Nigeria, the land of plenty

Obi is introducing his leather sewing babies Obi is a genial little man sporting a generous white beard. A sort of cloud on which floats his cheerful round-looking high-cheeked face. Obi stands in front of his pink-coloured house built in the middle of a large garden with a proper lawn and a few trees. One seesaw is hung on one of the trees next to the entrance of the leather workshop and two large tyres have been repurposed into benches. The garden is manicured and uncluttered. It conveys a feeling of space. A young coconut tree is also already full with coconuts about one meter above the ground. The leather workshop occupies the ground floor of the house. Obi is assisted by his three sons, who all sport a thick black beard like their father. Each one is playing a different role in the business (marketing, production, creation etc...). Obi humbly confessed not being the perfect sales person " in a shop, I would talk too much to potential customers and forget about sell...

family entertainment on Christmas day 5.30am. My brain awakens to the distant sound of traffic on Kingsway through the open window of my bedroom. Before that, birds have sung, calling for the sun to rise, perched on top of nearby trees. A new day is starting in Ikoyi. Ikoyi was known several decades ago, for its greenery, mature gardens surrounding old colonial houses. The hot and humid Lagos weather has hurt the old houses of the past century. Oil money and the search for profit have also contributed to the redevelopment of these leafy compounds into sterile modern multi-story buildings where the garden has "dramatically" been replaced with a parking lot and the lawn by concrete or tiles. An irreversible mutation has started. Somehow the economic crisis of 2015/2016 was a good catalyst for key people to stash their money into buildings instead of keeping suitcases of dollars under their mattress. The election of a new president focused on anti-corruption only streng...

the end of a world, lekki lagoon About 80km, East of Lagos, the lagoon is narrowing to a few hundred meters in Epe which allowed a bridge to be built to link the two shores. Further east, the lagoon, called the Lekki lagoon, develops into a U-shaped expanse. It is the end of the water that stretches from the very south of Ogun state to Benin Republic. That part of the lagoon is very quiet and clean. Rare are the huts that are built along its shores and for a good reason: most of the area can get flooded during the rainy season, turning the bush into a swamp. It is therefore still a paradise for Nature, birds, butterflies, dragonflies and many other insects and plants. looking for the lagoon We started our walk off the Lekki-Epe expressway, a short distance away from Epe on the right side at the location of the old botanical garden . The bush can be very dense in places. We followed a sandy track that was leading to a small village made of bamboo huts on stilts with chicken ru...

natural geometry Last century, there was a large botanical garden near Epe called Muritala Muhammad, after one of the presidents of Nigeria (south of the Lagoon). It had several buildings, some of them with interesting architectural design: a large greenhouse, a wide circular hall supported by a single central pillar, a large room with a piano and then several other office buildings and a guesthouse. The style of construction reminds of the 1930s or perhaps 1950s. All with concrete and plaster, large windows made of several horizontal glass pieces that could be inclined like shades to let the air circulate like a natural air-conditionner.  there used to be a house It was a hot and sunny morning, we came from Lagos through the Lekki expressway. About 5 or 10km before the Epe bridge, we turned right into a sandy road that led in the bush up to the gate of the botanical garden area. The relationship between Humans and Nature is a competitive one. Humans are happy to conque...

Minnie is waiting: no electricity no luggage It is Wednesday night at Muritala Muhammad International Airport, around 8PM. It is the time of arrival of three flights from Europe. The weather is fair, cool actually, with 25 degree Celsius. Landing, alighting the aircraft, going through vaccination check and then queuing up for immigration goes relatively smoothly. Interestingly, the luggage delivery area is in the dark, as one can see from the immigration area which is separated from the luggage area by a two-meter high wall only. Slowly but surely the area of luggage delivery fills up in the dark, only lit up by the nearby immigration area and a battery-powered Air France sign set-up above one of the delivery belts. Passengers are waiting and start commenting on the possible causes and consequences of the delivery area black-out: - the belt is not powered so it can't circulate luggages so that passengers can pick them up - even if the luggages were brought on carriages, n...

time to collect some fresh palm wine Travel to Epe through the Lekki Expressway and you can't miss what is arguably a very good place to go and to buy fresh palm wine in Ijebuland. Some joints can be found on the left side along the road after it splits from the one going to the Free Trade Zone. These are small shelters made of wood and branches and, in the background, mud huts on the fringe of the bush that borders the marsh where palm trees grow and can be tapped easily. You can't miss the joints advertised by 5 liter plastic jerricans hung to the nearby trees or wooden sticks planted along the road. Alternately, if you don't need that much you can get it in 1.5 liter water bottle. Some joints have a small shed where people can stop to taste the local production of palm wine while listening to the eponymous music from the fifties or sixties with guitar, drums and voice. A lively sort of music but peaceful and immune to the stress of time because drinking palm wine su...

a friend in need, a friend indeed Mushin is a suburb of Lagos on the Mainland that is known for several reasons: it hosts  Bruce Onobrakpeya , a famous Nigerian artist, but it is also the go-to place to find car spare-parts. There are countless workshops and a vast market that borders the Apapa - Orowonshoki Expressway. looking for the right part This is the territory of Igbo traders who have progressively established camp here. As one moves through the dirt streets, full of potholes, both sides of the street are laden with all sorts of goods and vehicles.  of charcoal and windshield Traffic is not for the faint-hearted as space left for vehicles is scarce and drivers daring. But somehow, with time on one's side, there is a solution to everything and there is always someone to offer assistance because it is in the common interest that traffic does not clog the area completely. The market is busy, hawkers everywhere, works...