Nigeria’s Passport Falls to 181st in the World, and Honestly, It Is Still Doing Its Best

The green passport has officially become a very expensive souvenir.

Please, sit down and breathe, because I have news. Nigeria’s passport has dropped to 181st in the world. One hundred and eighty-first. At this point, the ranking is not a position; it is a bus stop number.

Let us explain what this means simply. A good passport opens doors. A strong passport says, “Come in, welcome, would you like tea?” Ours says, “Please show your bank statement, your hotel booking, your return ticket, your childhood photos, and the name of your pastor.” Then it adds, “Come back next week.”

For many Nigerians, the passport is no longer a travel document. It is a very serious ID card for the airport, where we take photographs of it and post “Japa season loading.” That is all it does. It has the confidence of a rich uncle and the access of a security guard who forgot his keys.

Consider Tunde, a man we invented but whom you definitely know. Tunde paid for the passport, paid for the “processing,” paid for the “quick quick,” and paid a cousin of a cousin who “knows somebody.” After eleven months, he finally held the booklet in his hands and cried. Then he looked up where he could visit without a visa, and the list was so short he decided to apply for a visa to his own village.

And the visa process itself deserves an award. You wake up at 4 a.m. You dress like a person with no intention of staying. You smile at an officer who has already decided your fate in the first six seconds. “What is the purpose of your visit?” “Tourism.” “Why?” Sir, because I want to see snow and complain about it online like everybody else.

Meanwhile, the officials say the ranking “does not reflect the true value of the Nigerian.” And they are right. The Nigerian is valuable. The Nigerian is a doctor, an engineer, an artist, a footballer, and a very good spokesperson for jollof rice. The problem is that the passport has been carrying all of that talent on its back, with no help.

Experts recommend simple steps to improve our ranking: stable electricity, working systems, honest institutions, and ordinary respect for citizens. Nobody has tried these yet, so we cannot confirm they work. For now, the safest strategy is to marry someone with a better passport or to pray hard.

Until then, keep your passport safe. It may not take you far, but it makes a very nice bookmark.