Adios Katharine...

It seems recently that people are leaving Lagos for bigger and brighter things...

Katharine has done enough hostage chasing around here for a life time and is off to Nairobi to cover East Africa. At least now she won't get a call every time she goes out that something else has gone wrong, only to start an article with... blah blah has cut a quarter from Nigeria's daily oil-production capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day...etc

Anyway, we're definitely going to miss you Katharine and we'll be sure to drop in on you in Nairobi now that you've got your own place. See ya soon.

This is a really good summation of how things are at the moment - thanks K

Nigeria's New Leader Faces Uncertainties

By KATHARINE HOURELD Associated Press Writer

12:52 PM EDT, August 5, 2007 ABUJA, Nigeria

In his first two months in office, Nigeria's shy, aristocratic new president has faced a nationwide strike, violence in the country's oil region and accusations that he's too timid for the job.

But these challenges pale compared with the country's corruption, decayed infrastructure and poverty. This nation of 140 million expects a lot of President Umaru Yar'Adua.

"These big men always have big talk," grumbled Raymond Olanre as he hawked newspapers on a potholed road. Yar'Adua "says he will give us water and light, but that is just what the previous (president) said."

Electricity and clean running water are just some of the basics that Africa's largest oil exporter has failed to deliver to its citizens. Yar'Adua has made some stabs at reform, but many Nigerians fear he won't be able to stand up to his strong-willed predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, and remake his country.

Obasanjo plucked the former state governor from obscurity and made him the governing party's presidential candidate last year. Yar'Adua's landslide victory in April's elections was condemned by domestic and international observers, who charged widespread voter intimidation and vote-rigging.

Under Obasanjo, Nigeria had eight tumultuous years of democracy, the longest such period since independence from Britain in 1960. But corruption and poverty remained rife.
Olanre, for example, earns about $2 a day -- not much, but still more than most. He is 22, in a country where average life expectancy is 43.

There are signs that Yar'Adua, a reclusive former chemistry teacher from a royal Muslim family, is preparing for real change, says Jibrin Ibrahim of the Center for Democracy and Development, a Nigerian think tank. It will take a year for his true colors to emerge, and meanwhile, with a cabinet of competing factions, "he is still not totally in charge," Ibrahim said.

Every step forward so far has left Nigerians clamoring for more.
In a surprise move, Yar'Adua publicly declared his assets -- the first Nigerian president to do so -- and urged his officials to do the same. None has so far.

Yar'Adua reversed the contentious sale of two of the country's broken down refineries to a shadowy consortium headed by Obasanjo's allies, a deal hurried through in the dying days of the outgoing regime. Incompetent management, sabotage and neglect had already shut the country's four major refineries, forcing Nigeria to import refined petroleum.

And this month, four former governors were charged with stealing state money, with more arrests promised by the country's anti-corruption watchdog. But none held office in the three major oil-producing states of the southern Niger River delta, whose governors receive billions of dollars in oil revenues annually but have failed to provide electricity, water, schools or clinics. Each was a major donor to the ruling party, however.

"People in the delta will not take Yar'Adua seriously until we see some of our own governors being brought to book," said Damke Pueba of Stakeholders Democracy Network, an advocacy group in the main southern oil center, Port Harcourt.

"He's still using the same Obasanjo approach," she said, referring to the previous president's policy of charging political enemies with corruption while allowing major party donors a free hand. "Some (officials) are sacred cows, others are sacrificial lambs."

In the meantime, a string of bombings and kidnappings that sharply escalated from December 2005 has cut a quarter from Nigeria's daily oil-production capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day.

Rich areas of Lagos, the commercial capital, get a few hours of electricity a day, strangling small businesses and driving away investment in a country where millions are unemployed. Poorer neighborhoods go without power for days, even weeks.

The new administration has two members of the opposition, seven women, and a finance minister seen by many as a reformist. But Yar'Adua has also retained many faces from the outgoing regime, which worries those looking for a radical change of direction.

"He is very cautious, to the point of being faulted," said Charles Dokubo of the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs. "Nigerians want (Yar'Adua) to prove to them that he does not need a back-seat driver."

Ishahayi farm

I tell you the teachers out at ishahayi never cease to amaze me. I was out there to give all the teachers their bi-monthly "donation" (as teachers they don't get paid, so the School Foundation there gives them a stipend to help out - $100AUD a month mind you, but no-one complains)

Anyway, when I was paying the teachers, Aki, the grade 6 teacher comes in all sweaty and smiling telling me he's just started a "farm". This I had to see. As the the kids were about to go on holidays for a couple of months, the kids were clearing around the school building to get rid of snakes - and lo and behold they ended up with a nice little patch of land along the side of the school next to the new well. Why not start a farm? So aki got the older boys planting cassava, which they can grow from cuttings. Cassava normally takes about a year to get big enough for the root (the big starchy bit you eat) to be a decent meal.

When I asked him what his plans were, he smiled confidently and said that they would sell the cassava and buy school books or press it and grind it to a powder to make garri (a local starchy staple) for the children to eat. Great work. Like I said, those guys always impress me... amazing

One of the standard teachers implements around
here is a good stick, Aki is no exception


After dividing up old cassava plants by "cutlass"
(machete) you can just plant the cuttings




The younger kids got to sit around and watch as the older kids
did all the work, just in case there were any snakes in the bush.

Ikaare School Building

After a few weeks of bad rain, we've had enough days over the weekend and this week to finally get a roof on the new School Building out at Ikaare. So now all that left to do is to get a floor put in and the walls rendered and we can start getting the kids in there - mind you we still don't have enough cash for doors or windows or a ceiling yet (and there's not enough furniture) but some of the local suppliers have helped us out by extending a little credit to the builders for this job.

Anyway, all schools break up for summer holidays at the end of the week and won't be back till early October, so that buys us a little more time. In the meantime, here's a few pics I took of the concreters starting the rendering...

Iba-Oloja Primary School (ibeju)

Charity work isn't all hard work. Actually not much of it's hard work at all. But when the only way to get to a school is by canoe you could do a lot worse on a nice sunny day. (during the Wet all the swamps around Lagos are completely flooded in a foot or so a water, so canoe is the way to travel...)

I won't bore you with the details other than to say, a group of us headed about and hour or so east of Lagos to check up on a school we done some work at last year and deliver some more school supplies. Unfortunately, we had a film crew hanging around so everything took twice as long as you had to keep going back and doing everything two or three times so that they could get it on film. It confused the crap out of the locals when the film guys were yelling "hug them again!! I didn't get it!! Now say that again louder and look this way!!"

Anyway, on to the pictures...

No strollers or prams around here, kids are lashed to whoever's
looking after them by a "wrapper", even if they're on a motorbike

Loading up the canoes

heading through the jungle to the river

I had the easy job. Mussilu did the paddling
while I bailed out the canoe every so often

On the river

Mr Mufu was kind enough to show us how to do a little
fishing on the way home (didn't catch anything though)

Due to the rains, we had to walk 100m or so through the swamp to get back to land

Iba-Olaja primary



The kids doing a role call and having a little sing

As usual, you always get swamped by kids who all want to be "snapped"

Nigeria has a Rail System?

Believe it or not, this place used to have a thriving rail network... nowadays it's a great place for people to build, so slums have grown through all the rail land in the major cities and it's going to be interesting when they try and fire it all up again. But anyway, but when the Empire was getting rich off the backs of its colonies in Africa, the Brits built a line from Lagos heading up North to bring whatever wasn't bolted down back to port to sell back in the Motherland...

That was then, now the Nigerian Rail Corporation is probably the world largest owner of scrap rail parts that are useless to anyone. The good folk at the Nigerian Field Society organised a trip down to the old yards and HQ at Ebute Metta in Lagos (which was supposed to be on while we were in Kenya but had been put off due to the nationwide strike and petrol shortage). Unfortunately, being the wet season, it was absolutely pouring down and half of the rail yards were flooded, so we didn't get a chance to see the old steam loco's they still have sitting in a shed {this site has some pics of what we didn't see} - but they still had some amazing stuff, all just sitting there gathering dust. No one around here really gives a crap about history, and since Independence the military and various politicians have cleaned out every government owned company, coup after coup (which is why there's never any power or water here either...that's another story though)

So here's some pics of interesting stuff we stumbled upon as we wandered around on a wet Saturday morning...

The "new" NRC logo from the 60's when the Japanese
and Chinese brought in Diesel Electric trains

Unfortunately those diesel electrics didn't last too long...

This is an interesting one. Fingering through a bunch of old drawings, George & I found some drawings of the carriages that were built for the Queen's first visit to Nigeria back in 1956 (when she was barely 30)
Here's a little blurb from African Affairs, in April 1956

Royal Tour of Nigeria

The Queen, accompanied by Prince Philip, in February carried out a tour of Nigeria lasting three weeks which took them to all the Regions. It was a memorable visit, not only because of its unprecedented success, but also because it was the first time that a reigning Monarch had set foot in this, the most important of the African colonies. For a colony it still is—though one on the brink of self-government, and a country, therefore, which pretty well runs its own affairs already.
Lagos, the Federal capital, was first to welcome the Royal party on January 28, A political truce had been agreed to by all while the Royal visit lasted, and in place of politics, the people of Nigeria busied themselves with great demonstrations of loyalty and happy festivities. However carefree her subjects might have been in those joyful three weeks, the Queen herself laced a complicated and exacting programme. Her patience, charm and affection for the Nigerian people never deserted her.
Perhaps the most impressive and symbolic part of the Royal visit was the Queen's visit to the Federal House of Representatives. Wearing a gown of ivory satin embroidered with pearls, a diamond tiara and the star and sash of the Order of the Garter, her Majesty walked in procession to the House preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms. She was received by the Speaker at the Bar of the House and conducted to the throne. The Duke of Edinburgh in white naval uniform, sat on her left, The Governor-General, the Chief Justice of the Federation, the Archbishop of West Africa and other dignitaries sat on her right.
The Speaker then read a loyal address, referring to the intense feeling of loyalty which the visit had created. The Minister of Transport, the Minister of Communications, and the Leader of the Opposition spoke in support of the address.
The Queen, in reply, spoke of "this most important stage of Nigeria's development." Nigeria was moving forward to what she was sure would be a happy and fortunate future and a place of increasing significance in the modern world, She regretted that difficulties of time and distance prevented her and the Duke of Ed arch from meeting more than a fraction of her subjects…”

The Office for Impractically Long Acronyms



The maintenance sheds are basically the same as the day they
were deserted (whenever that was...) tools are just lying around
as though they were left one day and no one ever came back.



If you're in the market for old train wheels, give me a call...