Nigeria, the land of plenty

nigerian coke serie 1 Supermarkets: is plenty enough? On a Saturday afternoon I accompanied a friend for shopping in Lekki . We went to a large shopping mall called Spar, which is nested among residential housings. It has a large parking lot and a few palm trees giving it an air of Florida. Inside, what really caught my attention was the repetition of patterns as if to show that the shop has plenty of things in great quantity. Perhaps a way of claiming that it is ready to serve the swelling nigerian middle class living in Lekki. Here is a serie which I believe might make you feel satiated once you will have gone through it! la plus belle (pour aller s'essuyer) washes twice more than the cheaper ones removes 101 stains fast action not even the blind could miss it canned fuzzy look water might be polluted, here is a B plan champagne! beer magnum, four at once sealed apple fruit ...

no hawking Sign of hawkers this was my discovery of the week in the urban signage section. I had to think hard what the "damaged hat" was all about? Until I saw a couple of people walking with large flat baskets on their heads loaded with small portions of peanuts wrapped-up in plastic bags right by the signage. I then understood that they were not supposed to be there if the signage is of any relevance. Exactly why is another matter. Perhaps for safety reasons as in the past people hijacking cars could have been mistaken with the hawkers selling wares in the traffic. Today Kingsway, the large avenue crossing Ikoyi and coming straight out of Victoria Island through the Falomo bridge, is fairly safe. Its 2*2 lanes are often packed with slow traffic and therefore a good place for hawkers to do business. Youth's future on Kingsway Two billboards attracted my attention along Alfred Rewane avenue (the new name for Kingsway). One was a representation of a young a...

Ibrahim wishing "Happy Valentine's Day" / "Vote for me" Proximity building The most awaited Valentine's Day happened yesterday. Lovers had good reasons to cheer about it. There would be celebration in the course of the day. Actually one politician thought he could make use of the opportunity to wish everyone "Happy V Day / Vote for me" which is an interesting way to hijack the event.  Is he speaking to my wife? Then I shall be worried and will definitely not vote for him! Is he bringing Valentine's day on par with Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Easter, Eïd etc…? In any case this was a colorful and smiling message from an expert in circumstantial greetings (he has already ventured into happy neighbor, happy new Year, Happy Xmas and is perhaps busy preparing happy Easter in case the elections are postponed again?). That was a good way to stand out! Serious Valentine's Gift Last Friday, with some colleagues a discu...

"Forward Nigeria" is about to pause "Forward Nigeria" on "Pause" Nigeria Presidential Elections have been postponed by 6 weeks: from Feb14th to Mar28th. The official reason is to allow time to build a multi-country military coalition to defeat Boko Haram who was threatening to disturb the elections through attacks and, in the area they control, to bar the vote from happening. The postponement was actually pushed by the PDP, party in power, after it realized it was going to be defeated if the elections took place on Valentine's day. It seems the opposition has been very effective in churning voters' opinion with the speech of change and this despite the fact that none of the candidates are really appealing. The opposition party, APC, was against the postponement. Now there are two interesting factors at play which are not really discussed locally: - is the Nigerian Army is in a position to defeat Boko Haram in 6 weeks in a context w...

zoom on Nigeria Future Forecast : war or prosperity Binary Politics explained As the election campaign becomes more and more present in everyone's mind, here is a an interesting diagram which needs concentration to fully comprehend (I was probably slow-brained the morning I saw it). But I guess it could apply to Greece too : Sacrifice - rule of Law and the expected outcome Love and Prosperity. In any case, a much better version to hope for than Greed and Corruption with the proposed outcome of Hatred and War which no one really wants to see happening. In the office, recreational moments (during which work is put aside) generate loud conversations between opponents. The opposition saying to the proponents of the party in power: what have you done with all the money from oil sold at over 100USD a barrel? Now it has dropped by half, and we have very little foreign currency available to prevent the Naira from weakening against foreign currency. This will put strain on our ...

electric cherry blossoms on New Year's eve New Year's Eve at Bar Beach On Dec31st,14, Bar Beach, the place where meagre horses can be hired to carry beach goers to the sea side on the south of Victoria Island, was busy with preparation for a big concert hosting several of the many nigerian celebrities like  P-Square  or  D'banj , etc… The New Year's Eve concert would grace the ears of walkers-by going along Bar beach, made pedestrian area on the occasion. But obviously, a VIP area with a dedicated entrance next to the Eko Atlantic office needed to be there so that everyone could belong where one belonged. shaking it on the asphalt The good surprise was the happy mood of people coming to enjoy the music, shaking it on the asphalt and watching the firework fired from afar, somewhere on the edge on the upcoming Eko Atlantic city. fireworks are best watched on smartphones                   ...