How NDLEA and Immigration Officers Forced Me to Pay at Lagos Airport

I recently went through Lagos airport and quickly realised that getting from the terminal to the plane comes with a hidden toll. First, a balding immigration officer asked, “So, what do you have for me?” I’d already paid almost ₦3,000 in small bribes to speed things up, but when my only cash left was a $10 bill, he refused to stamp my passport. He sent me to his “oga” in a striped polo, who grilled me over my visa, hotel reservation, and even how much money I carried. With my flight boarding, I barely got my passport back. At the NDLEA desk, two officers nicknamed Dumbo 1 and Dumbo 2 repeated the routine: “So, what do you have for us?” They even asked about my writing career and crypto before I transferred ₦2,000 to an Opay account just to make my flight. This isn’t street begging—it’s a culture of entitlement that turns every uniform into a personal toll collector. It needs to end.

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