Secret Reporters
In what has now become the trademark embarrassment of Nigeria’s consular services abroad, a passport intervention exercise in Birmingham has exposed yet another layer of the rot and negligence that Nigerians in the diaspora are forced to endure. SecretsReporters investigation reveals that the same dysfunction that plagues the Nigerian High Commission in the United States has taken full flight in London, with Birmingham being the latest scene of shame.
On the morning of the so-called “intervention,” Nigerians trooped to the Birmingham centre as early as 4 a.m, many clutching babies and young children in the biting cold. Officials had announced a 9 a.m. kickoff, but like a script from the Nigerian public-service playbook, 9 a.m. passed, 11 a.m. slipped by, and still nothing.
By 12 noon, with the crowd restless and children crying, the officials were nowhere near the venue, until eyewitnesses spotted them drive in, strolling casually toward the centre, laughing and chatting as though they were on a picnic with just one camera, and one computer to process hundreds of applicants.
According to multiple witnesses, these officials who had taken down names the previous day after asking applicants to “come back tomorrow” still returned with no plan, no urgency, and no working system. Instead, they reportedly parked their car, exchanged pleasantries, and behaved like the suffering crowd was an inconvenience.
A Birmingham attendee who had her five-month-old baby with her described the scene as “pure chaos,” insisting that Nigeria “still happens to you even outside Nigeria.”
“They came late, they were relaxed, they were laughing. No urgency. People were begging just to be attended to. Children were crying. It was shameful.”
This is Not New – London Has Been Here Before
SecretsReporters can authoritatively report that this Birmingham disaster is not an isolated incident. London’s High Commission has been battling the same problems for years. With broken biometric machines, barely one or two functional cameras for thousands of applicants, staff turning up late, paper lists replacing proper appointment systems, and endless queues stretching into the streets.
Nigerians have protested at the London High Commission at least twice in recent years, calling the situation “government-sponsored suffering.” With the same playbook of neglect similar from the UK to the US. In Houston, New York, Atlanta, and Washington D.C., Nigerians narrate identical experiences, queues from dawn, officials who come late, system crashes, and biometric kits that fail more than they work.
SecretsReporters has received dozens of similar accounts from interventions in London and US cities, showing that the behaviour is not random but systemic as community groups in the US have even apologized to their members, blaming the Nigerian government for failing to provide modern equipment.
Immigration analysts told SecretsReporters that the real problem is structural as most Nigeria missions still have outdated machines still in circulation, no backup equipment, no logistical planning, poor staff training, and zero accountability.
One expert noted that a single biometric kit cannot process more than 25-35 people per hour, meaning missions equipped with only one or two machines are destined to fail when hundreds arrive.