Back in the UK and for the first time in a while it is a relief. For the first time I wonder what it will be like to be in Lagos with nowhere to escape to. I guess there is always Accra the new bolt hole of the neauveau rich. In the last ten days I have seen for the first time what lies at the root of the lack of infrastructure development in Nigeria. I have heard things that I shouldn't’t have, seen things that I shouldn't have but thankfully I did not do anything that I shouldn't have. If it all sounds like a bit of a riddle it is only because I cannot disclose details but the scales have fallen. For the past year I have been tiptoeing through the tulips but now I have fallen face first into the fertiliser.
Iyawo is forever going on about my naivety about Nigeria. How she knows the place and people better than me and how what I think I see is illusional. I won’t admit that she was right (I could not stand the crowing) but let’s just say that maybe she knows what she is talking about.
In A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson says “you can’t handle the truth”. I now know what he means because when you actually truly see something for what it is, it can be very disillusioning. If not for my innate positivity and my strong belief that ultimately good will triumph over evil then I would be very worried. But let’s leave it there for now.
Reflections:
Two thoughts I would like to share.
One day I was driving past the Eko Hotel and I saw a “mad man” fast asleep on the lawn outside the hotel. He was asleep in the manner of someone who really was dead to the world and lost in a peaceful slumber. All this while he was less than two feet from raging traffic, belching generators, and their fumes. His whole body was relaxed. He was at peace. Snoring. Meanwhile I was strapped into the car, sweating profusely in my wool suit, thick cotton shirt and tie. I was on my way to a room in a hotel where they had armed men at the gates, where I would lock myself into a room that alternated between freezing cold and tepid depending on NEPA’s mood and in which I would spend the night endlessly tossing and turning, my mind raging with a thousand thoughts, actions, must do lists, reminders, alarms, calls to make etc. For a minute I actually wondered what it would be like to swap places with him and to be at peace with one’s self.
Yesterday I woke up in my new hotel and looked outside the window. The view was spectacular. It was raining extremely hard. It was not like the British rain which caresses your skin and apologises for the inconvenience in typical British manner. This was Naija rain. It came down as if God had been gathering water in his hands and then opened his fingers and flung it to earth. It had ferocity about it. Next to my window is a vacant plot of land. The hotel is bordering on to the sea and on the end of the vacant piece of land someone has built a shack. As I look out of my window I see them going about their morning routine. I wonder how they cope with the rain as the shack on stilts does not seem to have what I would call a roof.
What strikes me though is that both of us share the view of nature as the rain comes down. It is hard to fully describe and I did not have my camera but it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The cove behind Bar Beach with its multitude of rickety shacks blends smoothly into the horizon, which blends into the many hues of the clouds in the distance. Dotted on the landscape are various ships coming to shore with their lights on creating a surreal backdrop to the whole scene. I stare out of my window for ten minutes watching the show and watching the shack. I wonder why the occupants do not stop and stare at the beauty of nature like I am and then realise that they wake up to this every single day. Yet me, Mr Jet setter. All I get to see is the inside of hotel rooms and airport lounges. The rest passes in a blur. I wonder who has got the better deal?
Iyawo is forever going on about my naivety about Nigeria. How she knows the place and people better than me and how what I think I see is illusional. I won’t admit that she was right (I could not stand the crowing) but let’s just say that maybe she knows what she is talking about.
In A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson says “you can’t handle the truth”. I now know what he means because when you actually truly see something for what it is, it can be very disillusioning. If not for my innate positivity and my strong belief that ultimately good will triumph over evil then I would be very worried. But let’s leave it there for now.
Reflections:
Two thoughts I would like to share.
One day I was driving past the Eko Hotel and I saw a “mad man” fast asleep on the lawn outside the hotel. He was asleep in the manner of someone who really was dead to the world and lost in a peaceful slumber. All this while he was less than two feet from raging traffic, belching generators, and their fumes. His whole body was relaxed. He was at peace. Snoring. Meanwhile I was strapped into the car, sweating profusely in my wool suit, thick cotton shirt and tie. I was on my way to a room in a hotel where they had armed men at the gates, where I would lock myself into a room that alternated between freezing cold and tepid depending on NEPA’s mood and in which I would spend the night endlessly tossing and turning, my mind raging with a thousand thoughts, actions, must do lists, reminders, alarms, calls to make etc. For a minute I actually wondered what it would be like to swap places with him and to be at peace with one’s self.
Yesterday I woke up in my new hotel and looked outside the window. The view was spectacular. It was raining extremely hard. It was not like the British rain which caresses your skin and apologises for the inconvenience in typical British manner. This was Naija rain. It came down as if God had been gathering water in his hands and then opened his fingers and flung it to earth. It had ferocity about it. Next to my window is a vacant plot of land. The hotel is bordering on to the sea and on the end of the vacant piece of land someone has built a shack. As I look out of my window I see them going about their morning routine. I wonder how they cope with the rain as the shack on stilts does not seem to have what I would call a roof.
What strikes me though is that both of us share the view of nature as the rain comes down. It is hard to fully describe and I did not have my camera but it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The cove behind Bar Beach with its multitude of rickety shacks blends smoothly into the horizon, which blends into the many hues of the clouds in the distance. Dotted on the landscape are various ships coming to shore with their lights on creating a surreal backdrop to the whole scene. I stare out of my window for ten minutes watching the show and watching the shack. I wonder why the occupants do not stop and stare at the beauty of nature like I am and then realise that they wake up to this every single day. Yet me, Mr Jet setter. All I get to see is the inside of hotel rooms and airport lounges. The rest passes in a blur. I wonder who has got the better deal?
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6 comments:
Who's got the better deal? It depends on the circumstance at hand and how you measure it against the backdrop of reality...One uniform thing is that sometimes it sucks, both ways...
Funnily enough, I've recently been told some hometruths (pardon the pun) about contemporary naija society which make me wonder (also made me shudder in disbelief as I listened).
As for the madman...well, you know what they say - madness is gladness!
I think the madman and the shack's occupants would've preferred to be in your position personally.
Pele about the hometruths. With time, more people like you will trudge home and add their voices to the clamour of the few who're there already and who are fighting to change things.
My younger brother told me last year - Nigeria can't change because the powers that be(as in the one's profiting from all the chaos and backwardness), will never allow things to change. I cut short my long winding speech about how we have to do our best for Nigeria, and change things etcetera, etcetera, because it dawned on me that he was right.
That has not stopped me from continuing to hope sha...
We suspect that many "mad" people are not mad at all. Unwanted maybe.
"it's hard to fully describe..." you describe it so well I can almost see it.
marin: don't just hope. get in there and WIN ;)
i thought i was the only one who saw those things at eko hotel!
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