Travelling Around Nigeria : (A Personal Experience)
So on the 14th of December 2015, I had this feeling that I have forever had since the very first day I moved to England, coincidentally on the 14th of June 2010. This feeling was one of nostalgia that I couldn’t explain. I simply refer to this feeling as the I Miss Lagos feeling. It’s the feeling that does not discriminate and no matter the level of luxury or sadness you experience while you live in England, this I Miss Lagos feeling will always creep in once in awhile.Now at that point, it was almost over 2 years since I last visited Nigeria and during my time in England, I was one those kids that never really got visited while at university. I parted ways with my family and the rest was done over the phone.
Now in London where I live, I live a pretty much comfortable life by London standards. I possess good physical health, have a flat in Zone 3, run my own business which takes good care of me as I do it, have a pretty active social life and keep a healthy circle of friends.
However, this still never stopped that I Miss Lagos feeling from creeping in. At this point I will abbreviate the I Miss Lagos feeling as the IML feeling or simply use the phrase feeling IML. So I hopped on a plane and decided it was time to go back to my own country. I did have a lot written down on what I wanted to achieve like learning about the Nigerian IT world, meeting new great people and influencers, catching up with old friends and also travelling more around the world especially in my own country.
Landing In Lagos
I landed in Lagos and adjusted to my new schedule. I was still working remotely so I used the CCHUB as a workspace. I learnt about White House food Bukka (Street restaurant) and also Afropolitan, which was an event that happened every 3rd friday of the week and attracted young people at Marina in the heart of Lagos. They have this great roasted fish and plantain which you have to try.
I also got to hang out with some new & old friends where we went to a resort in Lekki, lagos called Lekki Leisure Lake. This was a really nice place to relax and unwind and suits the active person as there is a beach as well as a small lake with activities like Jet Skiing, Paddle Boating, Quad Biking and many more. Its good to see that a lot more leisure activity centres are popping up in Lagos especially water sports.
I did not have to wait long for my first trip after safely landing in Nigeria as I had to fly to Kaduna to go see my mother who lives there. My parents don't live together so while my family lives in Lagos, my beautiful mother lives in the city of Kaduna in the north-western part of Nigeria. My 3 sisters and my half-sister also kind of all got married there so family galore there. I was excited to see my mum and sisters but also really looking forward to meeting my 4 nieces and nephew as the last time I was in Nigeria, I only had 2 Nieces.
Getting To Kaduna
I got the MM2 airport in Lagos hoping to catch a flight to Kaduna and on getting there I was told the flight was cancelled. I then got a refund and booked a flight to the next closest city Abuja. I got to Abuja checked into a hotel thanks to Jovago (you really should use this) and spent the night in Abuja.
The very next morning I had my uncle who lives in Abuja drive me to Kaduna. The trip from Abuja to Kaduna takes just over 2 hours at peak times and the road network is pretty good by Nigerian standards. I got there and stayed over at my mum’s, got to see my sisters and on my penultimate day, I took the nieces to a children playground called Bambinos. The story about Bambinos is actually a funny one. Apparently, anytime my sister’s kids started acting naughty, she would look them in the eye and say hey, “you better act right else uncle Sani won’t take you to Bambinos”. Poor kids believed so when they finally met me, I kind of had to just take them to Bambinos. Well done big sis well done. I then got a lift by my dad’s driver who brought me to Abuja where I spent some days before I flew to Lagos.
Trip to Anambra
After my Abuja-Kaduna trip, I had already planned my next destination which was Anambra. I had been invited to Nnamdi Azikiwe University to run a workshop on mobile applications to the students. I was pretty psyched about this opportunity. First this was a big university in Nigeria so I was always going to say yes. Secondly I had never been to the eastern part of Nigeria so I was really keen to explore a new part of my country plus I heard the ladies from Anambra were the prettiest so hey a single full blooded Nigerian young man would naturally get excited. Lastly it was an opportunity to travel as Anambra did not have an Airport so you either had to go Via Asaba in Delta state or via Enugu. I chose the latter with the hope of using the earlier route for my return. So I woke up very early and left my house around 5am to go to the airport. I got an Air Peace flight and when we boarded I was astonished to hear them speak the Igbo language for a second greeting. The Igbo language is spoken by majority of the eastern Nigerians as their native language and I really found this very interesting and something I would encourage.
Enugu To Anambra
So we got to Enugu and I had to get a taxi to Awka. My word are the taxis in Enugu expensive. Maybe they could tell I was a visitor and took advantage of that but then I am a Lagos boy, you would have to be super street smart to really rob me like that man. I had to shell out between 6–8 thousand naira to get to Awka. The trip to Awka should ideally take around 30 mins but because the main highway has not been fixed due to negligence, we had to take a longer path that took around one hour. Before I got t Anambra, I had people whisper to me about how the roads in the Eastern part of Nigeria can be really bad and although the longer route we took was pretty good, the shorter route was in a very disgraceful state for a major interstate road.
By the time we got to Enugu, we linked back to the same road we avoided and I could see the very bad state. One part was very much gone and both sides of traffic had to manage on single side of the road and the other direction was un-drivable. Again I used Jovago to book myself a hotel near the university called Milatel and it was a pretty darn got hotel with everything and staff were so nice. I also had the pleasure of patronising a hotel that belonged to my friend’s dad called Finotel. Hotel business in the eastern part of Nigeria is very lucrative as every corner there was a hotel and not just some next cheap hotel but a really nice fully equipped one. Also there was a trend where a lot of the Hotels seems to be named with the TEL post fix in their name. Milatel, Finotel etc.
On Friday after my programme ended, I noticed something, there was a good appetite for the Christian faith in the east. Like if Jesus wanted to build a house in Nigeria, it would be in the east. The church was at the centre of the lives of people and I had to even go to a mass to invite more people prior to our event. People invited me to their various churches and I had to kindly decline since I was Muslim but the general attitude to the Christian faith was just lush. I really found that very great. My tour guide and friend also decided that we should go to a native village in Awka south on the same Friday night as the programme ended to actually eat some Bush Meat.
Adventure, Night Parole, well of course I was going to say yes. We got a bike to the village nearby and even told him to sit and get a drink while he waited for us. We had some really good bushmeat gotten from Grass cutter and wow it tasted really nice. In fact, the general scene of the eastern Nigeria had really great tasting food. The pepper soup had good seasoning, the plantains OMG are lovely and everything was tasty. I extended my trip and decided to leave on the Monday after as I my programme was so successful people wanted me to meet the VC yes you read right I’m that much a badass haha. So the weekend was pretty much free for me and it was also valentine's weekend with Sunday being valentines. So on the Saturday, my tour guide decided to show me the night life of Nnamdi Azikiwe. We took a tour round town and I’m not going to get into details but let’s just see there is much to see at night in Awka. Beautiful young women going on a night out with loads of guys on the prowl but all in all it's just your typical student night scene with Testosterone and Oestrogen fuelling a lot that goes on. When my time was up to leave Awka, I was really glad I made the trip. I was unable to get a flight from Asaba so I had to go back to Enugu and fly to Lagos.
My main takeaway from the trip was the amount of love I saw and faith. If you have never been around Nigeria, it is easy to listen to the stereotypes and fall into the pit of ignorance. I was a Northern Nigerian Muslim, and I walked the streets of Awka and all I got was love. Surely a trip to do again.
Ogbomosho
So again after I got back, I was invited to run another IT programme in Ogbomosho at the CMapit hub. Of course I said yes and I had my 2008 Sienna XLE all fixed up and got on the road one very morning as I couldn’t fly to Ogbomosho since it had no Airport. Also it was only a 4-hour drive so why not. The plan was to get to Ibadan, pick up my friend and head to Ogbomosho. This also meant travelling via the notorious Lagos Ibadan Express way. Believe you me I had to nothing but my car, my instincts and Google Maps to guide me. It actually worked pretty well but it wasn’t updated at all and used the major roads some of which were actually pretty unfinished or bad. Also Google maps doesn’t tell you where the potholes are and that would have really helped. I got to Ibadan picked up my friend. By the way my friend is one of those I know how to drive better than you friend that would not just shut up while you drive but I survived his pain.
I got to Ogbomosho and of course my Jovago booking was awaiting me. However, the special rates did not seem to reflect and I had to pay the normal rates but it’s all good the Hotel was not bad but not super great either. The programme was a 2-day programme Sat & Sunday and after the first day, I asked my friend who once lived in Ogbomosho to show me around. Unknowing to me, he made me go to the road that goes to Ilorin, the capital of Kwara, the state next door.
The Unplanned Trip To Kwara
So I said hey its adventure let’s do it and 30 mins later we were in Ilorin. We went to the the shopping mall to see if we could see a movie or find a nice place to chill. I must say, I saw the most beautiful Yoruba women I have ever seen before no jokes. The Ilorin culture seemed to have a lot of Northern Nigerian influence from the architecture and even the way the people dressed. We were actually sad we had to get back to Ogbomosho. The next day I set off to Ibadan to spend the night after the programme and left for Lagos the day after. The Ogbomosho & Kwara trip was much fun, I got to see a different part of the north being Kwara and got to eat the famous Ogbomosho Amala which is unparalleled. If only they could fix the main express, it would even be a much nicer trip as it would take less time.
The Northern Tour
As my time in Nigeria drew to a close, I had time for one last adventure. This time the plan was to go to Abuja apply for my UK visa and while I waited for it, I would go see my family in Kaduna again and then go to Bauchi to see the mother of my dad’s lovely wife and pay a condolence visit to my very good friend that lost his dad. Armed with a BMW X3 and Google maps, I set sail and made camp in Kaduna. There was time for another Bambinos trip with the babies and it was fun. I spent a week in Kaduna and on the day I decided to go to Bauchi from Kaduna, I got sold bad petrol that was mixed with water. Trust the Lagos side of me to go ask for my 10k refund. I had to spend an extra day to fix the car and set sail the next day. I took the route that required me to go through Jos to get to Bauchi.
The road was not the greatest and google maps doesn’t provide you with shortcuts for better roads. I stopped by 3 hours into my journey at a resort called the Saminaka resort to pray and have lunch. There was a mini zoo which I was sure to pass by and take pictures. I then continued and stopped by to take some pictures of some great views 2 hours later in the border town between Jos, Kano & Kaduna.
Kaduna had some great views and Jos even more breath-taking views. On getting to Jos, there was this moment where google maps asked me to turn left for a shortcut, but the problem was there was no left. I did try to go in the bushes and saw some young rural girls that got pretty frightened and maybe thought I was chasing them. I did ask them if there was a road and they said hell no. I then took the normal road and got into Jos. Jos had one problem, a lot of road checkpoints. Like way too many of them. Also the road wasn’t the best. However as soon as you get to Bauchi state, the road is a blessing but watch out for the speed bumps which are placed at the entry point of every village or town. There is a specific road in Bauchi between 2 rocks that is just omg and I actually took pictures while driving at high speed, don’t try that please I am a trained idiot. Once again on entering Bauchi, I had my Jovago booking awaiting me and it was a great choice actually. We decided we were going to go the the famous Yankari Game reserve where wild animals live in the wild but the rain had other plans and we had to cancel our safari.
Highlight
We took a new route and google maps was there to show us. I did stop by to buy roadside potatoes as a gift for my uncle in Jos. If you haven’t tried Jos potatoes, you are missing out. We also stopped for a small fix done on the car which took around a half hour. The Jos road blocks were just too much and yes oh yes we had to Roger one or 2 people, as I was driving a tinted vehicle and even thought I had the paperwork they just wanted to waste our time.
The highlight of my trip was my trip from Bauchi to Abuja via Kafanchan. I was with a travel partner from my friend’s house called Jo that hitchhiked. On our way we saw some breath-taking views especially one view a few kilometres before you get to Manchok.
We were blown away by how beautiful our own Nigeria was. When we got to Kafanchan, I did stop by to pray and I could remember seeing a diverse market with Yoruba’s, Igbos and Hausas co existing. It was beautiful and this is what you would see when you travel. People in Nigeria love each other and yes there are some trouble makers but there are more good people. We got to Abuja around 7:30 pm making it around a 7.5-hour trip including stops and repairs.
I got to do so much in this trip yet I had so much more undone. My advice to you all is travel more within Nigeria. It is a beautiful place. We need to patronise our own country or else who will? It is beautiful and when I return I will do more. Peace
