It has been almost a 2 years in Nigeria now. And yes, almost 2 years since I posted on this blog. And yet, it feels so much like yesterday. Even though it feels like a rather short while, I have seen and experienced quite a few interesting things in this Nigerian tenure.
Just for the starters, in the past 24 months, I have had the opportunity to travel to almost every major city in Nigeria and interacted with hundreds of the friendliest people of this country, witnessed the launch of 4 new products by the company I was working for, organized music concerts and to top it all, visited 4 other countries: Kenya, France, Switzerland and Tanzania (will talk about that in another new blog I am starting to post about all my travels).
My work required me to travel quite a bit across Nigeria. The country can be roughly divided into 3 main language zones (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba). The Yoruba zone consists of the commercial capital of the country: Lagos. My stay in this country was based out of this mega-city. Lagos is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and probably one of the 3 most important cities in Africa.
Lagos has a lot to offer to those who love parties and nightlife. Although I am not much of a party person, I did enjoy the initial outings in Lagos. Alcohol and cigarettes are pretty cheap here compared to most other countries I have seen or read about so far. So, you can drink away your weekends merrily so that you can be ambushed by the mundane Monday mornings.
Apart from the nightclubs, I didn't find much to explore here, except for the Lekki conservation center (about 1.5 km trail in the middle of the "jungle") where you can spot a few reptiles, monkeys and birds. The tree-house is particularly good. When you go to Lekki, you might as well visit the Lekki market to collect a few memoribilia in the form of coins, key-chains, local handicrafts and carpetry. Outside Lagos, in the southwest there are a couple of other places you might want to visit if you are the outdoors kind (Abeokuta for Olumo Rocks, and Oyo National Park). For a chilled weekend, you might as well try IITA in Ibadan.
The Yoruba people seem to be the most carefree people of the country. They dance to beats of King Sunny Ade, Fela Kutti, P-Square and Rihanna all the same. Come rain, come sunshine, come hunger or good times, you will find people smiling here and happily living in small houses. I have rarely found people to be impolite here.
My job required me to spend a part of my time in the local open markets. At first I thought these markets are crazy. One could find every type of FMCG product here. The markets are mainly dominated by women. Almost all the shops in open markets are run by women. Apart from the women, there are the infamous area boys (refer to wikipedia, my advise: just pay them a few thousand Naira and get rid of them asap). These open markets are the lifeblood of the FMCG business in Nigeria. Every retailer, major buyer comes to these places.
While at work, I also travelled to the outskirts in Lagos: Badagry and Epe. While Bagadry boasts of the best palm wine in Nigeria, Epe can appease you if you have a taste for fresh water fish. Don't miss out on these tasty mid-afternoon meals sitting beside the calm waters of the lagoon.
Apart from Lagos, I really enjoyed visiting Abuja and Jos. Abuja must be the best city to live in within Nigeria. It has all the comforts of a well planned city and none of the hassles you face in Lagos. It is also the capital of Nigeria (for those who don't know). Jos is about 2 hours drive from Abuja and is probably the prettiest city in terms of the terrain and weather. If not for the riots and christian-muslim conflicts here, Jos would have been a pretty good place to live in.
Kaduna, Kano and further north of Nigeria is where you find the Hausas. The Hausas are muslims and the Hausa regions are the most conservative in Nigeria. I have been to many residential areas here. The living conditions are not very good here and most people are extremely poor. But they do manage to survive pretty decently in the dry, arid conditions. This is only region in Nigeria where you can see camels (in case it fascinates you.. ;>). The funny thing about these guys is that they love hindi movies. But they are about 20 years behind the present day bollywood and the movie viewing centers still play old flicks of Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. I think the latest movie poster I saw was of some Sunil Shetty movie of the nineties.
Further down south towards the rivers, you will start seeing more greenery. It is quite a contrast to the desert-ish regions of the north. Be a bit more careful when you visit the south-east towards Port Harcourt and the other cities. Traveling by road after 5 pm is a strict no-no. The highest number of kidnappings and killings occur in the east, it is said. But none-the-less, I truly enjoyed the trips down to Calabar, Uyo, Enugu and all the way down to Makurdi. It is rumoured that along one of those roads towards Uyo, you will find the only cannibal tribe of Nigeria. (But don't worry.. they apparently don't like the taste of "white" men.)
Of course, apart from the canibals there are the Igbos of the east. They are the best businessmen of the country. Apparently, an Igbo could sell his mother for a profit. I don't know if it is true, but I found the Igbos to be the smartest of the lot in terms of business. The Igbos like to be associated with the best of everything and they try to maintain a high esteem amongst their community. One of the interesting facts worth mentioning about this place is the sight of women riding motorcycles in Onitsha. Onitsha is probably the only place where one would find women riding motorcycles. The story goes that no man is worthy enough to marry if he cannot provide his wife with a vehicle to carry her to do the grocery shopping. Hence, every man in Onitsha has to provide his wife with a motor-bike when he marries her. (And in India, people burn their wives for dowry.. tsk tsk)
Overall, there are a lot of good things to be experienced in this wonderful country and a reasonable number of bad things to be avoided. For instance, armed robberies (narrowly escaped once). You've got to be very careful when you go out and should avoid long stretches of deserted streets. But like I always do, I will only blame the government for this.
The government has invested loads of money into building roads, but there are un-ending traffic jams every day. There are no good hospitals or doctors. There is no education system in Nigeria that assures good grooming for higher education or technical education. The skill levels of Nigerians are extremely poor and there is a generic lack of any desire whatsoever to work without being told to. In fact, the only skills that people seem to be very serious about here are dancing, making music and football. Corruption brews like the early morning tea in every street and climbs along with the sun as the day progresses. One might get really frustrated here at times. But if you can take a chill pill and just enjoy the beautiful lagoons and heart-thumping nightlife, Nigeria would probably be a cool place for you to work for a while. I really enjoyed the 2 years here.
Now that I am leaving this place, I look back and wish that I could stay a while longer, just to listen to afrobeat on one of those log sojourns in the traffic, or to go for the casual drink and fish pepper soup to the local restaurants. But, like Morisson says, "This is the end..", I have to part ways with Nigeria now..
Adios!
Just for the starters, in the past 24 months, I have had the opportunity to travel to almost every major city in Nigeria and interacted with hundreds of the friendliest people of this country, witnessed the launch of 4 new products by the company I was working for, organized music concerts and to top it all, visited 4 other countries: Kenya, France, Switzerland and Tanzania (will talk about that in another new blog I am starting to post about all my travels).
My work required me to travel quite a bit across Nigeria. The country can be roughly divided into 3 main language zones (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba). The Yoruba zone consists of the commercial capital of the country: Lagos. My stay in this country was based out of this mega-city. Lagos is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and probably one of the 3 most important cities in Africa.
Lagos has a lot to offer to those who love parties and nightlife. Although I am not much of a party person, I did enjoy the initial outings in Lagos. Alcohol and cigarettes are pretty cheap here compared to most other countries I have seen or read about so far. So, you can drink away your weekends merrily so that you can be ambushed by the mundane Monday mornings.
Apart from the nightclubs, I didn't find much to explore here, except for the Lekki conservation center (about 1.5 km trail in the middle of the "jungle") where you can spot a few reptiles, monkeys and birds. The tree-house is particularly good. When you go to Lekki, you might as well visit the Lekki market to collect a few memoribilia in the form of coins, key-chains, local handicrafts and carpetry. Outside Lagos, in the southwest there are a couple of other places you might want to visit if you are the outdoors kind (Abeokuta for Olumo Rocks, and Oyo National Park). For a chilled weekend, you might as well try IITA in Ibadan.
The Yoruba people seem to be the most carefree people of the country. They dance to beats of King Sunny Ade, Fela Kutti, P-Square and Rihanna all the same. Come rain, come sunshine, come hunger or good times, you will find people smiling here and happily living in small houses. I have rarely found people to be impolite here.
My job required me to spend a part of my time in the local open markets. At first I thought these markets are crazy. One could find every type of FMCG product here. The markets are mainly dominated by women. Almost all the shops in open markets are run by women. Apart from the women, there are the infamous area boys (refer to wikipedia, my advise: just pay them a few thousand Naira and get rid of them asap). These open markets are the lifeblood of the FMCG business in Nigeria. Every retailer, major buyer comes to these places.
While at work, I also travelled to the outskirts in Lagos: Badagry and Epe. While Bagadry boasts of the best palm wine in Nigeria, Epe can appease you if you have a taste for fresh water fish. Don't miss out on these tasty mid-afternoon meals sitting beside the calm waters of the lagoon.
Apart from Lagos, I really enjoyed visiting Abuja and Jos. Abuja must be the best city to live in within Nigeria. It has all the comforts of a well planned city and none of the hassles you face in Lagos. It is also the capital of Nigeria (for those who don't know). Jos is about 2 hours drive from Abuja and is probably the prettiest city in terms of the terrain and weather. If not for the riots and christian-muslim conflicts here, Jos would have been a pretty good place to live in.
Kaduna, Kano and further north of Nigeria is where you find the Hausas. The Hausas are muslims and the Hausa regions are the most conservative in Nigeria. I have been to many residential areas here. The living conditions are not very good here and most people are extremely poor. But they do manage to survive pretty decently in the dry, arid conditions. This is only region in Nigeria where you can see camels (in case it fascinates you.. ;>). The funny thing about these guys is that they love hindi movies. But they are about 20 years behind the present day bollywood and the movie viewing centers still play old flicks of Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. I think the latest movie poster I saw was of some Sunil Shetty movie of the nineties.
Further down south towards the rivers, you will start seeing more greenery. It is quite a contrast to the desert-ish regions of the north. Be a bit more careful when you visit the south-east towards Port Harcourt and the other cities. Traveling by road after 5 pm is a strict no-no. The highest number of kidnappings and killings occur in the east, it is said. But none-the-less, I truly enjoyed the trips down to Calabar, Uyo, Enugu and all the way down to Makurdi. It is rumoured that along one of those roads towards Uyo, you will find the only cannibal tribe of Nigeria. (But don't worry.. they apparently don't like the taste of "white" men.)
Of course, apart from the canibals there are the Igbos of the east. They are the best businessmen of the country. Apparently, an Igbo could sell his mother for a profit. I don't know if it is true, but I found the Igbos to be the smartest of the lot in terms of business. The Igbos like to be associated with the best of everything and they try to maintain a high esteem amongst their community. One of the interesting facts worth mentioning about this place is the sight of women riding motorcycles in Onitsha. Onitsha is probably the only place where one would find women riding motorcycles. The story goes that no man is worthy enough to marry if he cannot provide his wife with a vehicle to carry her to do the grocery shopping. Hence, every man in Onitsha has to provide his wife with a motor-bike when he marries her. (And in India, people burn their wives for dowry.. tsk tsk)
Overall, there are a lot of good things to be experienced in this wonderful country and a reasonable number of bad things to be avoided. For instance, armed robberies (narrowly escaped once). You've got to be very careful when you go out and should avoid long stretches of deserted streets. But like I always do, I will only blame the government for this.
The government has invested loads of money into building roads, but there are un-ending traffic jams every day. There are no good hospitals or doctors. There is no education system in Nigeria that assures good grooming for higher education or technical education. The skill levels of Nigerians are extremely poor and there is a generic lack of any desire whatsoever to work without being told to. In fact, the only skills that people seem to be very serious about here are dancing, making music and football. Corruption brews like the early morning tea in every street and climbs along with the sun as the day progresses. One might get really frustrated here at times. But if you can take a chill pill and just enjoy the beautiful lagoons and heart-thumping nightlife, Nigeria would probably be a cool place for you to work for a while. I really enjoyed the 2 years here.
Now that I am leaving this place, I look back and wish that I could stay a while longer, just to listen to afrobeat on one of those log sojourns in the traffic, or to go for the casual drink and fish pepper soup to the local restaurants. But, like Morisson says, "This is the end..", I have to part ways with Nigeria now..
Adios!
