians are treated with so much hate and disrespect that it makes you to wonder if these people are indeed Nigerians or representing the interest of a foreign country. it is embarrassing, these people are embarrassing us in the presence of the whole world, i wish that somebody sees this and call them to other, enough is enough.

If our image before the international community must be changed, then it is time to sanitize those traders in diplomatic cloths, let due process be observed and things done according. we are now our own enemies, Nigerian citizens are now made to suffer unduly because he/she wants to obtain a passport, is it a right or privilege to get a Nigerian passport, i am a Nigerian citizen and i am proud to be one, i will not have a fellow citizen dictate to me or force me into parting with my hard earned money.

The essence of this write up, is to point out the decay in the Nigerian diplomatic mission in Spain, i challenge anyone in doubt of this allegations to do a fact finding by applying for a passport and see how long it's going to take to get a reply or better still even write an ordinary mail to them and see if they will ever bother to reply. they are feeding fat on the bribes they collect from people here in Spain while they people are suffering especially in this time of economic crisis biting hard on the people. i rest my case.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/nigerian-e-passport-now-for-the-highest-biddercorrupt-embassy-officials-in-nigerian-embassy-in-spai.html

This is indeed very sad .i will suggest you find a way to forward this write -up to a national newspaper,it will receive an immediate attention from the government. I believe something will be done to address it.

hugooh42:

This is indeed very sad .i will suggest you find a way to forward this write -up to a national newspaper,it will receive an immediate attention from the government. I believe something will be done to address it.

You are right there, this shouldnt be happening in such high level. By the time newspapers pick it up, somebody will seat-up

please with due respect I write to you.
about Nigerian Police character report.
I am currently not in Nigeria and I need the fingerprint form to send to a person I know in Nigeria
to help me summit and process it.
I want someone to please/kindly scan and send me the fingerprint form to my emial: princeandy26@yahoo.com and hint me on how to go about it
I am in serious need of it .
I will be greatful if you can reply me ugently.
Thank you

I feel so upset and completely saddened knowing fully well, that, there wont be a reasonable change, Am done talking this things no matter how harsh we talk nothing will change.

But alas everyone!! there is a plaque on the desks of Nigerian government officials reading "how can we bleed the citizens of Nigeria to death?" believe this, and everything else falls into place

nothing ever surprises me about Nigeria govt and her representatives both home and abroad.

in a lawless society there is no crime.
even if any of Nigeria dailies writes about this brouhaha, nothing will be done to checkmate it.

I was treated nice in the embassy i got my E passport with 60 euros within a week, i have no bad experience in madrid embassy