Green Card: Actress and PR guru Layole Oyatogun is not happy

Our Green Passport is associated with corruption, embezzlement, fraud, prostitution, drug smuggling. You do not know the full impact of this until you are taking a connecting flight outside the country and you are the only one singled out to be searched and ridiculed out of all the other nationals because your passport is GREEN. Which automatically means you are a fraudster, corrupt government official, prostitute or drug pusher.

Anytime i travel outside the country, I'm always apprehensive because I know what comes with the territory. Can we really blame the world for the perception of us in that light? Of course not! We also have to take responsibility for our actions- corruption lawlessness, greed and many others. On the flip side, a few bad eggs does not make the crate bad. I have come to observe that some Nigerians abroad do not like to claim Nigeria as their home country because of the ill-treatment and punitive actions meted out to them even when innocent, unlike other Africans who claim to be Nigerian when caught in nefarious activities.

We need to do better to wipe the slate clean of the atrocities we are synonymous with. I look forward to a time when our Green Passport would dignify us, protect us, and re-introduce us to the world as a people of honour, and a prosperous nation. 

Long Live Nigeria