To be perfectly honest I was not looking forward to the trip through Nigeria. I wanted to get there, get the Visa’s we needed and then get to the border. You hear all the stories of murder, robbery, syringe full of blood supposedly infected with AIDS thrust through the window of a car to make the occupant hand over everything they own and various other nightmarish tales. Now of course as in most cases these need to be taken with a pinch of salt and usually I’m good at that, but I do have to admit that I entered Nigeria with a very negative view and expecting everyone to try and rob me and relieve me of everything I own. After going through Nigeria (granted only four nights) I must whole heartedly apologise for this opinion. I was completely blow away buy the place and the warmth and kindness I was show by everyone I met there. Now we may have been lucky and have been blessed with a string of nice people, but I don’t think so. Here is how the trip went.
I took the night bus from Wa to Accra Thursday night and then met up with Krista and Jude and spent the night at Jude’s place. At 6:00 we arrived at the bus station and hopped a bus heading directly to Lagos in Nigeria. The bus left at around 8:00 and the trip was an easy one. Crossed into Togo and Benin with no problem, just bought our Visa’s at the border which is not a problem, the Nigerian Visa we had obtained. Crossing the border into Nigeria was no issue and soon we found ourselves in Nigeria, it was around 18:00 so the sun was setting. The short distance from the border to Lagos took forever as there was a check point to check papers, luggage and to get a little something for the officer’s trouble. The corruption stereotype of Nigeria seems to be well earned and a lot of money changed hands from the driver to let us pass through the unending line of police checkpoints.
Lagos is the largest city in Africa, 15 million in population according to my Lonely Planet from 2007, even larger than Cairo. The city started and just seemed to keep going as the bus crawled its way into its heart. It made every other city look tame and peaceful, people, cars and motorbikes filled every place I looked and showed no signs of thinning. We arrived at the bus terminal at around 21:30 and stepped out into a world I was fully excepting to be hostile. We had no place to stay and so finding one was first on the agenda, this usually is a pain, especially in a city you don’t know, with a new currency, a skin colour that instantly makes taxi fares shot up and tales of theft and murder in the back of your mind. So, I can tell you I didn’t know where to start and I was about to have my first encounter to shake my preconceptions about Nigeria.
We stood at the bus depot not knowing where to go so I decided to ask a guy who was on the same mini-bus as us. He was a young guy probably about my age and when I asked him about a hotel he said there was one just next door and he could walk me there, I left my bag with Krista and Jude and had nothing on me (as my mind had already decided that I was going to be robbed, if not by this guy but by another, I mean what was I doing walking round Lagos in the dark). The hotel was basically just next to the depot and we went in and found out the room price, a bit steep so we asked for another and was told there was one about a 5 min walk the other way. My friend said he would walk me and said he would just leave his bag with my friends (this made me relax). We walked to the hotel, dodgy and I did not fancy spending a night there, but it did allow us to find the mini bus depot to Abuja the capital of Nigeria. My friend told me not to go down certain streets we passed at night or in the morning and I was thankful for the info. We went back to meet Krista and Jude with bad news about the hotel, but good news about the bus info. We decided to stay at the other hotel since it was close, we were all tiered and it seemed secure.
Nigeria has something I wish Ghana has, instant noodles being sold on the. Basically, just a packed of noodles with the boiling water and maybe an egg and some veggies, all a dirt-cheap price not much more than you can buy the packet in the store for, profit margins are always razor thin.
We decided to have this and dropped our bags in the hotel. We wanted to thank our friend and offered to buy him noodles, he declined and said he wasn’t helping us to gain anything and he would be alright, he was going to sleep in the bus depot and wait for his bus in the morning. We insisted he take some noodles with us and finally he accepted. We bought him a coke as well and he was instant it was too much as made me share it with him. We ate, drank and talked and then he walked us back to our hotel and said good night. Krista and Jude took the bed and I made a bed on the floor, I was out like a light. Next thing I know its morning and there is a knock on the door, I get up and answer it and it’s our friend making sure we are getting up to go and catch the bus. This was my first experience of such kindness and I was blown away.
We headed to the bus depot, bought our tickets and waited as the mini-bus filled up. We had our first little hiccup as for whatever reason (eat, tiredness, hunger) Jude had a bit of a dizzy spell and collapsed in the park lot and hit his head leaving him with a bleeding abrasion. Well we cleaned it up and he started to feel better, so we decided to still catch the bus. So, the bus headed out on the way to Abuja which we were told would take about 10 hours. This was about all I saw of Lagos, a bus ride in and out through the bustle of traffic and people and passed the chaos that is Lagos.
The bus ride to Abuja was quite nice; Nigeria is not a bad looking country with a wide variety of natural scenery from forests to grassland and flat planes to mountains. We crossed over the Niger River which was huge; this is a river I hope to see again in Mali on the way to Timbuktu later in the year. It was an enjoyable trip, not too much different then traveling through Ghana.
We reached Abuja in the evening, it started out like any other African city with the various ramshackle buildings and people selling all manner of things on the side of the road and then suddenly we were in a European or North American city with huge modern buildings, a modern road system with all the modern amenities and a lack of people. We got a taxi to the cheapest option in the guide book, but unfortunately since the book was published (last year) the price had skyrocketed. Since we were going to stay two nights and had already stayed out of our price range the night before we had hoped to find a suitable cheap option, thus began my second experience of Nigerian hospitality.
We were standing outside the hotel discussing what to do when a man approached us, a big tale guy probably in his late thirties early forties. His name was Kingsley and he asked if there was anything he could help us with. I explained we were looking for a hotel, to which he replied that we were standing in front of one, I replied that it was too expensive to which he laughed, I don’t think they are used to white people complaining about the price, especially of a hotel which if we were not backpacking would be quite acceptable. He explained his friend was staying at another hotel about a 10-minute walk from here and he could take us, his friend was just getting credit next door. We met his friend and decided to go with them, we walked and talked and found a bit out about them and their business, they seemed to be in IT and University recruitment.
On the walk they directed us down a side alley between two buildings, now we didn’t feel entirely happy about this and asked if we could go around, they said yes but it will take longer, I think they got the impression we were a bit nervous and said it was very quick and there were people around. We agreed in the end and passed through quickly and without incident, they in no way hurt that we had basically said we didn’t trust them, more understanding than anything. They hotel was perfect, and again there was a place next door to grab a bite to eat, we had noodles again. Everything worked out once again because of the kindness of a stranger and I was again taken back,
The next day we headed off in search of Visa’s; I had decided to head to Chad for a few days while Krista and Jude were heading straight for Cameroon. Getting the Chad visa was the easiest visa I have ever got. I was invited to meet the vice ambassador and he was quite happy I had decided to visit his country and said it was fine for me to get a Visa, so I sat while they stamped my passport and filled the visa out and chatted, the whole process took about one hour. Krista and Jude got their Cameroonian visa without trouble; I decided to get mine in Chad.
We spent the rest of the day walking around central Abuja, which if it wasn’t so hot and had so many palm trees and Africans you would think you were in North America or Europe. Huge modern hotels, manicured spotless grounds, an amazing road system and large office blocks. There was also the National Mosque and National Church, two huge buildings about 1km from each other and I can only assume are the same size and their towers being the same height. The country is very much split between the Northern Muslims and Southern Christian populations, so no favouritism can be shown. It was a city, very much different than the other African Capitals I have seen. We ended up running in to Kingsley again as we were walking to the bank and Cameroonian Embassy. He was surprised we were walking and said he would pay for a taxi for us, we declined but accepted his offer to see his office and after he had been driver drop us at the bank then take us to the Embassy, again floored.
The next morning was another long trip from Abuja to Maiduguri in the north near the border with Cameroon. Again, another interesting trip, the scenery was losing its colour and turning the standard brown colour of the dry parched interior of Africa. Forests gave way to grasslands and the mud huts started to appear. We Arrived without incident in about 12 hours and were able to hope another bus to the border town of Banki which was Two hours down a bad dusty road, in fact it was the only bad road I saw in Nigeria.
We arrived at Banki in the evening and ran into the border guards who again showed such helpfulness and showed us straight to a hotel that was perfect and again asked for nothing in return. The hotel proprietor walked us to a place to get food and then sent someone to bring some beer back to the hotel was us.
Had a good night’s rest before I got up at 6:00 to say goodbye to Krista and Jude and head for Chad, we had planned to meet up in a northern town in Cameroon about four days later. So, I walked to the border and waited for the customs officers to finish eating and then filled out the required forms, and so began the enjoyment and confusion of my first name, from this point on my passport got passed around to every officer to see that I had the same name as the country, took a bit longer but I was instantly accepted and had no issues at any crossings. So, there I was in Cameroon, but I will pick up the story in the next post.
A couple things I wanted to touch on about Nigeria, the first is Oil, blessing or curse it is hard to decided since it has cause so much fighting and so much money has been siphoned away to private accounts to make the rich richer while the wealth gap widens. Nigeria is plentiful in it and I have never passed so many petrol/gas stations and tankers in my life, some stretches you could pass as many as 10 stations in a short 2 kilometres stretch. With many being privately owned stations with interesting names and of course the standard chains. This means a lot of petrol needs to be moved around so an army of tankers exists to move the black gold around; some buses full of jerry cans also crawl across the country as well.
Nigeria is a big country and aside from oil a lot of things need to get places, so roads are important. The Nigeria roads are the finest I have been on in Africa; proper four lane expressways ran through a lot of the country and except for a few places the cars scream along at 120km.
In Ghana there are tro-tro, basically minivans that seat 19 people plus any luggage, farm animals, crops and anything else that needs to be moved. These are usually vans whose best days are far behind them and are usually not the most comfortable. There is a transport union that brings them all together to leave and arrive from the same stations usually in a city, the vans are owned by individuals. Nigeria was our introduction to the minibus travel company. Basically, the same type of vehicles, usually in a lot nicer shape, with air-conditioning usually, but owned by a company so you had various choices as they usually serviced the same routes. It seemed like a good system since the buses seemed better maintained and if one broke down there was one to replace it and promoted competition, so price varied, and some companies had larger seats or provided a meal like chicken and rice. The same style of travel companies is found throughout Cameroon and Gabon as well. I think I will end this post now as it is far too long.
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