Travelling out of Nigeria can be herculean. Sometimes, not because
you’ve got your documentation wrong, but the silly profiling officials
at the airport try to make you go through at every desk. Everyone you
meet turns himself into some sort of detective profiling you for drugs
or terrorism, or just to strike a conversation upon which you would be
asked to tip them. Because travellers are usually pressed for time, one
tries to avoid confrontations that would cause delays on any counter.
Workers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja are
particularly notorious for these, subjecting travellers to annoying
profiling.
At the Abuja airport, there is no clear distinction of roles for
officials. The attendant who would screen your bag asks you almost the
same set of questions as the one who would screen your passport or frisk
you before you enter the departure lounge. It appears it is every
official’s job to collect information from the traveller.
Here are some of the most common silly questions I have been asked
repeatedly, especially in Abuja. Most times, these attendants ask these
question with a seriousness that instantly convinces you of the
genuineness and the right to know. I really do not see the reason for
most of these questions. I am usually amused when I hear some of them.
1. Where are you going to?
I suppose every traveller using the airport has a destination written on
their ticket or other travel documents. If the final destination of a
traveller has any use for airport attendants, why don’t they just go
ahead and ask for tickets or boarding passes?
Sometimes you even get this question after you have handed in your
travel documents. The funny thing with this question is that the
officials asking do not intend to document the answers in any way; and
if a traveller gives the wrong answer, they never bother to crosscheck.
Maybe they ask so as to break the ice with you.
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