ALEX KABBA TRAVELOGUE COLUMN
WHAT I SAW IN NIGERIA
BY ALEX OKIEMUTE KABBA
THE
last time I visited Nigeria, my country of birth, in 2006, kidnapping
was yet to be in the lexicon.So it was with understandably alarmed
friends and family, who pointed out the danger. I brushed them off,
saying that things are always bad in the news than they appear to be
from the distance of living in New York City.I was determined to make
the Nigeria trip to give the final honor to a benevolent uncle, Elder
Okoro Ayoro, who died in the summer and was been buried November 21,
2010. I quickly found out that my Nigerian passport has expired two
years before. Dutifully, yours sincerely went to the Nigerian consulate
in NYC to get my new passport, which they now call the ECOWAS
Passport.The issuance process went without a hitch. Having gotten the
passport complete with photograph and biometrics complete with
photograph and biometrics (finger prints), I called Pastor Franklin
Alao, owner of Sola Travel in the Bronx, NY to prepare an economy ticket
for me for ARIK Air direct flight to Lagos. After the purchase,
following some negotiations, ARIK upgraded my economy ticket to first
class going and Economy coming back to see the various services on offer
by the premier Nigerian-owned ARIK airline, which picked up the pieces
of the direct flight to Lagos from New York experience pioneered by
South African airways and World Airways / Rite time Airways.Remember
them ?I boarded the Arik Air flight to Lagos from JFK Airport in New
York at 10 p:m (local time ) November 16, 2010. As a first class
traveller, I was given a pass to use the VIP lounge jointly shared by
airlines at the JFK airport.The boarding itself was orderly as I was
ushered into the well-appointed cabins of the premier class. As the
plane departed, I settled into my seat, which is made to change into a
bed at the touch of a button. I tried not to enjoy the constant
attention of the airline's flight attendants, hovering over me and
catering to every whim that I may fancy. Mid flight, I ventured to the
economy class. While there were about five passengers in the first
class, including a pastor of the Deeper Life Church, Bronx, NY who shall
remain nameless, the economy class was one quarter filled. This enabled
the passengers to have a roomful to relax and sleep on four empty
seats.Back to my sleep, my mind was full of what to expect in Nigeria,
after four years absence. I remember thinking, only Nigeria leaves her
soldiers on the field after the war! the war to get democracy going in
Nigeria, that is. Those who fought and died for it are left/stranded
spread across Europe and the USA. The victory of democracy having come
to Nigeria, but alas it was the conservative branch of the military,
though in civilian garb, who took over power. These bunch led by the
unpopular and brutish former dictator turned President of Nigeria,
simply carried on as if nothing has changed. What is change when many of
those officials, whom we battled are still the ones calling the shots
from all levels of government, except for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
ex-governor of Lagos state a fighter for democracy in the streets of
Nigeria, in New York city, Washington DC and Chicago when it was
dangerous to do so. But I digress.Back to the ARIK flight. Since there
was not stout, I took Stella Artois beer and watch the comedic giggles
on the tech-heavy TV screen of the airline. In about eleven hours, we
arrived Lagos in board daylight. It was about 1:38 pm local time ! What a
perfect timing! No night arrival common with flights originating from
New York, going to Europe and finally Lagos, at night straight into the
hands of bandits, armed robbers and yes, kidnappers.We cleared
immigration but waited for up to thirty minutes before our luggage
arrived on the conveyor belts. My companies of friends and family called
my American AT&T number (which I roamed in Nigeria, without getting
a local number). Ceaselessly as I waited for my luggage. At the
customs, the officials waved me through without going my luggage.Then,
gbam! I got out to the beautiful Lagos sunshine, hot but beautiful . A
journalist friend of mine and my wife's sister and the husband came to
welcome me. Less I forget, the uncle of a fellow congregant at the
Christ Apostolic Church, First in the Americas, Brooklyn, NY also came
to welcome me to collect the medicinal sent by the brother in New York.
Unfortunately , I later heard that the uncle for which the medication
was meant for passed. My friend drove me straight to the Lagos Airport
hotel on Obafemi Awolowo way, Ikeja, where I spent the night . But the
road from the Murtala Mohammed airport in Ikeja to the hotel, a distance
of about five miles took about one hour, 30 minutes. It is called "go
slow" in Lagos. A night at the hotel is Naira 29,000 ( with Naira 35,000
deposit) which my friend paid.The Lagos airport hotel is owned by the
Oodua group of companies . The room, mine was luxury suite (standard
cost Naira 20,000) are entered with magnetic-stripes card keys. My
friend who picked me up, who shall be called X for the purpose of this
article, went back to his office, while I searched for a car at the
Hotel to take me to see an old friend, T at Festac . I don't want to
bore you with the traffic snarl from Ikeja to Festac and the expensive
cab ride there. When I got to the guest house where I met T, a larger
than life cat fish roasted in our presence was brought in, which we
downed with stout. (I am not going to mention the brand name because
they have not been supportive of the Nigerian Diaspora in the USA). But
the make of the stout has changed. Not the one we used to drink before,
my fleeing Nigerian military thugs and goggled dictators to the
USA.
IMPORTED BRIDES AND THEIR PAINS
At the guest
house, young ladies from the age of nineteen to twenty one paraded the
grounds and the front of the guest house. I was told that they are
mostly University students looking to make a living using the world's
oldest profession, prostitution. Now, my mind raced to my fellow
Nigerian Diaspora in the USA, who rush back to Nigeria to marry their
'innocent' bride, whom they hardly know. Stories abound that majority of
the adolescent girls of University and working age are as sexually
active as those in the United States. So one wonders, why the preference
for these 'imports' who may change and become the 'boss' of the husband
once they get to the United states?There so many sad stories of
imported wives and imported husbands gone bad, that in hindsight many
are now confessing that it is better to marry the Nigerian-American girl
friends or boy friends, who is already used to the ways of America and
will not cost you between $8,000 and 12,000 for wedding, passport and
visas processing for them to relocate to the USA to join you. I heard
two painful stories of imported spouses that went awry. I will state
them here. The first one, a New Yorker who shall remain nameless went to
Nigeria imported his bride and waited at the JFK airport on the
appointed day of her arrival. He waited all day, even when the flight
arrived, the bride was a no-show. In panic, the New Yorker rushed home
to call Nigeria about the missing bride, who "was not in the plane!" The
families back home assured him, that the 'import' was in the ;plane' as
they saw her board the plane in Lagos. Later the New Yorker learnt that
the teary-eyed bride on whom he spent a small fortune of $20,000 to
marry and get her to America, simply took a connecting flight to Boston
to meet her long-lost boyfriend whom she 'truly love!' such a
heart-break !In the second story, a Washingtonian whose imported bride
got 'lost' in transit, a few years back got the shock of his life when
he went to Chicago for a celebrity baby christening. During the party,
the cockholded Washingtonian Nigerian found out that the woman doing the
baby-christening was the same bride, who never arrived at Reagan
National Airport having taken another connecting flight to live with her
love in the windy city of Chicago.Now I have deviated far from course,
because a lot of readers are very interested in those who will abandon
their lovers hare to go and marry strangers in Nigeria.T told me that
the Yankee boys ( that is how they call Nigerians living in USA) visit
home to marry their remnants! He said that there is so much money and so
much poverty in Nigeria, the tides have changed for the guys who have
the money in terms of "purchasing" girls, be they are students in
higher institutions or even working class ladies. "If you want to sleep
with two, three of them at the same time, you can have them, so long as
you have the money." 'Said Mr .T.He said that unlike in America, where
young teen to adolescent girls will not date older man, in Nigeria, the
men, no matter how old only date young ladies, who are under twenty
five. "If a lady crosses thirty here, most hip guys in Nigeria are no
longer interested in such ladies, " Mr . T. confided.Lame duck TV and
Radio stationsBack to my Travel report. After my talks with T with beer,
roasted fish and pepper soup, ( No girls please!), I returned to the
Lagos airport hotel to call it a day. One thing I noticed in all the
places I visited in Lagos was that most of the TV stations being watched
are European sports stations or American CNN International. There is
hardly any place showing local TV stations. I did manage to watch
channels and NTA Stations. Channel is more independent. Watching NTA
still operating like the way TV Stations were in the Old Soviet Union
dishing out official fiction and spins, no wonder Nigerians turned them
out for the foreign ones. If you ask me, I will advise that all
government-owned and operated TV and Radio Stations should be
privatized. They are not able to compete and their news and programming
are too politically correct to interest listeners and
viewers.
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