NATION BUILDING, CROSS BORDER POLITICS AND NATIONAL STEREOTYPES

I was granting a policy-related interview recently when the moderator asked the panel to share their worst travelling experience(s) outside the continent and within the continent. It was a migration policy conversation, and we touched on the strength of passports and cross border discriminations based on single stories and stereotypes. It was not the first time I would have such a conversation, and as someone who reflects deeply, I shared with him two experiences I had never shared in detail.In 2017, I had been invited by my alma mater in South Korea for a workshop. I had two stopovers, one in Ethiopia and the other in Hong Kong. The stopover in Hong Kong remains my biggest travel heartache to date. As we went through passport control, I was called aside with some other Africans by a police officer into a separate room. There were three other police officers in the room. We were two Nigerians there, and after a few questions, they released other travellers from Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. They retained me and another Nigerian grandmother who had come to Hong Kong to take care of her newly born granddaughter.They asked me roughly 25 questions in 5 minutes. Who are you? Can you prove that you are genuinely invited to Korea? Can we call your school in Korea? Who booked your flight? What do you do? Remove your jacket? Can we have all the bank cards on you? Where did you get this passport? How much did you pay for it? Do you have a manager we can call? How many countries have you lived in? Are you planning to go back after this workshop? Let us see all the documents in your bag? Can we have your phone? We need to see your recent communications?.I answered them calmly when I suddenly burst out in anger to challenge them on what I have done to deserve all these violations of my human right?. I was surprised when one of the officers said, and I quote, "We have no trust for the Nigerian passport because it is a country of fraud". I didn't know when I broke down in tears because I had no strength to defend myself anymore. The grandmother stood up and told them to go to hell as she plans to return to Nigeria despite the record showing that she was visiting for the third time in three years. The woman patted me on the shoulder to brace me up. I stood up as well, and I told them that I was returning to Nigeria since their minds are closed to see that I was just a professional travelling for a workshop. Long story short, they eventually allowed us to go. I was not myself throughout this trip. I was broken.In 2019, I was travelling to the UK from Kigali via Ethiopia. While others were passed, I was taken to four different offices where I was questioned and asked many demeaning questions. One officer even asked me where I got the visa, a question to which I asked him to do his job as an immigration officer. While I was waiting to board, they still sent a young lady to collect my passport again, and she made five copies of my data page before she returned my passport to me. Tayo Aina, the Nigerian travel vlogger, shared a similar experience recently, and they even asked him to defecate for them to test if he had drugs in his system. This is Ethiopia, the home of the AU.I watched an interview granted by Chimamanda Adichie where she narrated how she had the chance of taking the American passport a few years ago, but she refused. She described how she now regrets that decision and how she is going to consider collecting it in the new administration. Professor PLO Lumumba was denied entrance to Zambia a few years ago because he spoke the truth to power. Wode Maya, the Ghanian travel vlogger, was deported from Uganda for no reason. These are people telling the African stories beautifully to other parts of the world and yet poorly treated on their continent.It is so sad that we pick a single story about a place, and we amplify it so much that it begins to affect the whole decision-making process. While praying for a great Nigeria and a great Africa, we need a government that speaks, defends and present.The conversation continues...Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU