Category: Saturday Magazine

Dubai, the paradise in the gulf desert, has become a kind of a second home to many Nigerians. Thanks to the liberal visa regime by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), thousands of Nigerians troop there daily for business, leisure and conferences. Like any other country that Nigerians found themselves in, the normal character trait of Nigerians: loudness in everything they do.

Outside the Nigerian tourist visitors, thousands of Nigerians permanently live in Dubai, most especially the Deira area. One would see them in every corner doing one form of business or the other.

Because of these, many business organizations in Dubai have come to see Nigerians as an easy source of making money and as such ambush Nigerians arriving Dubai with juicy mouth- watering proposals all in a bid to rob the naive of their money.

Early last month, on arrival at the Dubai International Airport, I was ambushed by one of these groups. As early as about 3:00am, Dubai time, when we arrived, these groups were at their stands at the airport. One of them, Emirates Vacation Club, approached me, offering a desert safari, a dhow cruise and a city tour of Dubai, all for free.

But I was expected to do a simple thing in return-come  for a tour of their hotel facility and that then I will be entitled to any of these gifts. I had had an experience of desert safari, even though I’ve not gone on a city tour of Dubai.

I had salivated at the idea of going on a dhow cruise. The dhows are traditional boats that ply the Dubai water that separates the Bur Dubai area from the Deira. In my other trips to Dubai, I had often seen them at night in their shining lights, cruising on the water and one could hear the oriental music playing as those on board dined. I wanted to experience it. So, I filled the form given to me and promised to call them after securing a mobile phone line to fix an appointment. I did that, but the story changed.

After my initial contact with the person that introduced me to the programme, I was handed over to a lady who told me she was from Mauritius, and kept on calling my her brother. It was no longer a tour of the hotel, but I was supposed to sit down for a one-and-half-hour presentation at their headquarters located at Sheik Zayed Road.

Even though that was not the initial agreement as I was only told of a tour of a hotel, I decided to play along instead of losing the chance to go on a dhow cruise.

I arrived at their office, I think, on the 21st floor of the skyscraper and my ‘lecturer’ was a Nigerian who decided to migrate from London to Dubia after his schooling. I was made very comfortable, offered good refreshment and so on.

Then, down to business. The person making the presentation asked me some questions on my vacation habit, where I had travelled to for vacation and the average cost of my family vacation annually. He told me that Emirates Vacation Club had an offer me whereby I would be part owner of their hotel, Emirates Hotels, for 97 years.

Breaking it down further, he said the Emirates Vacation Club would be selling to people part ownership of their hotel. With the payment of S35,000 dollars, one would be a part owner of the hotel and free to spend a one-week vacation annually at the hotel. The deal would be for 97 years.

To reinforce what they were selling, I was taken to the balcony and shown the tall Emirates Hotel that they were selling out. I was supposed to go and inspect the hotel. But it was not the S35,000 dollars deal that they were offering me, the club was even ready to given a discount if I could pay cash there and then. In other words, if I could cough up the cash there and then, I would be given a discount which would reduce the total amount I was to pay to about 25,000 dollars.

Around me were many other individuals and couples being sold the same idea and being urged to make a commitment.

Unfortunately for my ‘lecturer’, I was not having up to 700 dollars, and I did not intend to part with it. So, I came up with an idea. I told the vacation club staff that I was interested in the deal, and I was ready to invest in the hotel property.

But I told him I wanted to go back to my hotel and think through the offer. The amount involved was huge, and, as a policy, I didn’t make on the spot commitment without going to think over it. He was not satisfied.

He started re-explaining the whole concept to me, asking if there was anything he was supposed to explain or any area that I didn’t understand. I told him no, that it was my personal policy not to make on the spot commitment without having time to think it over.

When he discovered I was not bringing out a cheque book to make a commitment,he went in and called his chain-smoking immediate supervisor who said he was from Lebanon. He came and started all over again, all in a bid to get a firm commitment from me. He told me he was familiar with Lagos, and when I asked him where he stayed in Lagos, he replied Banana Island. I stuck to my gun.

He then threw the last dice. He told me that he would want to help me and that what would happen was that even if I was not having up to the amount that they were demanding, I should just deposit whatever I had and he would talk to his management to give me a weaver. That did not move me.

That was when they knew that I was what, in the Nigerian parlance, we would call bad market. Reluctantly, they gave up on me and told me to go to the reception to wait so that my gift voucher would be prepared. That was what I was after. The Emirates Vacation Club was so disappointed with my no-show. I later collected my gift voucher and left.

Of course, I went for the dhow cruise, but that is a story for another day.

Emirates Vacation Club and others like them that many Nigerians see at the Dubai International Airport are legitimate travel organizations, operating in Dubai doing legitimate business, but Nigerian travellers should be weary of their aggressive marketing drive in their effort to sell.

Nobody would be arrested or penalised for not entering into a deal he is not comfortable with in Dubai, but breaching a validly entered agreement may attract sanctions, hence the need not to allow these marketers to force one to make commitments one is not pleasantly disposed to.

For visitors to Dubai, there are many mouth-watering offers, but one should always bear it in mind that these are shrewd business- men who want to make profits.

In my own case, all sides kept to the agreement. I was to attend a presentation for my prize. I did and I was given the prize. There was no clause that I must make a commitment. When going for that deal or freebie that looks harmless in Dubai, one must have it at the back of one’s mind that there is no free launch in Dubai.