Navigating Nigeria at Night
Avoid flaming crotches
I am walking down this dark lane in Lagos, happy. It’s the end of a long day of work meeting many different IT people here in Nigeria, the “Giant of Africa” and I am feeling good.
Maybe it’s the excitement of being back in Africa, her sounds, sights, and smells fresh in my mind. Maybe it’s the feeling of progress in meeting our local partners and doing work I love. Or maybe its just the beer.
No matter, I am excited this night, and so I perform a small miracle.
Read MoreNo Hurry in a Lagos Go Slow
A late-night “Go Slow”
Think back to a bad traffic day. When you sat in your car, inching along in a morning commute that seemed to take forever. Or a drive home that doubled in length because a traffic accident. Now think yourself lucky.
In West Africa, traffic is approaching total and permanent gridlock. And I’m not talking about the American kind, where a one-hour commute, becomes a two-hour commute, or your average speed drops to 30mph.
I’m talking about gridlock that makes vehicles useless, has managers sleeping in hotels next to work, and sends the populace out at 6 or 7am to travel 5km in time to start the work day. I’m talking about the Lagos “go slow”.
In the commercial capitol of Nigeria, there are four and five lane highways. There are overpasses and rapid bus lanes. And there are a mix of buses, cars, and motorcycles for human conveyance. But for the 14 million people of Lagos, cross-town movement has become impossible.
Read MoreGenerating the Nigerian National Anthem
The morning growler
Disregard what others may say is the Nigerian National Anthem. It is not the first anthem “Nigeria We Hail Thee” nor the second “Arise, O Compatriots“. Those may be official decrees, and “Nigeria We Hail Thee” may be the most popular of the two, but neither compare to what I say is the real national anthem.
Anywhere in Lagos, any time of the day or night, there are two sounds guaranteed to sing forth in a chorus of noise: the rumble of big diesel generators turning on and high squawks of little horns from every passing vehicle.
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