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The Nigerian Police Report saga
Since the introduction of the Spanish law that foreigners from most part of the world living in Spain has to submit a valid criminal case report from their Country of origin, before soliciting for the Spanish Residence Permit. The Nigerian citizens received the hardest hit as it is very difficult to process the said document without being present in person to legalise it at the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria. Many Nigerians far over due for their Residence permit in Spain face the set back of their lives as the Police report saga continue to handicap their dreams.
What exactly is this Police Report all about? Does the Nigerian people really needs this as a proof for criminal case of their past life in Nigeria? Does the average Nigerian citizen even have a record with any Nigerian Authority? Which data base of record are the Nigerian Police going to extract this records from?. These are the many funny questions that pop out of the Nigerian minds. The Police Report issue seems to many as an inevitable obstacle which they must surmount to move ahead in life. One have to wonder if the trouble this inevitable obstacle causes really justify the means.
The Nigerian Embassy in Spain has in recent times brought Police Experts from Nigeria to Spain to carry out the finger printing exercise for the police report documents. The materialization of this idea was a super plus to the Nigerian Embassy in Spain. But the procedure which the exercise has been carried out has called attention to either the incompetency of the present cabinets in office or their lack of citizenship or feelings toward their fellow Nigerians in Spain, as others would put it. Just as many has been blessed by the effort, many has been prone to pain by it.
The processing time factor is the greatest flaw, no matter how the Embassy authority and the police will try to explain it; one chance in a whole calendar year is not enough. They comes once in every year to take the finger prints, use about 4 to 5 months to deliver. It would have been manageable if every candidate that participated would get their own at the time of delivering, NEVER! Typical Nigerian issue, several people will not get their own, despite the fact that every one of them had paid 160 euro each for the said document, that is 34,575.00 naira as at the time of writing this article. Those that did not get their own will have to deal with the hostility of some of the Embassy´s Staff on the issue, as the Embassy will not give them any reason to what has happened or what they are going to do about their case. Some of the Staffs will even threatening to refund their money if they ever complain before them. The only lifeline for these people is to wait till the next fingerprint exercise, which automatically mean they will wait for one whole year again before they can process their Residence permit in Spain. Many whom has been overdue for Spanish Residence, but because of the incompetency of the Nigerian Embassy, falls in these group that could not get their Police report on time to process their stay here in Spain, has been controlled by the Spanish police, Given ultimatum to live this land, fined or even deported.
The way some of the Embassy Staffs treats Nigerians in Spain at the Embassy territory makes you wonder if they ever know what it is to be a diplomatic officer. Maybe they were never meant to understand that the Nigerian Embassy in Spain is the only true legal ground for a Nigerian citizen here in Spain, it is like a home from home. Some of them even want to be treated like god for rendering services that is duly theirs to render. They see themselves like a special rescue squad dispatched to save Nigerians in Spain, when actually through their incompetency, they has help to even destroy many by facilitating their deportation. They have tried to make Nigerians feel like without them there would have been no Nigerian survivor in Spain; when they actually failed to understand the fact that; had there been no Nigerian here in Spain, the Embassy of Nigeria would have no need to exist in Spain.
So many believe the Spanish Authority and Police treats Nigerians here in Spain more like criminals compare to foreigners from other Country largely due to the fact that our Embassy here already treat us thus.
Not that the Nigerian Embassy in Spain has not score some good marks, in several other areas they have been outstanding. The Embassy has some very good staff worthy of recommendation who dispatches their services like true ambassadors of Nigeria to Nigerians here in Spain. But likewise there are many who should not have find their way to being a diplomatic officer not to talk of finding their way to Spain to work at the Embassy of Nigeria here. So don´t get me wrong, the Nigerian Embassy has it good side just as it´s bad. But while I am concern about this police report issue here in Spain is because it is truly affecting the many whom have cried and lost their voices, some has even fainted and yet, there is no positive sign that the Embassy is making progress to correct their mistakes; as the third of the three police report that has been produced at the time of this writing, recorded a far greater flaw than the one that was produced before it, which seen more people lost their police report than the one before. Imagine Police report documents meant for a particular state will be dispatched to another state, this I believe was the major reason many people couldn’t´t get theirs. I assumed the Police Authority sent down almost all the Police Report documents, but the Embassy´s inability to sort them out properly led to the lost of many of the said document.
It is a clear indication that on this issue of police report, the Embassy of Nigeria in Spain is not making progress, as the second production of police report which took place in 2009 was better conducted and dispatched than the third which took place in 2010, where many people could not get their own and was not given any clear explanation to what has happened. And at the time of this writing in mid 2011, the Embassy still haven´t done anything about the case of these people. It is very obvious the Embassy is well organized when collecting money for the Police Report exercise, but when it comes to delivering it to the people who paid for it, it now becomes a “you are on you own” issue.
I understand very well that when it comes to Nigerian issues, the days ahead will always be long, as we take longer time to make amendments. But my prayer is, may the Embassy of Nigerian in Spain finally find the spirit to make amends; to dispatch their duties without fear or favour, to have the true spirit of citizenship and finally to respect those they have been called to serve as these are the true qualities of a diplomatic officer.
By: J.B Alohan, Madrid Spain.
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