My Experience At A Place Called Ogba

Ogba is very popular place in Lagos state, very busy just like every other place in Lagos state. Lagos state should be the busiest and the most populous place in west Africa I think in Africa as a whole. During this period of the omicron coronavirus saga, wearing your face mask is very essential because of the crowd.

When you board a vehicle going to Ogba, usually, you will always stop at a place called Ogba junction. Ogba junction is extremely crowded filled with a lot of people and vehicles moving and everyone trying to get to their destination. One thing you should know about Lagos is everyone is constantly moving, no slow movement because if you move slowly you get hit or tapped by someone behind you trying to get to their destination in time. Your slow movement is hindering their movement which prevents them from getting to their own destination in time, therefore they have to tap you so you can hasten your step.

Ogba is filled with a lot of hustlers trying to make their daily bread,from the market woman selling her perishable items in the market to the people whose business is bureau d’change. The bureau d’change is also known as foreign exchange in Nigeria. They help you exchange your local Naira currency to any foreign currency like dollars, pounds, euro and so on. You see them calling you and asking you if you will like to transact a foreign exchange (Forex)transaction. Sometimes they are persuasive and they cluster at a particular place, they are easily noticeable.

You know the bureau d’change people because they are often the people who came from the northern part of Nigeria. Although Nigerians call all Northerners “Hausa” but they are not all Hausas. All Hausas are Northerners because the Hausa tribe is in the North but not all Northerners are Hausa because the North has varieties of different tribes.

The reason I went to ogba is because of my NIN(National Identification Number). The country decided that its compulsory for everyone to have their NIN in order to get access to some services in the country such as renewing your international passport or trying to buy a new SIM card. Sadly I have never felt the need to get my NIN because I have my international passport and that has been my means of Identification ever since. I didn’t see any need to get my National Identification Number. My international passport will be expiring soon, I need NIN to renew it so I have to go get my NIN.

My house is not far from Ogba, there is an NIN registration center at Ogba. I went there to go and register, after registering I was told the Date of birth on my BVN(Biometric Verification Number) was different from what is on my passport. Apparently they have been a mix up in my date of birth when I was enrolling for my BVN 6 years ago. The date format was mixed up, so I needed to change it. I was told to go to my bank and change it. Preferably the initial bank I registered my BVN with. The bank I use is United Bank Of Africa(UBA), so I had to go there.

The closest UBA bank was in Ikeja, another busy part of Lagos, so I boarded a vehicle and went there. I finally got to UBA and fortunately for me, the queue was very small. Within a short while I was attended to. I met with the customer care and told her what I came there to do, she asked me for my account number and name. I gave her and she told me that I had changed my date of birth to the correct date of birth 7 months ago. I was confused because if the BVN is showing my Date of birth, why are the NIN guys telling me to go change it again.

I decided to go back to Ogba and ask, I showed them the BVN printout showing my correct Date Of Birth. Can you believe that these people said I have to go to their main office at Alausa Ikeja. Alausa is another place in Lagos where you see lots of cooperate offices.

I boarded a vehicle again and went to Alausa, the moment I went inside and saw the queue outside, I got discouraged because I couldn’t afford to stay in this long queue under the hot sun.

I had no other choice, I have to do this, I need the NIN. So I stood on the line and waited. While waiting on the queue a man came out and shouted “if you want to change your name come and collect a number”. I went and told the man that mine is different, I needed to change my Date Of Birth to the correct one, he told me the fees to change my Date Of Birth is $30 and I needed to buy a “change of Date Of Birth Form”. The bomber was when he told me that all Change of Date of Birth are only attended to in the early morning of the day as of 8:00 am. Wow!!! I was so confused and the lady besides me was confused, why will I be standing for this long only to be told to go back home and come back before 8:00am the next morning.

By the time I checked the time, it was passed 1 pm and I haven’t had breakfast. My body was shaky because I needed to eat. I couldn’t imagine taking one more step, I had to try to get to an eatery called “The place” to go eat.