This week I was in Lagos, the main port city of Nigeria, for work reasons - apparently not many people are there just for holiday! Before I left for this trip I was told by some of the people that I work for that Nigeria is "Africa with a Capital A". As opposed to The Gambia, a few countries to the west of Nigeria, where the company has also done a lot of work and is described as "Africa for Beginners". So arriving in Nigeria I was already expecting to find myself outside of my comfort zone. Back to the blog...
In good African tradition, I think this blog is best written in story format:
Story 1 - An Introduction
Lagos is a city of around 8 to 15 million people, depending on which website you decide to click on. But even that is just a guess because of the constant flow of people into the city and the near impossible task of keeping track of all of them. But what ever the number, Lagos is constantly increasing in size and is expected to be in the top 5 cities in the world in terms of population by 2015. With such a large population the problems that are most obvious are over-crowding and a lack of infrastructure. Best way to get around this? Create jobs for 10 to 20 people that would normally be done by 1 or 2 people. For instance I had my boarding ticket, passport and baggage checked by no fewer than 12 people when leaving Lagos.
At check in:
Person 1 - check that I have a booking
Person 2 - check that I don't have suspicious articles in my check-in luggage
Person 3 - check my booking details and issue a boarding pass and takes my check-in luggage
At passport control:
Person 4 - check that I have a boarding pass and can proceed to security check
Person 5 - check that I have filled in a country departure form
Person 6 - check that I have the necessary visa and provides the exit stamp
At security:
Person 7 - check that my passport has been stamped so that I can proceed to the metal detector and x-ray machine
Person 8 - body search, even though the metal detector did not bleep
Person 9 - check my carry-on luggage even though it was cleared by the x-ray machine operator
At the gate:
Person 10 - checks my passport
Person 11 - checks my boarding ticket
Person 12 - checks my carry-on luggage
And now you are ready to fly!
A view of Lagos from the waterside
Story 2 - Okada
So Lagos is over-crowded and has a shortage of infrastructure. This means that the best way to get around is on a motor-bike, or at least on someone else's motorbike. An Okada is a commercial motorbike. You can either catch an Okada from a type of taxi rank for Okadas, or you can just wave one down in traffic. Officially an Okada driver is only allowed one passenger at a time. Unofficially the only limitation is whatever the driver can fit on the bike. Sometimes this is two passengers. Sometimes it is a passenger carrying a 2m long box above their head. And sometimes it is a passenger with livestock. Nobody wears a helmet and to be a truly competitive Okada driver you have to have mastered the art of weaving between traffic and dodging potholes while hooting every 10 seconds and using one hand to tell vehicle drivers what you think of them.
The Okada - guaranteed to make anyone into a nervous backseat driver.
An Okada driver with his two passengers
Story 3 - The outskirts of Lagos
On one of the days in Lagos we managed to get a bit out of the main city. The city has sprawled so much that you really do need to drive at least 60 to 70 kilometers before you get into the quieter outer suburbs. The trip out of the city is best described as noisy - everybody is constantly hooting - with crowded streets and drivers having to do their best to avoid potholes. People often joke about driving along roads with potholes as big as cars. I now know what they mean. On more than one occasion we drove into a pothole and a few seconds later drove out of it. Since drainage is not existent, the potholes are also mostly filled with water which makes guessing the depth of the pothole an art. And then of course most roads don't have road markings. It really is a case of trying to fit as many cars on the road as possible and road markings would just be a waste of paint.
Traffic - this is actually one of the best parts of the road that we travelled on.
The way back from our day out was far more interesting. Although we were quite some distance from the Nigerian border, we were stopped by immigration control. Passports! was all the uniformed man on the side of the road said. Unfortunately I didn't have mine with me. A huge mistake in hindsight. Realising that they had us in a precarious situation we were asked to get out of the vehicle and to step into the chief immigration control officers office. He asked where we were from and what we were doing. After the usual official type questions he got down to business. "So, this place that you have been to. Did you show good favour to the locals?". Of course we answered with a confident Yes! "Well then maybe you can show some favour here then?". At this point we played stupid. And we played it well. If he was going to make us pay money to be able to leave, he would have to say it out loud. He was obviously not too keen on doing this and we eventually all agreed that a can of coke would ensure that we could depart without any further problems. We definitely got off cheaply that time.
The rest of the trip we saw customs control check points, police check points, army check points, road safety check points and some that we didn't quite know what they were.
The trip also took us some 4 hours to complete. The 4 hours were spent watching taxi drivers fight on the side of the road, convincing hawkers that we didn't need a new toilet brush or a dozen peeled oranges, watching the Okada in action, and taking in the sights of the informal markets along the road. Unfortunately photo opportunities were rare as people will quickly look for a reason to demand money from you and if you are found taking a photo of them then there is no escape.
A side street
But maybe next time I will find a way to be a bit smarter about taking photos without being noticed. The only problem is that being one of the only white people in the area automatically makes you stick out.
Story 4 - Hanging out with Fishermen
On the outskirts of Lagos we came across a quaint fishing village. The fishing boats were made out of hollowed out trees and any thing else that would help to keep the water out. The side of the boat has a section that sticks out for installing an outboard motor.
Palm tree and a fishing vessel.
There are a huge number of palm trees in the area and in a few places we came across 'palm wine' which you could have served with 'bush meat'. Maybe next time.
The people were generally friendly and were quite keen to have a chat. Although this usually ended with a "what do you have for me?".
One of the local fisherman that was keen to have a chat but even more keen to have his photo taken.
Story 5 - The left over bits
Whilst in Lagos we also managed to get a tour of one of the container terminals. We were quite fortunate in that the port had a Wafmax vessel in port. The Wafmax vessel is the largest vessel that the port can accommodate and can carry up to 4,500 containers. We took a chance and tried to see if we could get a tour of the vessel. Unfortunately the tour wasn't allowed, but we did manage to get up on to the side of the vessel and watch the containers being loaded.
View of the port from the vessel
A view along the quay wall.
Lagos is loud! The city keeps you on your toes as there are people looking for an opportunity to make money everywhere you go - often through corrupt means. But mostly it is full of people trying to make a living and get on with their daily lives. If ever you find yourself in Lagos, all I recommend is going in with an open mind and heaps of patience. And maybe some good ideas on how to take photos without looking like a tourist - I know I could use that advice.
No comments:
Post a Comment