Nigeria, the land of plenty

  campaign material reaching new heights election at last Saturday March28th, 2015 is a long expected day, the day of presidential elections in Nigeria which have been postponed by 6 weeks on ground of security concerns with Boko Haram and hence the government's promise to defeat them within 6 weeks to allow peaceful and safe elections to take place in safety.  The Army has announced on Friday March 27th the re-conquest of a town in the hands of Boko Haram as proof of their promise and Boko Haram beheaded more than 20 people on the same day as a response, they also allegedly abducted 500 women and children a few days before. restricted movement After 8am, no cars are allowed to move around in town, except obviously those who are duly authorized like the vans that will bring the polling stating booths. Every voter was asked to register nearest to his house so that he does not need to drive to go and vote. From my window I can see the place where the polli...

faded hope The sun worked relentlessly to illuminate campaign posters, showing a remorseless power to bleach colors. The whole thing then takes a vintage look. One exception the dark green of "continue moving forward that turned to blue! from Nigerian green to blue Presidential elections are coming up this Saturday March 28th, planes are said to be overbooked to leave the country, just in case. In the meantime, I plan to buy some food for the next week and have enough french wine to taste with my neighbors so that time does not have to be boring sitting at home. Cheers in advance! One last picture for the road: the man for the job (not for president but governor of Lagos) super jimi

cheating is corruption Bored by the slowness of evening traffic my eyes, came across a billboard from APC (opposition political party) claiming "cheating is corruption". My driver said yes it is so. So, I wondered, what is the link between "cheating", which in my view means not abiding by the rule or infringing the law, and "corruption", which implies paying someone for getting a service in return? Well, he replied, if a kid of 12 years old is stealing something, we say that he is corrupt. So in effect corruption is not only an active mechanism it is also a passive state in which the mind can be. This boy ('s mind) is corrupt. Hence the possibility that not abiding by the law (e.g. cheating) is a corruption of the mind. I thought that this was an interesting light to the message but was still puzzled by the political meaning of it. Did APC mean that the opposition has a "corrupted mind" because it is cheating (at least those who do)? ...

 hello small world carnival An interesting night took place last Saturday at the Federal Palace Hotel with the Small World Carnival. Small World is a charity run by international women living in Lagos. It aims at helping children and disadvantaged people. It was the 20th year, this year, and a great show for those able to watch it. The evening started with a friendly welcome, greeted by nice ladies dressed up in feathers and glitzy jewelry. And also capes to wrap-up visitors venturing on the picture stage. smile, you're being watched  After such pleasant welcome, one was heading towards the food stands held by each of the participating countries. Syria was one of the represented, serving mezzeh and many sweets. Romania had complete piglets roasted with an apple in their mouth and helped all those who wanted with vicinata (a strong digestive). c'est pour ta pomme South America was also featuring complete roasted piglets. Pakistan was serving...

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 ...