Ilorin, Nigeria — In September 2021, when Akpos Malafakumo walked into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) office in Yenagoa, Bayelsa, to apply for a new passport, she had no idea it would take 10 months to get it.
After filling the forms, an officer there told her to pay 70,000 naira ($175) for an expedited passport or wait six weeks – like others. “Six weeks sounded like a reasonable time to me so I paid 45,000 naira [$113] because I was not in a hurry to get the passport,” the 25-year-old told Al Jazeera.
