Hitting the nail on the head...

Travelling to Abuja this week, the car was full of Nigerian visitors to Minna. It was interesting to sit and eavesdrop on their perceptions of the town. They saw a poverty that I guess I’ve grown immune to. They noted the differences between the few ‘haves’ and masses of ‘have-nots’ and pondered on the mismanagement of public finances that has undoubtedly brought this around.
But one chap made a wonderful insight – he said as soon as you try to speak about this everyone withdraws into Hausa, and they are lost to you. I hadn’t been able to put that into words but it’s very true. Hausa is sometimes used as a powerful barrier to the outside world.

Sláinte…

Belated Paddy’s Day greetings – hope you are all nicely recovered now. Nigeria celebrated too courtesy of the Irish embassy – a good night was had by all. Here’s Helen in her gorgeous Paddy’s Day dress, and here are Wil and Helen all dressed up for a night out…

Living by candlelight...

NEPA is having some serious problems at the moment. So Nigeria sits in darkness. We are getting light for maybe 1/3 of each day, in 3-4 hour stretches. Am using up candles and patience at a ferocious rate! Its dark by 7 so half my books have singe marks, every surface is covered in wax and I’ve cracked all my toes and half the furniture. This is turning into a crisis situation…
So on a typical night, the room goes dark. I muddle over to the fridge for my candles and hunt down the lighter in the dark. With the candles lighting I take a look outside. Total blackness means that there’s no light anywhere and I’ve just gotta put up. Lights in neighbouring houses mean that there’s light on another phase – I have 3 phases coming into my house – so it’s out to the garage, up the ladder and switch phases. Yep, it’s all going on my CV – scaling walls, minor electrical works, the lot.
Hope NEPA returns soon, my body is in serious danger of reverting to 90% water, or whatever…

Noise pollution...

One good way of knowing when light is back is hearing the loud speakers outside my window – its all in another tongue so I’m not sure whether they are selling Hausa politics, Islamic prayer or juju medicine. Whichever there is no concept of noise pollution in Nigeria – from all night Christian vigils to first call to prayer at 4am, life is always buzzing loudly in the distance.

Nigerian election in 10 words or less...

I would like to write a short snappy introduction to next month's elections, but the more I hear about them the more I realise how little I understand. Nigerian democracy is as complex as any in the world, and the elections are full of history and folklore and a little bit of witchcraft!
The president is elected in a similar manner to the American president - primaries were held in December to elect a candidate from each political party. So there are 3 main contestants including the presidents annointed candidate, the current vice-president and a former military ruler, with another ex-military ruler waiting in the wings for half a chance to step in. Choosing a candidate means balancing the amount of corruption you are willing to put up with (the military ruler seems to be the only uncorrupt one) with the entourage you can cope with (various dubious hangers-on and supporters are likely to end up in power depending on who is elected), with the amount of freedom you enjoy, and with the candidate who is closest to your creed, ethnicity etc.
Of course all this pre-supposes free and fair elections. Which is very unlikely.

So all I can really do is relay the various some of the gossip in circulation.
- alledgedly attendees at the various election rallys are dashed N5000-N10000 to attend. Election candidates dash everything from bags of rice to suits of clothes to brand new cars.
- i hear that while the election body (INEC) import brand new voter registration machines in order to reduce registration tampering, it is said that various parties similarly import their own registration machines and start a parallel enterprise.

And just to prove what a tulip I am:
I started seeing a lot of Taliban Minna t-shirts this week and it unnerved me a little. Shariah I am used to, but I can do without uping the dose. Turns out Talban Minna is the honourable title given to one of the candidates for governor. Over a month to go and Aine's already loosing the plot...

True...

Three okadas driving down the street. The passenger on the first bike is carrying a four-foot high glass pane. The passenger on the second bike is carrying an inverted adult bicycle on his lap. But the people on the street are looking at the third bike, where the passenger is me!

Bringing in the new...

Have been in Abuja for the past 2 weeks for the induction of 11 new volunteers. It’s been a fun time, if a little hectic. Mostly the serving volunteers fill any gaps in the training provided by the Programme Office – such as logistics, buying sim cards, organising food and accommodation, dispensing advice with all my 14-month old Nigerian wisdom!

The new volunteers are a very international group – from Kenya, Uganda, Canada, India, the UK and America. Here are some of them - Peter, George, Ali, Pia, Heather, Simon, Godfrey & Joel.

An under-appreciated art...

During their induction training, the new volunteers go to stay with serving volunteers for a bit. So I had a few free days to work on the VSO library.

Had difficulty convincing my fellow-trainers that attaching colour stickers to the books is a professional skill – honestly, classification is an artform in the library world.

New money...

The smaller currency dominations are being replaced at the moment - and shiny new notes are taking the place of the existing grubby ones. Due to the weakness of the currency a huge amount of notes get passed around each day - and no new notes had been issued since Christmas. The change is welcome (boom boom!)

The odd thing though is that they are introducing new N2, N1 and 50kobo coins (previously I have only seen kobo in museums and on sale at craft markets). But 50kobo is worth about 1/3 of a cent and everyone is wondering what it can be used for. Time will tell I guess.

Doing it in style...

Nigerian women don’t fret over the same fashion calamities as Western women. Arriving in the same outfit as another girl isn’t just acceptable, it’s pretty normal. The same material is widely used – the artistry is in the cut of the cloth. And Nigeria’s Hello-style magazines celebrate this brilliantly…