This Is Nigeria!

Clear blue skies, dazzling sunshine, lush tropical vegetation, groves of banana trees, branches laden with heavy mangoes, blue grey lagoon waters – wondrous beauties of nature, which never cease to captivate. This is Nigeria, the most populous African country, that has not attracted tourists as a holiday destination nor is it featured in the ‘1001 Places to See Before You Die’.

Glass faceted buildings, a cacophony of sounds, jostling crowds, a mayhem of cars and yellow damfo buses, hand-pushed carts loaded with cartons of all sorts of tradable goods, children playing in the streets, open-stalls selling  fragrant suya chicken, and vendors selling ‘talk’ cards. This is also Nigeria, the business centre of Africa, with sprawling cities like the wildly growing Lagos, where millions of naira exchanges hands in cash, loud billboards sell instant noodles and milk powder, market stalls generate turnovers of some thousands of cartons and millionaires have been created. It has a pulsating beat and a pull that has been hard to resist over the past decades...