First visit to Nigeria: Part 1

I guess I was in Nigeria at a pretty interesting time.

It was December-January so the Christian community who are generally Igbo and Yoruba were busy preparing for the celebrations. The roads were full of more "go-slow"s than normal as Igbo people generally flock to Igboland in the East of the country to visit their families and homes and Yoruba people to the West I guess.

Most of the people who wanted to meet me, were living in the East.  However, there have been a number kidnappings of foreign nationals in many areas.  It seems that this tactic has been adopted by some groups in the Delta states due to residents being enraged by the destruction of their land and livelihoods by oil companies.  Kidnapping for ransom not only brings international attention to the problem but also pays pretty well.  That doesn't mean that I condone kidnapping, but I can understand the people's resentment of oil companies at least.  Unfortunately, it seems that others have followed suit for less political and more financial reasons; seeing an easy way to get rich quick.  It seems unlikely that a kidnapping would be possible though, if I was only there for a short time and moved around a lot.  It seems to me (and others that wanted me to go to the East) that something like that would take a bit more organization and planning to be carried out effectively. . .but oh well, hopefully next time it will work out.

We ran away from Lagos on the 24^th by bus to Abuja to escape the festivities.  Very few people were going to Abuja so we couldn't get a coach bus, only a small van-bus thing.  There was a lot of traffic leaving Lagos;  we were stuck in a “go-slow” for 4 hours before even getting out of Lagos!  We left around 7am and didn't get to Abuja until 10pm.  Interesting note about buses in Lagos (and Abuja and maybe many Christian dominant parts of Nigeria), just as the bus begins to depart someone in the bus will begin a group prayer complete with singing, making sure to pray for our safety and security throughout the trip.  Road accidents and robberies aren't uncommon, so it's understandable that people like to ask for a little more insurance.

The next day we woke up in my boyfriend's brother's house in Abuja.  We went to visit one of their friend's and went to a small outdoor shop to have some Star beer.  The shop was in a market area and there weren't many people around.  It was sunny, dry and dusty, chickens were wandering around and some people were tending to cars or their businesses.  I hadn't heard the news yet, but the atmosphere was tense.  Abuja has a larger proportion of Huasa (who are usually Muslim) people than Lagos and, it being my first time in the country, I wasn't sure how tense the relationship was between Huasa and Igbo people.  Apparently it differs depending on the area, but I had no idea at this point.   It didn't help that I was reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel depicting the civil war.  At one point a Muslim man came over to our table and started talking to the guys in another language that I couldn't understand (they were speaking Igbo before).  When he left I asked them what he said and they told me he had asked if he could join us for lunch.  I knew they were lying.  Their insistence that everything was fine and safe and that Nigeria had no problems, made me uneasy.  We stopped at another house on the way back home where I heard the radio announcer mention a "tragic incident" and "prayers for the families of the victims". . .I asked what was going on, but no one was ready to tell me.  Finally when we got home I asked my boyfriend to tell me the truth and he confessed that they knew that there had been bombings at a church in the neighbouring state.  No one felt that it was anything to worry about for the time being but I preferred to know the truth at least, so I could act appropriately and understand the situation.  The tenseness I felt earlier in the day made sense and I believed that we would be safe for the time in Abuja and have a few days to monitor the situation before heading back.  In fact I was half expecting there to be an attack of some kind on or around Xmas day due to the rising presence of the Boko Haram in the country and the recently elected Igbo president who they seem to be upset by.  It's horrible that so many innocent people are being killed senselessly for their religious beliefs.  I think though that if you look at the pattern of the Boko Haram and their beliefs, one could have easily predicted that something like the Xmas bombings would happen.  It's horrible, but not surprising.

The next day my boyfriend's brother had to leave for a business trip so we had the house to ourselves for a few days.  Since we had had a very stressful week with very little sleep and way too much movement/travel, we took a much needed rest and recovery period.  We watched Nollywood movies, Avatar the last airbender, read books, slept, cooked and washed clothes.  We left the house a few times to visit people and buy groceries from the market but otherwise we just rested.  On January 30th we went back to Lagos for the next great adventure!  Fuel Subsidy Strike!

Part 2                                                                                                                                            Part 3