We are actually tired of complaining so we just laugh over things these days, they don’t scare us or surprise us anymore, we do not even get angry about them. We just live life like it’s just the air that matters, actually it’s the air that matters because that’s all we need, to be hopeful.
Yea, I know I said we do not want to complain about the situation anymore, but Nigeria, my country is ever ready to make us go back to our words and we try to paraphrase just so it suits the moment.
It’s really disheartening, and I feel agitated again putting down these words, like how do I explain the fact that we woke up so early, my friends and I, jumped on power bikes at about 6:30 am and drove a distance down to Ibadan all the way from Lagos just to get a test done. Actually, it’s my longest ride and I must say if it was stressful for the one who was pillion then what can I say about the one who rode the bike.
It was a test I could have actually done in Port Harcourt or Lagos but incompetency is a thing in our nation. So I won’t go on to talk about the disappointment on my face when we got to Dubai and saw the gap between Nigeria and Dubai but let’s talk about how we couldn’t find a center on the website for Lagos and Port Harcourt while filling the NCDC link for the covid test which made me choose Abia for my test since it was the closest to me as I was returning back to Port Harcourt, anyways.
To make it short, I didn’t get my test done in Abia, I came back to Lagos because something brought me back so soon. We all decided to use the location in Ibadan that my friends inputted since it was blank for Lagos also. A whole Lagos, funny.
First of all the Ibadan address in the website was wrong and the phone number wasn’t reachable until 14 days after, which is the last day for us to do our test based on the schedule and policy. Again, we were misinformed that we could actually do our test even though we were a few days late from the appointment since we spoke to the customer care at the hospital, the reason we embarked on that journey not knowing that the hospital wanted to extort from us.
You must note, we all paid 39,500 each for us to have this covid test and I actually had to pay again since I was using a different location now which isn’t fair. The first disappointment about the whole covid test banter was that we couldn’t find a place on the website to change location which made me to pay same amount in Ibadan to do my test and secondly, the about us on the website isn’t functioning, like it’s blank and lastly the hospital expected my friends to pay again for missing their appointment in the scheduled day. I don’t have a problem with this but the logic behind it is so irritating.
Here is their logic; we can’t do your test because you are a few days late, the test is supposed to be done within 14 days, but if you pay to this account we are going to run your test and send it to NCDC.
Like what the heck is this? It wasn’t our fault that your number wasn’t reachable and your address wasn’t going through until we called your head office at Abuja. Well, it was a big banter as it didn’t go very well, we were so pissed and disappointment, first of all you guys charged us way higher than what we payed in Dubai and secondly you guys are not even interested in the test and ensuring that people are actually safe but only interested in the money, why couldn’t the test be run at the airport at arrival? Since it was so important and risky to have us around other people.
This made me to question Nigeria again, the damn system and the NCDC isn’t even interested in the well being of people, like you guys already have our data, collected our money why didn’t you call to confirm that the test has been done, since we are all scared of covid, but no, everyone turned off their phones until the deadline so we could pay again. It was a sad morning and a waste of resources and energy for us because the back and forth was just as a result of the missing logic from the bossy lady with her heels who felt like everyone at the clinic looked so small because she kept raising her voice like she was speaking to kids.
We were only trying to be good citizens, which is the reason we went back for our test. We could have just ignored and dammed the consequences but we chose to stress ourselves for a nation that cares less about how we feel and what we do.
A quick one please, what is the question about where are you going to be in the next 21 days when you arrive in Nigeria? While filling the form on NCDC website. This is cunning, we actually assumed that the test could be done within 21 days since they delayed in reaching us. It was just all about the bants today, I hope you grab the message, this is me telling you about our experience and expecting you to do the trolls and criticism yourself, because today is not one of those days I want to say that “Nigeria has failed us” I’m saving it for tomorrow because Nigeria my country never disappoints.
