On March 4, Alma Asinobi, a travel content creator, announced her intention to break the Guinness World Record (GWR) of being the fastest person to visit all seven continents of the world within 60 hours.

Asinobi adjusted her time to 60 hours from 70 hours after discovering that Johnny Cruz Buckingham, an American, had only recently set the new record at 64 hours.

She planned to do this all with a Nigerian passport, the 91st strongest passport in the world based on the global passport ranking by Henley and Partners.

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She explained that her GWR attempt is to change the stereotype against Nigerian passport holders and to raise awareness about passport privilege.

“This is for everybody who has been pulled aside at the airport for random screening, everyone who has been denied a visa needlessly for flimsy reasons or any unfounded reasons,” she said.

‘This attempt is to raise awareness for passport privilege and the lack of it.”

However, on Sunday, Asinobi announced that she was denied boarding on her flight to Perth, Australia, for the last leg of her trip. She explained that this was due to visa issues, and she was forced to wait for the next flight, causing her to shoot past the challenge time.

“I was just denied boarding on my flight to Perth, Australia, for my final leg of the trip,” she shared.

“Due to visa issues, I was put on standby for confirmation from Australia till boarding closed and the gate agent had to rebook me on the next flight to Australia.

“He asked me to choose between Brisbane and Sydney, and I chose Sydney since it’s the Australian city I’ve always wanted to visit anyway. I was tempted to cancel the flight altogether and just head home to where I’m loved, but I’m not one to start something and not finish. After the flight cancellations, delays and the previous visa issues, it was already cutting it too close, and the goal seemed bleak.”

Meanwhile, Asinobi stated that she would have attempted the challenge earlier but more than half of her visas were denied or approved late.

Following her attempt, many Nigerians have also shared their experiences with visa denial or its complications as a Nigerian passport holder.

HOW DOES PASSPORT PRIVILEGE AFFECT NIGERIANS?

Henley and Partners stated that Nigerian passport holders can only travel to 45 countries in the world without a visa, unlike Nambia, another African country that ranks 61st on the list and allows visa-free access to 80 countries.

This includes the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Thailand, Angola and others.

Being able to access only 45 countries visa-free means that Nigerians would have to go through more rigid policies to secure a visa to most countries of the world.

Fisayo Fosudo, a finance and tech reviewer, shared on Saturday that he was required to complete tons of paperwork for a visa that would only be valid for one week due to his Nigerian passport.

“This is the volume of documents I needed to apply for a visa that would only be valid for one week because of my passport,” he wrote.

Another user, Braimoh Ikpemosi Victoria, shared that she was denied the chance to attend a fully funded tech event in London because her visa was denied. She said the denial was premised on suspicions that she might refuse to return to Nigeria after the event.

“I was awarded a fully funded scholarship to attend a tech event in London, but unfortunately, my visa was denied,” she shared.

“One of the reasons given for the rejection was the concern that I might not return to my country after the event. Now, I have less than 10 days left, while the standard visa processing time is 15 days.”

Oloto Samson, a social media and PR officer, also shared that every time he has a work conference to attend, a freelancer has to cover for him due to delays in visa processing.

“Every time there’s a conference to attend at work, we have to get a freelancer to cover my part of the work because visa application takes time. Last time, my visa was approved two days after the conference finished. It is well.”

Njoku Script, a finance platform co-founder, said he applied in January for a visa he would need in April due to passport privilege. “Heading to France for Paris Blockchain Week…guess when I applied for my visa? January, for an event happening in April. And yet, some still argue that passport privilege isn’t real.”

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To obtain these visas that might be denied, Nigerians have to pay more than twice the application fees.

Asinobi shared that Nigerians would need to pay $560.53, excluding a visa processing fee of $100, to get it processed, while citizens of the United States have to pay only $13.42.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom earned more than $34 million from the 225,000 Nigerian applications processed between June 2023 and June 2024.