By
Patrick Ogungbola
MD/ CEO, BLUEHEDGE REALTORS
Another new month is here; the month in which the first day is widely known for lies, tricks, deception and fallacy. Sometimes I wonder why a whole day will be devoted for this evil intention, while no single day in a year is devoted to honesty, truthfulness, and other noble acts of goodness. This is a food for thought, but all the same, we wish you a Happy New Month and Happy Easter Celebration.
January 2018 is gone!
February 2018 is gone!!, and
March 2018 is also gone!!!, Time is fast ticking, but the events that happened in the third month of the year can never be forgotten in a hurry, most especially by this writer.
About 5 years ago, this writer was invited for a programme at Protea Hotel on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. We were told to come along with our spouse – that was a condition precedent. We had no idea of what the programme was all about until we got to the venue. It was towards the end of the event that we knew the mission and purpose of the invitation. Our host was a Travel Agency cum Tourism Company, and we were invited along with several other couple to introduce (or preferably, market) their travel packages to us. We were offered juicy travel packages to go to any country of our choice for 5-year contract period with different subscription plans, the lowest being slightly over a million naira, and the catch was that the payment could be spread for 12 months period. There was also a condition that we had to make the decision right there and then to subscribe, otherwise we will miss certain discounts and bonuses that comes with the packages. Knowing the kind of person that I am, I could simply have walked out of the event as I don’t like to be forced or cajoled to take an irrational decision, but I was a bit ‘handicapped’ here, because my wife accompanied me to the event and she has been completely sold out to their marketing gimmicks and the interesting videos of exciting locations around the world that was shown. At that moment, I knew I had just one choice if I still cherished my peace at home; I did what was obvious – subscribed to one of the plans, and of which the payment must be made in less than one year. As a matter of fact, to show our commitment, we were requested to issue post-dated cheques for the installment periods.
The issued cheques were presented at the due dates and the last cheque was presented for payment around November 2013. Ironically, since then till last year (2017), we found it difficult to create time for vacation. Obviously, vacation trip is different from business trip. It occurred to us that the decision to go for vacation must be deliberate and planned for ahead, most especially if one is a busy type. Upon realizing this, I gave my secretary the herculean task around July last year (2017) to liaise with the travel agency whose office is at Lagos Mainland to ensure our vacation in 2018 becomes a reality. We chose to go to South Africa, and we planned a two-week vacation (A week in Pretoria, and another week in Cape Town).
Between then and the first two months of this year, various arrangements such as accommodation booking and getting the visa required documents had been made. My Secretary made several visits to the office of the travel agency to ensure all visa requirements were met.
We got all required visa documents including letters which served as evidence that my wife works with the Lagos State Government, letters from the kids’ school, yellow fever card, appropriate size of passport photographs, our company’s bank account statement for three months transaction, reference letters from our bank, photocopies of ECOWAS passport data page, properly filled visa forms, and payment of visa processing fees, but to our utmost surprise and bewilderment, we were refused visa by the South Africa High Commission on the ground that we did not submit our personal bank account statement, but only submitted the company account statement (with other documents). It was a very shocking and embarrassing experience. Breaking the ugly news to my wife who deliberately took a month leave of absence from her place of work for the vacation trip was worrisome.
What I couldn’t understand at first was, ‘how would we contract and pay a ‘reputable and experienced’ travel agency to arrange our vacation trip and then, we were still denied visa?’ It is a paradox!!! Well, there’s no point crying over spilt milk, what’s the next step? How could we remedy the situation? Well, personally, I took the situation as a blessing in disguise, as it would provide me with more time and opportunity to face my business much more closely, but this isn’t all about me, it’s also about my family who had longed for a vacation. To remedy the situation, we were advised by our Travel Agency to write a Letter of Appeal to the South Africa High Commission which will be attached to all required documents including the personal bank statements that was requested for.
We had to go through the herculean task of getting fresh documents to be submitted, as the previous ones already submitted were not returned to us. I really commended my wife in this regard who got fresh letters from her place of work and also went to the kids’ school to get new letters of recommendation. We got all the required documents including our personal bank statements, and we went for re-application. When we got to the VFS office at Freedom Way, Lekki Phase One, Lagos (that is, visa form submission office), we met a visa processing officer who went through our application and then emphatically told us that the application will still be rejected because our personal bank account statement is inconsistent as it shows that we quickly funded the account for the purpose of getting visa; he advised that we go home and/ or get another account statement, or we may decide to risk it and forfeit the money paid for visa processing the second time. At that point, we decided to go with his former advice – we returned home.
With the above scenario, I was completely fed up and lost interest in any further attempt. I sent a message to the Travel Agency to express our disappointment on their service as they didn’t live up to the expectation in guiding us appropriately. To defend themselves, they were quick to forward a letter of disclaimer which we signed with them about 5 year ago at the commencement of the contract whereby they disclaimed that it is not their position to process and facilitate visa processing. By their response, action and the event that took place, I learnt the first lesson which is the need to carry out proper due diligence on the choice of a Travel Agency before engaging them – Will they always be there for you whenever and wherever you need them? Will they follow you up through the whole process? Will they take the stress and hassle of getting the travel documents off you?
To cut down on our loss, we enquired from the Travel Agency if the money paid to book the accommodation at the two locations we planned to visit in South Africa could be refunded; and expectedly, we got the obvious response – it cannot be refunded. Hence, we decided to totally forget the nasty experience and move forward with our life.
However, two weeks after, very early in the morning at about 6:00am while preparing for our Monday office general meeting and rehearsing on how to share the experience with my colleagues at the meeting; suddenly, I had a very strong leading and conviction to head straight to the visa submission centre for the submission of the visa application but without attaching the appeal letters and forms, that is, to apply afresh as a first timer. Without much ado, I told my wife to get the kids ready, and dusted our applications and visa requirements which had been lying beside our bed for the past two weeks. We got to the visa application centre in record time and submitted the application.
From the previous experience, it takes about six working days before the result of the application is released. We anticipated a positive outcome of the result, but we were prepared for any result, positive or negative. A week after, when we went to get the result, it was a YES!!! We had been given a 3-month visa to South Africa. We got the result of the visa on March 7, 2018, and the accommodation that had been booked for us at Pretoria (our first vacation destination) was to commence on March 9, 2018; meaning we had just two days to leave, how could this be possible?
The concluding part of this article (that is, Part 2) will shed light on the swift plan for the trip despite the visa approval short notice, the vacation trip experience from Lagos to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and then to Johannesburg in South Africa, as well as places visited (with pictures), South Africa and Nigeria compared, and why Nigeria will still be the preferred investment destination, will be discussed in our next article for the month of May 2018.
But what lessons can we learn from the above experiences. There are many lessons to be learnt in every form of denial, some of these are:
- Developing the ability to handle (the reality of) rejection/ denial and move on with life. The word, ‘reality’ was inserted because rejection and denial are part and parcel of life.
- Delay is not denial, and denial is not final. There will always be light at the end of the tunnel. Just don’t give up, try and try and try again until you win. Do not give up!
- Know exactly what you want; be definite, precise and specific about it. Then, go for it until you achieve it.
- You can achieve whatsoever you lay your heart to achieve if you truly desire it and persist until you get it.
- Always look for different and better ways of achieving desired results. If one method fails, look for other better methods, but in all of these, just don’t give up.
As usual, we want to remind you that we care so much about you, and that when it comes to your real estate investment, we are always here to give you the very best service you can never get elsewhere. That is our promise, and will always be.
We wish you the very best in the month of April 2018.
Thank you.
