A month in Nigeria

It has been over a month since I came to Nigeria. Life did not give me any hints until last year that Nigeria could be on the list. Coming from where I came from this was not even a remote possibility and no one (Paul the octopus included) could ever have predicted that I would watch the 2010 FIFA world cup in a room on Bonny Island in the middle of the Atlantic. But in the end I did. And I am not complaining, no, actually quite the contrary. I am in fact delighted that i got some new company and a very charged up atmosphere which made the games far more enjoyable than they would have been back home. And then of course Ghana was the icing on the cake.

Nigeria has turned out to be quite an experience (this one I am sure anyone could have predicted). Though it is not the usual experience of being charmed by the great architecture or scenic beauty or daredevil stunts or anything like that which are more characterstic of the West. This is an experience in  People. It is about ignorance. About the sheer enormity of the imagination of the human mind and his relentless pursuit of it. For instance the place where I am posting this blog from can only be reached by very few means of transport (read two) under tight security. Every single piece of metal, every single pebble and all the necessities of life have been brought onto this island from outside. 

The sheer scale of operations and that of the problems that plague them is astronomical. Any sane man would be intimidated by the prospect of building something like this. But then not all men are sane and thats why the world progresses. Not everyone things about where his next bread will come from but they are more interested in finding the next opportunity which would stretch the mankind to its limits and then a bit more. And in the shadow of such men the mankind takes giant strides. 

Back to people and ignorance. Never before have I felt so misled and misguided by the conventional wisdom of my elders. All that they thought they knew or told me about the people in Africa is not only incorrect but so venemously incorrect that those who could be found guilty of propagating such thoughts should be convicted. Here are some of the best people that I have ever met. If you think Indians are hospitable then you need to come down here and meet the Nigerians. In welcoming the guests they are second to none. In their darkest hours they are driven by hope. In a world made by God and so hopelessly biased against them they hail the glory of God. I have met people who in their mid-forties are still nurturing dreams of becoming engineers and putting such hard work into it that sometimes I almost feel ashamed of myself. And all this with a sense of great humility.

As soon as you step into this country there is one phrase which you will hear almost as often as you would see a new face. 'You are welcome'. And over a period of time I have developed my own response to it. 'Well, thank you very much I indeed feel very welcome'. And I do.

Yes there are problems. But they are not the problems because of the people here. They might be the victims but certainly not the perpetuators. I will delve into the economic issues of Nigeria in some other post for now it should suffice to reproduce a line from a Nigerian advert "Good people great nation"