[kictanet] Three days in Nigeria

Thu Oct 10 15:22:04 EAT 2013

Daktari,

This is good prose. You should seriously consider a platform for this kind
of writing where you weave a narrative with personal observations during
formal engagements. A welcome break from your usual policy-style writing. As
a parting shot, maybe you should have quoted the more contemporary
Chimamanda Adichie instead of Achebe. :)

John Masiwe

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From: kictanet
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+jmasiwe=bluegate.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Bitange Ndemo
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 11:54 PM
To: jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Three days in Nigeria

Three days in Nigeria
Standing outside Abuja Airport in the soaring temperatures you get amazed
on how similar to Kenya Nigeria is.   This is Africa's most populous
country.   People idling around and women talking animatedly with their
hands akimbo and they are larger than you can see in Kenya.  I had missed
the person who was to pick me up.  Oga! Those who walked by me remarked. 
I assumed it was some greetings to a brother.  Colours of their clothing is
similar to ours and perhaps the only difference with Kenya is that more men
wore multi-colour kanzus.  Open shoes, Akala type are more prevalent here.

I walk towards the taxis.  They are gentler than I have read in Nigerian
literature.  They were honest too with the fare to the cities.  I had begun
to settle down and give Nigeria the benefit of doubt but my mind takes me
back to Odili, the narrator in Achebe's 1966 novel, Man of the People.  Also
not forgetting the many stories told about Nigerians.

For a while I savor the beauty of Abuja scenery.  Green everywhere.  It must
be within the rain forest.  Land is expanse and untilled.  I turn my
attention to my driver Oku Moses.  An affable young man perhaps in his early
30's.  I tell him I am from Kenya and in Abuja for the CTO conference.  He
smiles broadly and asked me what I thought of Nigeria as if he had read my
mind.  I said so far so good and immediately I divert his train of thought
to football.  I tell him Nigeria is the main hindrance to Kenya's quest to
get to World cup.  We became friends instantly as he opened up to tell me
more.

You see that road, he says it leads to nowhere.  Corruption is the only
problem here he adds as his tone begin to sound angrier.  I calm him down
and tell him it happens all over Africa.  The 50 kilometer super highway
from the airport to Abuja is as good as it gets, actually better than
Nairobi Thika highway.  The Hotel I am headed to, is called Chelsea, named
after the English league team Chelsea.  Oku is a fan of Arsenal another
English league team.  He knows all the players.  He asks which team I
support and when I tell him none, he then says that is why you will never go
to world cup.

At the hotel Oku bids me farewell and hands me his card.  Call me he says.
 I will show you the best of Nigeria.  It is still hot and my room was
steaming with heat.  This three star hotel does not have a centralized AC
but I could do with an old cranky stand-alone cooling system.  As I cranked
it up, it made more noise that I could not listen to news on TV. 
Then suddenly the lights went off - blackout!!.  Outside it was raining
heavily.  I said Geez this is home but soon some generator boomed just
outside my room to bring light.  I wished they had shut it down.

Dinner time I joined other colleagues, Sonia, Karin, Robert and John for
Dinner.  Me and Sonia were the vegetarians and so requested for pasta, the
only vegetarian dish on the menu.  Alas! when the food came there was
chicken on pasta instead of tomato.   The young waitress tells me she
decided on chicken since there were no tomatoes.   After a few exchanges
she seems to remember something and says I can make it vegetarian.  Wala!
like magic she comes back with pasta alone.  I said thank you but as I start
to eat, I discover or rather the waitress had forgotten that the base was
chicken and she had only removed the toppings of chicken.  She meant well
and wanted to do well but she missed the point.

As I watched Nigerian channels that evening, I say to myself, Nigeria is
Kenya and Kenya is Nigeria.  We were colonized by the British.  We attained
independence at about the same time in the 1960s.  We have new constitutions
with devolved powers.  Just like Kenya, Nigeria continues to experience
longstanding ethnic and religious tensions.  Although in Kenya's 2008 as in
Nigeria's 2003 and 2007 presidential elections were marred by significant
irregularities and violence, but both countries are experiencing relative
peace interrupted by the Al-Shabab and Boka Haram respectively.

On Nigerian TV as in Kenya politicians complain that they need more power to
states and counties.  They seem not to understand that they are the ones
with the power to change legislation and so when they complain, the masses
have no representation.  They also need more money yet they are the ones who
appropriate resources.  They complain about soaring crime yet they are the
ones who have the mandate to bring better security legislation.
On the roads, motor bikes ride on the assumption that every motorist should
watch on them.  Careless and dangerous like in Kenya.  If you admire the
cleanliness of Abuja while driving, you will for sure hit one of them.
Public places including hotels are guarded by armed policemen.

In my speech at the conference I said I was glad to visit Nigeria, land of
Okonkwo from Umuofia (one of a fictional group of nine villages in
Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo people).   Only a handful of the people in
the audience who knew that I was referring to Achebe's 1958 novel, Things
Fall Apart.  Later Funke, a prominent Nigerian businesswoman and friend
tells me that intellectualism died in Nigeria.  There was a time in Nigeria
prominent writers were the role model of society.  These were the people who
put our oral history on paper but we decided to chase them away.  It is sad
that Achebe had to die in foreign land alone without his people.  I tell
Funke, it is so strikingly similar to Kenya that our prominent writers are
getting old and wasted away in foreign lands.

Haruna is driving me back to the airport.  He like Oku is polite but with
much better intellect than an ordinary driver.  His grasp of African matters
is excellent.  Out of the blue he tells me, you worked with government.  I
tell him yes and I quickly ask him why.  No I just wanted to know, he says.
Then he tells me that he is driving a car (VX Land
Cruiser) that he will never afford to buy in his entire life. I note the
ambition in him and tell him that if you know then you are capable of buying
the car.  I am not in government, he says.  I tell him you do not need to be
in government to buy the car.  You see I was in government but I still
cannot drive such a thing.  He looks at me then he says, it is by choice on
your part.  I tipped him $20 and bade him farewell.  He was stunned.

I leave Nigeria with many fond memories.  It was three days but enough to
grasp the dreams of other people.  Their desires.  Their hopes.  We are all
the same and hopefully one day we shall change the stigma of corruption by
improving the fortunes of our Africa.  God bless Africa.

Ndemo.

University of Nairobi
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus

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