SIR: I dread interacting with Nigerian institutions; the visceral manifestation is that my heart rate increases and a sudden headache appears. My grandmother just passed and I needed to visit Nigeria on a short notice and I didn’t have a valid Nigerian passport.
It was against this backdrop I applied for an Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC) with the Nigeria Consulate, Atlanta office. An ETC allows a Nigerian citizen with an expired, lost or stolen passport to travel to Nigeria and is usually valid for 30 days upon issue for single entry into the country. It was a pleasant surprise when I listened to my voice message and there was a message telling me to reach out to the Nigeria Consulate office regarding my application. I was confused. My application had been mailed on a Monday and I was receiving a call regarding my application two days after.
I can proudly say my interaction with the lady on the other side of the phone was pleasant. She went through great lengths to obtain my mobile number and place a call through to ask me questions on my application. This is something I have come not to expect when dealing with a public facing institution that is related to Nigeria. The easiest thing for her would have been to set my application aside because it lacked clarity on what she required but she took the expected initiative to reach out to the applicant. This is commendable.
There are currently three Nigerian diplomatic missions in the US and these are located in Washington, New York and Atlanta. All three offices have Google review scores of 2,6, 2.6 and 2.3 respectively. This shows that most individuals who interact with Nigeria Consulate offices leave with a foul taste in their mouth and my expectation was no less.
A cursory analysis of the reviews shows lack of communication and customer service as a huge component of the negative reviews. I don’t know if the call I got regarding my application was an active strategy to correct the current narrative or a public servant showing us what good looks like.
Mrs. Bola Davis, thank you changing the narrative.
• Kehinde Olurode is an operations manufacturing expert in the United States and also a Director at Ayekooto Radio.
