Did you know that the richest black person in the world, Aliko Dangote, is Nigerian? In fact, Nigeria has some of the most affluent people in Africa. Yet it also one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite this poverty, it was recently ranked one of the happiest countries in world. Uh?!
"Yes, Nigeria is a country full of paradoxes," Yemi's dad explained. Perhaps there's no other place that reflects this more than Lagos, where we spent a couple of weeks and experienced this sense of inconsistencies many times.
During our trips around the city we were chauffeured by Yemi's parents' driver, Alfa. This sounds like a luxury to most westerners, but in this country having private drivers and house maids is normal. This is yet another paradox for a country that has a per capita income of only $2K.
The paradoxes are everywhere you look... For example, Nigeria produces about 2.5M barrels of oil per day, making it one of the largest oil producing countries in the world. Yet during our stay the country experienced a fuel scarcity so severe that Alfa, our driver, spent entire days queuing at gas stations and sometimes even purchasing fuel from the black market that had developed.
You can even find unexplained ironies in everyday life. Would you believe that shorts are uncommon and sunglasses are even more rare for the locals in spite of the stifling heat? The list goes on.
We experienced the paradox of rich & poor ourselves when Jan and Yemi's mom visited the traditional market of Agege situated behind dirt alleyways along abandoned railroad tracks one morning, followed by us sipping wine and partying with a billionaire in an area called Lekki that very evening.
Our time in Nigeria wasn't spent doing any kind of sightseeing or touring; it was spent with people and taking in these kinds of elements of the country. Just like people, Nigeria is multidimensional with layers of complexity and contradictions. Some can be explained and some are head scratchers, but on the surface it is all very interesting.
"Yes, Nigeria is a country full of paradoxes," Yemi's dad explained. Perhaps there's no other place that reflects this more than Lagos, where we spent a couple of weeks and experienced this sense of inconsistencies many times.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair;
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair;
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.
- Charles Dickens
During our trips around the city we were chauffeured by Yemi's parents' driver, Alfa. This sounds like a luxury to most westerners, but in this country having private drivers and house maids is normal. This is yet another paradox for a country that has a per capita income of only $2K.
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| Prior to visiting Nigeria Jan had only seen people carry things on their head in National Geographic magazines. |
You can even find unexplained ironies in everyday life. Would you believe that shorts are uncommon and sunglasses are even more rare for the locals in spite of the stifling heat? The list goes on.
 |
| Agege Market in Lagos |
We experienced the paradox of rich & poor ourselves when Jan and Yemi's mom visited the traditional market of Agege situated behind dirt alleyways along abandoned railroad tracks one morning, followed by us sipping wine and partying with a billionaire in an area called Lekki that very evening.
Our time in Nigeria wasn't spent doing any kind of sightseeing or touring; it was spent with people and taking in these kinds of elements of the country. Just like people, Nigeria is multidimensional with layers of complexity and contradictions. Some can be explained and some are head scratchers, but on the surface it is all very interesting.
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