Gabrielle Rockson

21st of October, 2016. As I walked down the steps of the colossal, white vehicle, light words of the British Airways hosts, echoed into my ears. Anticipation, excitement and nervousness, had overwhelmed me. Clutching onto my hand-luggage, I rushed through the tunnel with my family, following their lead as I had no idea where I was going. Dramatically, the cold British winter I had come with, sprinted away back overseas; I was embraced with humid, hot heat. Finally, I had arrived at my destination. I had arrived in Nigeria, West Africa.

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Hey and thank you for stopping by! As you can tell from my little introduction above, I went to Nigeria. I don’t know why, but I just felt like writing creatively for a second!

Anyway, if you know me or have read my ‘About Me page’, you would know that I have Nigerian ethnicity. However, you probably don’t know that the first and last time that I went to Nigeria, was when I was three years old, which was quite some time ago. Well recently that all changed because it was my Grandma’s 80th birthday party in Nigeria and of course my family and I went. There were many friends and family at the party.

These framed photographs were actually taken and framed outside my Grandma’s party. Even though, there was a hired professional photographer, somehow word got out and then a load of random photographers showed up asking everyone to pose for their pictures, so that we could buy them. Due to not being allowed inside, they would stand outside asking people, who were just arriving, if they could take photographs. Then, when the party finished or if we came outside the party later, they would run to us, reveal printed copies of our photographs and beg for us to pay for them. When my sister and I came outside the party to help my Auntie with something, we were rapidly greeted by many photos of us in the hands of photographers that wanted us to buy them. It was funny because there were so many photos of people and the photographers did not care if it was us or not in the photo, they just wanted anyone to buy them!

The framed photos above really impressed me because the person that took those, was not hired and had them printed and framed within minutes. When the party had finished and we were in the car driving, one of the photographers ran across the road holding the framed photo of my Mum, wanting us to buy it! I do applaud their determination.

I do admit, it felt quite rowdy and an invasion of privacy because they were not invited or hired to do anything, and no one knew who they were, yet they came to the party, trying to take people’s photographs and sell them. On the other hand, they did take a lot of nice pictures, causing my family to buy them.

Those framed pictures cost 7000 Naira altogether. (Naira is Nigeria’s currency) You may think that’s a lot, but 7000 Naira equivalents to 18 pounds and 22 pence. Naira has a very low value. We have a term called ‘spraying’, which is when a person is dancing and gets dropped or showered with money. I got sprayed with 3000 Naira, which seemed like a lot until I was told it was only 7 pounds and 81 pence lol. People joke that they are waiting for the day when they get sprayed with POUNDS, because then they know that those zeros have value.

My holiday lasted a week, so I had enough time to explore my roots.

As I am writing this, I’m having a ‘what was I wearing?’ moment. These two men are Nigerian Mobile Police (MOPOL) officers. Thanks to my uncle, they escorted us on most days through out our stay and we were also blessed with drivers, to take us wherever we wanted.

You can’t see it very clearly, but this is The Nigerian Mobile Police vehicle, which drove behind our car from the Airport when we arrived and to the airport, when we were leaving.

This motorbike, goes by the name of ‘Okada’ and it is actually a form of transport in Nigeria. In other words, it is motorcycle taxi. How people pay to go on a bus or taxi, is how people pay to use ‘Okada’. However, these have been banned in some cities due to disruption to traffic and some drivers going against the law by increasing prices.

This is called ‘Keke Marwa’ and people also pay to be transported like this.

They use buses, taxies, uber etc. I think the best way to move around in Nigeria is to have your own car and a driver, but only if you can afford it. Having a driver is so much more reliable because they are your own personal driver and you get to know them personally. Driving oneself around Nigeria is fine for some but scary for most, as the driving is kind of crazy. We used Uber a couple of times and that was very good.

This is a market called Idumota Market, which is one of the biggest and busiest markets in Nigeria. WOW! It was unbelievable. We literally had to be linking arms together because it was extremely busy. At one point a man actually reached out to grab my arm.

Banana Island, Lekki Phase 1 and Park View are beautiful estates in Lagos, which I had the privilege of entering. The houses that I saw were beautiful, large and exquisitely decorated. Having gate men (Men who open the gates of houses when a car wants to enter or leave) and house girls (Girls that clean and cook in the house) is a normal thing in Nigeria.

Nigeria was amazing and intriguing: I have never experienced anything like it. I feel that the media only puts out the poverty, corruption and messed up parts of Nigeria and Africa as a whole. However, I think the beauty, exciting and unique parts should also be presented. Therefore, others who are not of this ethnic background will not be ignorant, thinking that Nigeria is nothing but poverty and look at you weirdly when you say you’re going there. (That’s what someone did to me lol)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post and learnt a bit more about Nigeria.