Life in Lagos, Nigeria: Aaron Rowe

Google Maps Satellite Imagery

2008-02-02T18:54:00.000+01:00

It looks like Google have updated their satellite imagery for Lagos and Abuja. I'm not sure how old the images are but Lagos must be within the last 3 years, just looking at the various developments.

I've put together a map of various sights, take a look. Share anything else you discover in the comments.

Here are some of the highlights.

Abuja - National Assembly

Lagos - Eko Hotel

Lagos - National Theatre

Africa Cup of Nations, Ghana vs Nigeria,

2008-01-29T19:53:00.000+01:00

Nigeria have just scraped through the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations 2008. They are the group B runners up which means they face the Group A Winners, Ghana in the Quarter Finals February 3rd 2008 in Accra.

This evenings game against Benin was very worrying for Nigeria, I feared they were going to "do an England", having lost to Ivory Coast and drawn with Mali they not only needed to win this game, but Mali had to Lose to Ivory Cost, in a game played at the same time today.

The results?

Nigeria won 2 - 0

Ivory Coast won 3 - 0.

I Hope Chxta is happy.

Africa Cup of Nations, Ghana 2008

2008-01-20T17:59:00.000+01:00

I'm happy that BBC are covering the Cup of nations this time around. Even if it is on BBCi. It's the only football tournament I'm interested in these days.

Ghana and Guinea are about to kick off, I hope it's a good tournament for Ghana after the world cup, and of course Nigeria.

If you are in the UK and want to watch the match use the red button on bbc one. or look for channels 301-303 on freeview.

Back later.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T23:07:00.000+01:00

Hey guys,

It's 2008 and I have not left the shores of the United Kingdom in the past year. The issues that have prevented me returning to Nigeria are still ongoing and seem just as close to being resolved as they have been for the past 12 months or so.

I have moved on, I'm working self employed as a consultant engineer at a large IT firm. The work is a little boring, and I am starting to detest driving long distances (400 mile round trips sometimes.)

My OU courses finished well, I didn't get the Distinctions I was after, but had to settle with Grade 2 or 'B' for both courses. I don't know if it was the extra workload with the 90 points instead of 60 that I have done in previous courses, the fact that one of the courses was really difficult for me, or if it is the extra long hours of driving around like a sales rep struggling to hit their target.

I've more or less decided to stick to 60 points for this coming year, but I haven't selected which course yet. I need to choose soon though.

I do plan to update this blog more often with News from Nigeria, but it all depends on the time I have available.

Oh, Great!

2007-07-28T20:35:00.000+01:00

Ex-Governor of Bayelsa State, Alamieyeseigha was sentenced to two years imprisonment for basically stealing everything he could get his hands on while in government. You may remember him as the guy who allegedly escaped police bail in London by dressing as a woman. After two days in prison he has been released.

Old News Update part 3: Chinua Achebe wins MAN booker prize

2007-07-05T14:00:00.000+01:00

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Chimamanda Ngozi Adicie's victory, we hear about Chinua Achebe winning the 2007 MAN booker international prize

I read "Things Fall Apart" last year and I loved it. It's definitely one of those books I will read again, very few make it into that category. I am keen to add some of his other work to my reading list.

BBC, Guardian, Independent pay the story attention, and fellow bloggers also make some comments: Naijablog, Ore's Notes, Blacklooks and Talato-Carmen

Old News Update part 2: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins Orange Broadband prize for fiction

2007-07-05T13:36:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite new authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won the Orange Broadband prize for fiction for her book "Half of a Yellow Sun". I read this book last year and I have to agree it is very good. (story on BBC, Independent)

Chimamanda gave a very interesting interview to the Guardian which is well worth a read.

The story is set during the time of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and portrays a vivid and, I'm told accurate, picture of what life was like for those trapped by the war.

Get it from your favourite bookshop: # ISBN-10: 0007200277, ISBN-13: 978-0007200276

Old News Update part 1 : Umaru Yar'Adua's inauguration

2007-07-05T13:11:00.000+01:00

I have just finished a rather difficult assignment for OU which has been taking up most of my free time the last few weeks. So now I will finally get around to making a few updates which should have been done a while ago.

Yar'Adua Inaugurated as President of Nigeria

If you remember, I made some comments on the Nigerian Election and Yar'Adua's successful bid for the presidency. He has since been sworn in and visited the G8 summit in Germany and made promises to improve the election process.

He has declared his personal assets of $5 Million. He has now decided to form a "Government of National Unity" inviting members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP), Action Congress (AC), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) to join with Yar'Aduas Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form a government... I am sure this will take a lot of effort to sort out.

Meanwhile, there has been a long wait for the government to be formed and it looks like, finally, there will be a government in Nigeria very soon.

I am sure there are plenty of contracts to be signed when they finally get to work.

Update

2007-06-18T17:18:00.000+01:00

Hey

I haven't updated since April, mostly because I've had little to report, and I'm feeling a bit down that I have been out of 9ja over 6 months now.

I've been making notes on some blog posts I'd like to do, and hopefully those will come out over the next few days. I've also been working on the new template for this blog. I've worked out a colour scheme I love, and now I'm just piecing together the CSS file so that everything will look, great. Should be ready any day, given enough free time.

Personally things are looking better for me, I have some work here in the UK. Nothing particularly challenging to be honest, just lots of driving around and lugging computer bits about, but it pays reasonably well. I'm still on the look out for the perfect job.

I have been continuing my OU studies and I have to say T209 is the most difficult course I have done yet. I am not enjoying it, yet I know I am learning some valuable skills in report writing and reading technical documents. I'm also trying to learn speed reading, because of the vast volumes of material I have had to read, but so far I'm not much better. My other course, M256 is going great.

Sad to see some Nigerian bloggers (Nkem and Chrome) have taken the red pill. Let's hope they find their way back here soon.

Nigerian President Elect: Umaru Yar'Adua

2007-04-22T14:42:00.000+01:00

I think everyone is aware now that Umaru Yar'Adua has been confirmed as the President Elect after Elections on Saturday in Nigeria's Presidential Elections.

I don't think we will ever know the full facts of what was going on with all the chaos on Election Day, I just hope that Nigerians can accept this result, and work towards improving things for the next Election in 2011. Jeremy of NaijaBlog has summarised some constructive improvements to the Election procedure which I fully endorse.

From my point of view, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Yar'Adua are very popular in Nigeria. Whether or not this is for the right reasons I cannot judge. It is the responsibility of the opposing party representatives to show the people why they might be wrong, but Nigerian Politics doesn't seem to work that way. If the Election had been transparent, free and fair I believe the same winner would be announced and for that reason I don't believe all of Nigeria is going to take to the streets in protest, but I am ready to be surprised.

It may be Fundamentaly Flawed but Nigeria has Elected a New president and the best thing, in my eyes, is for Nigerians to move forward and embrace this first ever handover of a Civilian Presidency because it is significant progress.

Voting in Lagos

2007-04-15T09:46:00.000+01:00

Chippla Vandu of Chippla's Weblog has posted an outstanding account of one persons heroic effort to vote in the Gubernatorial Elections in Nigeria Yesterday.

Let us hope that the Presidential Elections next saturday (21st April) will go more smoothly.

Guardian UK: Lagos turns on Kickbacks

2007-03-26T10:18:00.000+01:00

The Guardian (UK) has a story in their 'comment is free' section.

It doesn't really add anything new to the news from Nigeria but it's quite a good background piece on the current political climate.

Nigeria and Me.

2007-03-06T14:21:00.000+01:00

I've had a number of comments asking why I'm not back in Nigeria.

Simple fact is that I was Supposed to be starting work on a new project in Nigeria at the beginning of the year but as those of you who have done business in Nigeria will no doubt know, such things very rarely happen on time in Nigeria, especially when elections are due.

I work with a formula, which I'm sure is a re-utterance of many other more enlightened people:

Time to do Business in Nigeria = Time Anticipated * Nigerian Factor

The Nigerian Factor is a concept quite hard to grasp without spending time in Nigeria. In my experience, in this formula it can be expressed as a number between 2 and infinity. The number is proportional to the number of people involved in the contract process with weighting for the political seniority of those involved and inversely proportional to the amount of bribes thrown around. Clearly bribery is out of the question if we want to keep our morals intact, so waiting is what we do.

Unless the miracle happens and a contract is signed I will be sitting here in the UK. I can't wait forever, so I may be making some difficult choices soon.

Meanwhile, I am just submitting my first sets of coursework for my two OU courses for this year, M256: "Software Development with Java" and T209: "Information and Communication Technologies: people and interactions".

Remember this number

2007-02-13T23:26:00.000+01:00

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

It is, apparently, the encryption key required to decrypt HD-DVD and Blu-ray content. Hmmm expect lots of 20GB Torrents soon.

See: How it was done.

Reggae Reggae Sauce

2007-02-12T13:39:00.000+01:00

I know many of my readers are from the UK so this only applies to them.

How many people, after watching Wednesdays Dragons Den are now desperate to try Reggae Reggae Sauce?

'Beth builds a Snowman

2007-02-09T22:34:00.001+01:00

'Beth builds a Snowman, originally uploaded by ajbrowe.

After having a nice 6 or 7 inches of snow we thought we'd make a snowman before it melts.

Super Eagles Defeated By Black Stars

2007-02-06T23:30:00.000+01:00

Nigeria and Ghana played a friendly match in London this evening.

If I'd planned better I could have been there to watch, but I didn't so I hoped to watch it on one of these channels I have on cable... No chance. So I resorted to hunting the web to find the score... And that's Much Harder than you think.

Eventually I tracked down the result on the Ghana FA website. Ghana won 4-1.

Well done Black Stars. Sorry-O Super Eagles.

Flying: Your Patriotic Duty

2007-02-06T19:23:00.000+01:00

I don't know if you have seen the adverts or not, but I thought it was humorous enough to share.

www.unlimited-spurt.org/

Also check out the alternative viewpoint in the copy of the printed ad.

Are there any sensible alternatives for flying to Nigeria?

National Geographic Features an article on the Niger Delta

2007-02-03T18:01:00.000+01:00

Stealing links from other blogs is not a habit I like, but this article in the National Geographic, which came to my attention once again via Jeremy's blog, is worth spreading far and wide. The photos in the photo gallery will stick in my mind next time I fill my tank with Petrol.

Source: National Geographic

As a side note, the company I work for has often been involved in community projects sponsored by the oil companies, some are very successful, others, especially the most recent projects have suffered delays after delays. Mostly because of Political interference as far as we can tell.

Still in the UK

2007-01-21T11:15:00.000+01:00

I'm still in the UK, no confirmed dates for my return yet.

I've spent my time working on a new CMS enabled corporate website for my employer, and in my spare time a new template for this blog, hopefully to include the new blogger features.

Apart from the dreadful Christmas Oil Pipeline Explosion that killed 260 people and the complaints about the ongoing fuel shortages, I haven't heard much from Nigeria. Shamefully I admit I haven't been reading much of the Nigerian press websites

It seems every other blog has jumped in on the "Celebrity" Big Brother Racism row. In my opinion Programmes like Big Brother are good reasons to throw away our televisions, but it seems some people do watch avidly including many Nigerian friends here in the UK. I'm not going to add anything to it myself, except suggest you read Nkem's posts (Bigot Brother, Bigot Brother coverage)

Home for Christmas

2006-12-21T01:00:00.000+01:00

I'm back in the UK for Christmas, Cold, Damp and Foggy, just how Christmas should be IMHO. Lots to do before the day, so I doubt I will be blogging much.

I also have got the results of my two OU exams, as well as the overall course results.

For M255 (Object Oriented Programming with Java) I got 88% in the exam, with my overall coursework mark of 99% gives me a Distinction.

For MT262 (Putting Computer Systems to Work) I got 95%, with my overall coursework mark of 97% also gives me a Distinction.

Oddly before I started the courses I would have said I knew Java better, but perhaps that was a hindrance considering that I achieved a much better score in the C++ exam (MT262) than the Java (M255). It's surely a testament to the OU teaching material anyway.

PHCN/NEPA Pre Payment Meters

2006-12-18T15:14:00.000+01:00

PHCN have recently provided us with a new Meter for our power consumption. This meter is a pre-payment meter meaning we have to purchase credit from the PHCN offices and then enter the code given on the receipt into the meter to get power. A display on the front indicates the kWH remaining for your current credit.

Since installation there are many problems that make this new meter a complete nuisance

The Meter will only indicate what credit remains or allow you to enter more credit when there is power - When there's no credit the only way you can tell there is power is that a zero is shown on the LCD display

If you run out of credit you better hope it's not at night or on a Sunday, the office is closed!

Our consumption seems to be measured much higher on the new system. We will be using test equipment on ours soon to confirm it.

According to some sources we will be paying ₦50,000 for this meter in 24 monthly instalments - We did not ask for this meter, nor were we given a choice so why should we pay? - Also we paid for the old meter too so why were those removed from our premises without permission?

PHCN sent us a ₦7562.10 Power Bill for December after we had the pre-payment meter installed in November!

Bah! This is Shenanigans!

My First Trip: A Retrospective

2006-12-18T14:06:00.000+01:00

I have now published all the diary entries from my first trip to Nigeria in 2000. Looking back through them for me has been an interesting experience, many events I had forgotten, and some of my thoughts surprised me. I only vaguely recognise the person that wrote those notes.

Obviously I had to edit a lot of the details, some things would only be understood by my friends and family in the UK, so I cut those bits out. I removed names of everyone except public people, such as the chap who ran Planet 44.

Things changed quite quickly after those early days, Money was restricted so that we no longer enjoyed late night partying catered for by the company, My pay was set at a level somewhat lower than I was expecting. The same with my per diem. Working with Canadians proved quite difficult with different time zones, having to wait until 9am in Calgary before we could contact anybody which would be 5pm in Lagos, just when we were thinking about going home.

In 2001 I contracted Malaria, just after visiting our Canadian offices at Easter, and suffered with it for over two weeks. This was despite taking the anti-malarial drugs as directed. At that time I hadn't heard of Artemisinin and did not question the doctor giving me quinine based drugs. The drugs certainly shifted the Malaria but gave me terrible itching of the utmost discomfort.

In the end, the project I came to Nigeria to work on failed in 2002. Not because we couldn't do the job, but because we lost a LOT of money in a Bank Fraud, only a small part of which was ever recovered. For 2003 I was working in the UK, until march 2004 when I was called back to Nigeria to work with another company, established by my British colleagues from the old Canadian company. I started work on the project that I am just finishing now. This project too has had it's financial problems but nothing on the scale of that first project.

Basically, to summarise, I think now I do understand life in Nigeria a bit more, I feel more like a resident than a visitor, despite my UK tax status which still says I'm a UK Resident. I enjoy the challenges of living here, Every day is different. The Nigerian people impress me with their ability to believe a dire situation will improve. Now, I believe it will improve, given enough time and people whose interests lie away from the goal of fantastic wealth.

There is wonderful beauty in Nigeria, if you can tolerate a whole heap of Ugliness that's in the way, you can find it.

My First Trip: Day Twenty Six

2006-12-15T09:31:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Friday 15th December 2000

5:30 my alarm went off, it was dark outside. Thankfully the water was still working now and I could get my last shower and pack my wash bag into my suitcase. I had a knock on the door from M3... who wanted to check I was up. I went down for breakfast at 6. After breakfast I brought down my bags and J3... took them out to the car for me. D... told be to keep N1000 in case I had to bribe my way through customs and split whatever I had left over with M3... J3... and M4.... I had N1500 so that was lucky. So I thanked M3... and M4... for looking after me and handed them N500 each. they wished me a good Christmas and said they looked forward to seeing me in the new year. I got in the car with D... and we were off to the airport. It was getting lighter now and I recognised the roads I'd travelled nearly four weeks ago on my way in.

We got to the airport and were immediately hounded by people trying to carry my luggage (in exchange for a tip) but J3... shooed them away and handed my luggage to me and D.... I gave J3... his N500 and waved goodbye.

And so to check in, I had my suitcase checked, they wanted to know what I was carrying, I had two folding tables inside that D... wanted me to take back for him. They wanted me to prove that I wasn't stealing African art treasures. In the end they gave up, I think they worked out that there weren't many folding tables around in pre-colonial Nigeria. After that it was plain sailing to the cafe where I got a coke and then went to the boarding lounge. Before we boarded the plane we had to go out onto the tarmac to identify our suitcases before they put them on the plane. I don't know why they do this, but if you don't identify your luggage it stays in Nigeria. This happened to D... on his first trip.

While I was waiting to board I had a talk to another British traveller who was about my age, the first I'd seen. He was impressed at the number of bars I'd been to since I'd been there, he was also impressed that I'd stayed for nearly 4 weeks on my first trip. He'd only ever stayed two.

We boarded and I had a window seat near the very back of the plane in row 51. It was a better plane than the one that brought me here, it had individual TV screens for every passenger in the back of the seat in front. I could choose what to watch now. There's also a handy map channel that shows you where you are and other information like altitude, ground speed, outside air temperature (-59C over the Sahara, I had frost on my window) and Estimated arrival time.

There was a patch of bad turbulence on the way over the Sahara and we climbed to 39,000 feet or nearly 12 Km. There's not much to see when flying over the desert, I think I saw a herd of wildebeest but it just looked like a rippling black blob so it could have been something else.

Eventually I saw the white cliffs of Dover and there was only 60 miles left till Heathrow. It was darkening now and while we circled over London waiting for our turn to land it became night.

This side, customs was a breeze. I skipped past all the Nigerian immigrants and went straight in to the queue for EU passport holders. There was only 5 or six in the queue, a quick scan of my passport and I was welcomed home. I found a seat to use while I waited for my suitcase to come around, It eventually did and I was out of there.

I needed to change my Bus Ticket so that I could go from Heathrow instead of Gatwick like my Ticket indicates. I found the Coach Ticket shop and had my ticket changed, it cost me £1.50. I was told to look out for the 202 bus arriving at 18:10. It was only just 17:15 so I went wandering around the airport for a while. I bought some snacks to keep me going and then headed out to the bus shelter. It was very cold out here, I opened my suitcase to get my fleece out and put it on. It made things a little better but not much. I was missing Nigeria already.

I saw a bus come in around 18:15 numbered 201. It said it was going to Cardiff but since it wasn't the number I was told to get I assumed that it didn't stop in Newport. At 19:00 I decided that I'd better check with the ticket shop again because my bus hadn't shown up. They told me that the bus had been and gone at 18:15. The Cardiff Bus. I complained that it said 201 but they said it should have been 202 and there was nothing they could do. By the time I'd paid another £1.50 to get the next bus, it had arrived and gone, it was early this time. So I had to change it again and get the next one at 20:10. They let me have this one free though.

So eventually I got a bus and I was so cold I could hardly move. Luckily the bus was quite warm and I managed to sleep a little on the way. I hardly noticed a thing between Reading and Bristol.

I had arranged for mum to pick me up at 9:15, I finally arrived in Newport at 11:15 and had to phone her to get her to pick me up. Eventually she came and we sped home.

My First Trip: Day Twenty Five

2006-12-15T00:25:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Thursday 14th December 2000

Today was my last day at the office and there wasn't a lot to do. D... had his press conference with 100 expected attendees with the Commissioner for Information. I had been invited to give some moral support but I had enough of meeting government officials in the first week I had here, and I didn't particularly want to be in the newspapers or on the TV.

This was also M1...'s last day here, he was leaving tonight, and we both went to the British Airways office on VI together so I could confirm my ticket for tomorrow morning and M1... could check in. D... had been unable to find his ticket after his recent move and wanted me to enquire about replacing a lost ticket.

In the afternoon D2... came around again with his laptop, and wanted me to go with him to his house to see If I could get him connected to the internet, he'd been unsuccessful so far, and had no trouble when he connected at the office. So J3... took us over at about 3pm and I was expecting somewhere pretty decent for a solicitor, but no. It was a huge, ugly block of flats. We couldn't get the car into the car park on the first try because there is a speed bump outside that would require a JEEP to get over. since the Lumina we were in is very low to the ground we didn't really want to risk getting hooked up. The other road around to the car park was almost as bad with potholes that should be called craters. Eventually we make it and I go with D2... to his flat. The heat in here was very bad, no NEPA and no AC anyway. I was taken to his office and sat down. I picked up the handset of the phone and immediately realised what the most likely cause of D2...'s problem was. The line was very noisy, like radio static and sometimes it took two or three tries just to get a dial-tone.

I tried hooking the laptop up and while it dialled it made some of the strangest noises I've ever heard. It got nowhere of course. Eventually I gave up, by this time I was sweating all over. D2... offered me a drink but since he's fasting for Ramadan I thought it polite not to take it.

So at around 5 I got back to the office, D... had come back and had now gone to the house, M1... had arranged to have dinner at 5 so that he could eat with us one last time before leaving that night. After dinner we saw him off and went inside to shower and change. D... had decided to move into M1...'s vacated room tonight so that he could be here to take me to the airport tomorrow morning.

So it was decided to have one last trip to Planet 44 - we did the Original Sins, B52s and the E... ice-cream thing.

So we went back to the house for sleep in preparation for an early 5:30am start and a goodbye to Nigeria and my good friends.