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.)