WebDAV System Administrator's Weblog

Nigeria 2005 Trip: Week 1: "

I've been in Nigeria for almost a week and so far it's been great. I've spent a bunch of time with family and friends, eaten a bunch of stuff I haven't hafd in years and decided I like MTV in Africa better than what we get in the United States. I've also been taking pictures of everyday life which I'll post to the photo album on my Space once I get back.

Below is a random grab bag of impressions I've had during my trip

• The traffic scares me. A lot. When being driven in Lagos & Abuja I tend to clench my fists while expecting we'll be in an accident at any minute. I can't get over the fact that as a teenager I used to be able to drive in this chaos and never had an accident. :)

• The proliferation of mobile phones is insane. There seem to be about half a dozen mobile phone carriers and almost everyone on the streets is carrying one. I was talking to my dad and he said the Nigerian mobile phone market is the second fastest growing in the world after to China. About two years ago when I was last here I saw more people downloading ringtones and texting than I'd seen in Seattle & Redmond, the trend has only continued. I have a bunch of pics of mobile phone ads on the sides of buildings and street hawkers selling pay-as-you-go recharge cards which I'll post once I get back.

• There is now a large local movie & hip hop scene. The movie scene was blowing up just before I left for college but it now seems to have matured quite a bit. It seems we export movies all over Africa. Folks have started calling the Nigerian movie scene 'Nollywood'. There are also a ton of local hip hop acts including one of my high school friends is now a rapper called Big Lo. About a decade ago he and I were part of a rap group called R.I.G. and I still have some of our tracks on my iPod. It's great to see that at least one of us is living our teenage dream of being a famous rap star.

• The newspaper headlines seem to focus exclusively on the goings on of the government & politicians or on tragedies involving loss of life. The contrast between that and the kind of stuff I usually see on the cover of USA Today is striking.

• Inflation is crazy especially in Abuja. Everything seems to cost a couple of hundred or thousands of naira. I still remember when you could get a bottle of Coke or a newspaper for under one naira. Then again, that was about two decades ago.

• There are a lot of billboards about HIV/AIDS prevention in the capital city in Abuja but almost none in Lagos (the former capital and commercial center). I'll try and get some pics of the billboards before I get back.

• Almost every PC I've used so far has been infested with spyware. Except for the Powerbook...

• The London bombings are on people's minds in my social circle. One of my mom's friends lost her only soon in the July 7th attacks. My sister and dad were in London during the first bombing and I was pretty rattled when it happened. It's good to see the British police have caught all the suspects from the second attack. 

• The local airline business seems to be thriving as well. Here's another place where there seems to be at least half a dozen competitors driving down prices. It looks like the government airline, Nigeria Airways, is finally out of commission. Good riddance.

• I miss Nigerian food.

(Via Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life.)

Infographics: "

(Via Timbuktu Chronicles.)

Nigeria's Indigenous Corporate Entrepreneurs: "

(Via Timbuktu Chronicles.)

Systemspecs, Nigeria: "

(Via Timbuktu Chronicles.)

African business in push for trade: "

(Via Timbuktu Chronicles.)

I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my country that turns 43 today (as a post-colonial independent nation).

October the 1st is an emotional day for many Nigerians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. Our country remains a paradox as the excerpts below attest:

The more popular view of Nigerians as a result of the proliferation of 419 scams (the mangled by-product of misdirected intellectual prowess and the boundless depths of greed -- which applies to perpetrators and victims alike).

The Nigerian SCO Connection "I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP ..." [via Be Blogging ]

Funny! But many a truth is told in jest (I think that's how the quote goes); this one is pretty damned poignant.

Unbeknownst to many, there are other views of Nigeria (unfortunately these aren't the norm).

The call for optimism by our president (he doesn't support or condone the 419 nonsense):

President Olusegun Obasanjo urged Nigerians to change their ways and be optimistic about the future as Nigeria marks its 43rd Independence anniversary.  Read on

[via Odili.net � this site desperately needs RSS!]

There is an increasing pool of key high-tech players of Nigerian decent (and nationality) making constructive impact on the high-tech industry (making it less lonely for myself and other Nigerians in the high-tech arena):

Dare Obasanjo is a member of Microsoft's WebData team, which among other things develops the components within the System.Xml and System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework, Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). More of Dare's writings on XML can be found on his Extreme XML column on MSDN.

Uche Ogbuji is a consultant and co-founder of Fourthought Inc., a consulting firm specializing in XML solutions for enterprise knowledge management applications. Fourthought develops 4Suite, the open source platform for XML middleware. Mr. Ogbuji is a Computer Engineer and writer born in Nigeria, living and working in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Website:  http://www.fourthought.com/

Philip Emeagwali , a computer scientist, is one of the fathers of the Internet and a trailblazer in petroleum extraction ," as quoted by CNN . 

Philip leaves all Nigerians with this important message on this special day (key excerpt below):

"Our investments in education and technology will be our legacy to our children. They are investments that will bring the best out of the next generation of Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation."

Happy Birthday dear motherland!

I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my country that turns 43 today (as a post-colonial independent nation).

October the 1st is an emotional day for many Nigerians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. Our country remains a paradox as the excerpts below attest:

The more popular view of Nigerians as a result of the proliferation of 419 scams (the mangled by-product of misdirected intellectual prowess and the boundless depths of greed -- which applies to perpetrators and victims alike).

The Nigerian SCO Connection "I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP ..." [via Be Blogging ]

Funny! But many a truth is told in jest (I think that's how the quote goes); this one is pretty damned poignant.

Unbeknownst to many, there are other views of Nigeria (unfortunately these aren't the norm).

The call for optimism by our president (he doesn't support or condone the 419 nonsense):

President Olusegun Obasanjo urged Nigerians to change their ways and be optimistic about the future as Nigeria marks its 43rd Independence anniversary.  Read on

[via Odili.net � this site desperately needs RSS!]

There is an increasing pool of key high-tech players of Nigerian decent (and nationality) making constructive impact on the high-tech industry (making it less lonely for myself and other Nigerians in the high-tech arena):

Dare Obasanjo is a member of Microsoft's WebData team, which among other things develops the components within the System.Xml and System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework, Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). More of Dare's writings on XML can be found on his Extreme XML column on MSDN.

Uche Ogbuji is a consultant and co-founder of Fourthought Inc., a consulting firm specializing in XML solutions for enterprise knowledge management applications. Fourthought develops 4Suite, the open source platform for XML middleware. Mr. Ogbuji is a Computer Engineer and writer born in Nigeria, living and working in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Website:  http://www.fourthought.com/

Philip Emeagwali , a computer scientist, is one of the fathers of the Internet and a trailblazer in petroleum extraction ," as quoted by CNN . 

Philip leaves all Nigerians with this important message on this special day (key excerpt below):

"Our investments in education and technology will be our legacy to our children. They are investments that will bring the best out of the next generation of Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation."

Happy Birthday dear motherland!

I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my country that turns 43 today (as a post-colonial independent nation).

October the 1st is an emotional day for many Nigerians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. Our country remains a paradox as the excerpts below attest:

The more popular view of Nigerians as a result of the proliferation of 419 scams (the mangled by-product of misdirected intellectual prowess and the boundless depths of greed -- which applies to perpetrators and victims alike).

The Nigerian SCO Connection "I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP ..." [via Be Blogging ]

Funny! But many a truth is told in jest (I think that's how the quote goes); this one is pretty damned poignant.

Unbeknownst to many, there are other views of Nigeria (unfortunately these aren't the norm).

The call for optimism by our president (he doesn't support or condone the 419 nonsense):

President Olusegun Obasanjo urged Nigerians to change their ways and be optimistic about the future as Nigeria marks its 43rd Independence anniversary.  Read on

[via Odili.net � this site desperately needs RSS!]

There is an increasing pool of key high-tech players of Nigerian decent (and nationality) making constructive impact on the high-tech industry (making it less lonely for myself and other Nigerians in the high-tech arena):

Dare Obasanjo is a member of Microsoft's WebData team, which among other things develops the components within the System.Xml and System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework, Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). More of Dare's writings on XML can be found on his Extreme XML column on MSDN.

Uche Ogbuji is a consultant and co-founder of Fourthought Inc., a consulting firm specializing in XML solutions for enterprise knowledge management applications. Fourthought develops 4Suite, the open source platform for XML middleware. Mr. Ogbuji is a Computer Engineer and writer born in Nigeria, living and working in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Website:  http://www.fourthought.com/

Philip Emeagwali , a computer scientist, is one of the fathers of the Internet and a trailblazer in petroleum extraction ," as quoted by CNN . 

Philip leaves all Nigerians with this important message on this special day (key excerpt below):

"Our investments in education and technology will be our legacy to our children. They are investments that will bring the best out of the next generation of Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation."

Happy Birthday dear motherland!

I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my country that turns 43 today (as a post-colonial independent nation).

October the 1st is an emotional day for many Nigerians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. Our country remains a paradox as the excerpts below attest:

The more popular view of Nigerians as a result of the proliferation of 419 scams (the mangled by-product of misdirected intellectual prowess and the boundless depths of greed -- which applies to perpetrators and victims alike).

The Nigerian SCO Connection "I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP ..." [via Be Blogging ]

Funny! But many a truth is told in jest (I think that's how the quote goes); this one is pretty damned poignant.

Unbeknownst to many, there are other views of Nigeria (unfortunately these aren't the norm).

The call for optimism by our president (he doesn't support or condone the 419 nonsense):

President Olusegun Obasanjo urged Nigerians to change their ways and be optimistic about the future as Nigeria marks its 43rd Independence anniversary.  Read on

[via Odili.net � this site desperately needs RSS!]

There is an increasing pool of key high-tech players of Nigerian decent (and nationality) making constructive impact on the high-tech industry (making it less lonely for myself and other Nigerians in the high-tech arena):

Dare Obasanjo is a member of Microsoft's WebData team, which among other things develops the components within the System.Xml and System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework, Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). More of Dare's writings on XML can be found on his Extreme XML column on MSDN.

Uche Ogbuji is a consultant and co-founder of Fourthought Inc., a consulting firm specializing in XML solutions for enterprise knowledge management applications. Fourthought develops 4Suite, the open source platform for XML middleware. Mr. Ogbuji is a Computer Engineer and writer born in Nigeria, living and working in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Website:  http://www.fourthought.com/

Philip Emeagwali , a computer scientist, is one of the fathers of the Internet and a trailblazer in petroleum extraction ," as quoted by CNN . 

Philip leaves all Nigerians with this important message on this special day (key excerpt below):

"Our investments in education and technology will be our legacy to our children. They are investments that will bring the best out of the next generation of Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation."

Happy Birthday dear motherland!