Nigerian FAQ

Regularly people ask me - what is life like over there? When I first came I sent out a series of massive missives - but then life got busy and I got less reflective and I took part more and watched less. A god child of mine recently wanted to do a report for school and sent me a bunch of questions, and I dashed off some answers. No great reflection or editing or auditing. But having done that, I thought I’d share them. Don’t expect profundity but a slice of how I quickly responded. Funny, no one ever seems to want to come to visit.

Love to all

John S

Okay - this is going to be down and dirty, unreflected, just lived. The observations of one fuzzy guy who has been here for about eight years. I’ll follow your list of questions, just for ease and convenience.

1. Are the tensions and the violence in your neighborhood politically motivated? -if so, can you elaborate?

1. Nope - most of the violence and tension here is economic - armed robbers and poor people out for whatever they can get. Or people strained and suffering because there is no work, no money, high overcrowding and eventually they blow up. People are fighting back - but that’s more violence. Vigilante groups are on the rise, people are forming neighborhood associations hire guards, put up gates and fences and restrict access. Necklacing is on the increase - a group catches a robber and kills him on the spot. They take old tires, put the man inside, douse it all with gasoline and light him up. Two days ago a crowd caught two men accused of trying to steal a motorcyle, and they couldn’t find a tire so they doused them and lit them. Both died. Now one could say the economic deterioration is political - the politicians have been stealing the money - but the biggest tensions here are economically based.

2. Are there still many Ibo tribe (Biafran?) nationalists speaking out against the Nigerian government?

2. Yup. But also Yoruba and Hausa and Ijaw and Bini - there are over 400 tribes in Nigeria, and depending on the issue, most don’t like the government. The Ogoni feel the government is keeping from them their share of oil rights and profits. The Hausa feel the Yoruba President is unfair to the north. The Igbo have never forgiven the Yoruba for what they see as the betrayal of the war. And so on. No one, however, is seriously suggesting a separate country, a la Biafra. More individual states to cater to the needs and desires of tribal groups, but within the confederation. Right now, only one state (Lagos) is economically viable. All the others depend on the federal government for funding support, which comes from the oil. If the country splits, who gets the oil? That’s the key that holds things together - greed.

3. Is there a certain tribal group that holds the majority of government positions?

3. Hard to say - used to be (in the federal government) that the bulk of top positions went to the Hausa. May not be true. Also used to be that most of the #2 spots were Igbo - and that is probably still true. State and local government are heavily biased toward the local indigenous, and within that, to the tribal group of the governor or local head. We take care of our own first, so if I get a job, I hire my family, then my tribe. Probably more Igbo in higher level spots.

4. As a missionary, do you feel responsible for helping to maintain peace in Lagos and the greater Nigerian community?

4. Nope. In fact, some times I think the job of the expatriate missionary is to stir things up. Nigerians have a great capacity for bearing suffering - I think that may go back to the war and the suffering people saw there - I have never seen a people who can take so much abuse without exploding, without fighting back, even passively. Part of it is the exaggerated respect that elders get in this culture, which extends to people in office, even if they obtained the office at the point of a gun. To a Westerner it looks like ass-kissing (you’ll have to re-phrase that for your teacher) but it is more the respect you owe to the man on the throne. (And I don’t mean toilet.) So when Abacha was dictator, I made fun of him from the pulpit. Highlighted his crimes, preached against accepting what was being dealt out. Peace at any price is too expensive.

5. Is your congregation diverse tribally? Are there certain ethnicities that are mostly Christian today?

5. First of all, remember I don’t have a congregation. I’m an administrator. (You don’t think they’d trust ME with a church, do you?) Igbo are mostly Catholic. Christianity in the east is mostly Catholic. In the south and middle belt there are varieties of Christian groups, but Catholics are the largest Christian group. In the North, Muslims dominate, but there is a Christian and a Catholic presence, and larger than the Muslims want to admit. Lagos is a special case - we are to Nigeria what New York is to the US - large and not reflective of the country because there are so many people (somewhere between 12 and 16 million in Lagos and that there is a 4 million spread in the estimates gives you some idea of what trying to do a statistical survey here is like) fromall over the country and the world.

6. Are there very many universities in the country today? Do the most scholarly students still travel the England for their education?

6. There are some universities but the state of education in the country has fallen to appalling levels. Besides the strike and shut-downs, which means it routinely takes six years to complete a 4 year program, the libraries don’t have books in them (literally). You can get a degree in computer science without ever (EVER!) having put your hands on a computer. Students in music classes are given a large sheet of paper on which they keys of the piano have been drawn and they practice on those, since most can’t gain access to a piano. Bribery is rampant - you pay for good test results to get it, teachers sell students notes which are needed to pass the exams, and if you can’t produce an original set of notes, you don’t even get into take the exam, but you can also bribe the teacher for good grades. If the teacher is honest, then you bribe the administrator. Or you bribe someone to take the exam for you. Since the secondary schools are awful, you can imagine the level of education of the students who get in, and then bribe their way through. Not true for all, but corrupts the system to a point where it is hard to see anything working. Anyone who can get out does, but it’s expensive and unless you have gone to a private school, you can’t gain admission at any reputable school outside the country anyway.
7. Is there one tribal group that is, in general, better educated than the others? I've read that the Ibo people usually were.

7. Hard to say - Igbo are ambitious and pushy and kept the traditions and standards of the church schools even after the government took over all the schools. Muslims are the worst educated and the schools in the north are a disgrace. Yoruba tend to be literary. If one had to pick, Igbo. But Tiv are very smart when they get the chance... too many choices.

8. Is the city of Lagos very diverse tribally and racially? Are there many Caucasians in the city?

8. See above. For many years Lagos was the capital and still is the home of most embassies, although the government is exerting heavy pressure to get people to move to Abuja, the new capital. Lagos remains the economic capital, and so the oil companies, their subsidiaries and support companies and other still focus here. Lebanese are the largest expatriates - many Indians in trade, Italians, Americans tend to be oil-related. Great Chinese and oriental restaurants, Indian, Italian - it’s an energetic and exciting (and dangerous) place to live.

9. In your experience, does it seem that Great Britain has any control over the country? Do they still rely greatly on England for aid?

9. Very little influence - aid comes from many sources now, including Muslim organizations who want to influence Nigeria to become a Muslim State. There are economic forces in the country tied to Britain, and remnants of English culture that have become absorbed. I almost always wear Nigerian dress. When I was in the Lagos Rotary, most of the members wore suits and ties. This is a climate hot and humid, where air conditioning breaks down more than it works. It is not a sensible mode of dress, but that’s how they were taught when the Brits were here. Much of the public ceremony is very formal, judges wear wigs - there are strange hearkening backs to the British, but no direct connections. Nigeria is a member of the Commonwealth, but enjoys only some of the privileges.

10. What kinds of precautions has your compound taken to keep its inhabitants safe? Why are these precautions so necessary?

10. Pray and live dangerously. We have two German shepherds who have been trained tobe actively hostile to black people. Not racist, just that if there is an armed robber, chances are about 99.9% he’s going to be Black. We have high gates and a watchman at the gate 24 hours a day night and day. We hate it - until recently we had low gates and the gates were open all day long, and the symbolism of the open gate was a very important image for me. But the reality of changing times persuaded me that since I was responsible for the lives of others, it was foolish not to take elementary precautions. What is true for our house is true for virtually all - all the windows have bars, we have spikes on top of the walls, we have an alarm system and bright night lights, we are cautious about admitting strangers, our residence has a steel security door on the interior staircase.

11. I know that you have witnessed a fair amount of violence since you've lived in Lagos. Could you tell me about some of your experiences?

11. In 93 when the election was annulled, the crowds rioted and took over the streets. Police and soldiers disappeared and the crowds ruled Lagos. Toward the end of the week, when it seemed clear that Abiola was not going to announce and nothing was happening, the soldiers started to return, and their method of crowd control was to shoot randomly into the crowd. During that week I went for a walk in our neighborhood and found six bodies- they had tried to rob a local store and the owner had a gun. I watched soldiers shoot into a crowd killing 11 - an incident that the government denied ever happened. I’ve seen necklacing and of course was lying next to the policeman when the assassins shot him, his blood and brains were on my trousers when I stood up. I could go on, but you get the idea. It is possible to live in your compound and never see any violence, but if you go out and travel around....

12. Do you believe that Nigeria is a more unified nation than it was in the late 1960s and 1970s? Have you noticed significant improvement since you've been there?

12. No and no. The civil war created rifts in the national fabric that have never healed, and the discovery of oil hastened the widening gaps in the country. Since I’ve been here, the deterioration in many sectors has been striking. When I came the naira was 23 to a dollar. Today it is 105. Roads fall apart, corruption continues, the school system is a joke, phones, electricity is a national scandal, no house or business can exist without a generator - there are neighborhoods that have not had electricity for six and eight months, where they have not had water for three years. We tried for seven years to get a digital phone. The problem? As a matter of policy we refused to pay the bribes. Nope, things are not getting better.

13. Is religion a source of conflict among the Nigerian people?

13. Yup, big time. Islam in Nigeria is aggressive, and so the Muslims are constantly pushing for their own states, their own laws - witness the recent riots over the attempts to install Sharia law in the north - There have been several attempts to put Nigeria into the camp of Muslim states, which the Christians have fought. On the other side, militants claim that Christianity is the religion of the colonialists and some argue for a return to native religions. Fundamentalist groups have made great headway - charismatic presentations, simple (simplistic) belief structure, reliance on miracles, and damnation of anyone who doesn’t agree with you. Religion here is big business and there are thousands of storefront churches - except they are more often in a front yard. Three benches, a loudspeaker and a banner and you’ve got yourself a church. Sometimes the conflict is real basic - a neighbor who objects to an all-night vigil run through the loudspeaker at the highest setting. Sometimes it is economic - the Muslims in the north fight the Christians -but the muslims are hausa and the Christians are Igbo - and the Muslims are envious of the higher paying jobs the Igbos get. Now - is that a religious conflict, or a tribal conflict, or an economic conflict? Yes. To all three.

14. As a priest, are you and your colleagues an important force in keeping peace in your community? How?

14. See above. Some are. The Church provides an avenue for coming together, it provides hope in a hopeless situation, it provides essentially free entertainment seven nights a week, it provides food and support, especially in a large city setting where the usual family and tribal supports don’t always work. This helps to keep the peace. We provide education, and the more poorly educated, the easier to be manipulated.

15. What are the living conditions like for most people there? Are they rather livable?

15. Average annual wage in Nigeria is under $230. Now, bear in mind much of Nigeria is rural, farms and villages and subsistence existence and money doesn’t play a major role. Still.... here in Lagos, mountains of garbage throughout the city. No lights on the streets, many areas without water and electricity. Some live in small houses without windows - so thieves can’t break in. When NEPA fails, they sleep outside because it is too hot inside. Malaria kills thousands without it ever being noted. Local medicine and healers kill thousands more. No one can get an accurate AIDS estimate because it is too often undiagnosed, treated by a local healer as a case of someone putting on a curse, and in the Muslim tradition, bodies have to be buried within 24 hours after death, so autopsies are few and far between and the results suspect. Four years ago, the British Council did a lot of work and estimated that 90% of the street prostitutes were infected. In some places, a street prostitute goes for 50 naira - 50 cents. Condoms are usually not an option, since they cost more than that. Agencies give them away but the hookers usually re-sell them, or at the least, re-use them. Small children - 2 and 3 years old - run in between the cars in the traffic jams begging for money, or distracting you so an older child can steal something. Older children are in the same streets selling.

Those with jobs don’t always get paid - we had someone over for dinner last night who is an accountant. He has received no salary for 14 months. Teachers get paid (when they get paid) less than $50 a month. Transport is poor, dangerous, expensive and always overcrowded. Where I live, ifi you work in Lagos, you leave two hours ahead of time to get to work. My secretary commutes almost 5 hours a day, coming and going. She’s delighted - she’s got a good job, is paid well and on time and is advancing herself. The commute? What you have to do to live. Cholera kills a lot - tb is prevalent here, polio has not been eradicated and many of the beggars on the street are polio victims. It is very hot and always humid. Two seasons - rainy and dry.

16. Is there anything else you can tell me that could give insight into what life is like for you and other people there?

The hardest thing to explain to people who have never lived here is the whole notion of culture - these are people who see things differently, who have a whole different set of values. Westerners wonder why they can’t do something simple like make stairs where the risers are all the same height, or steps that are level. Why painters spill paint everywhere? It’s not that they don’t care, they literally don’t see that. They see the paint on the wall, and they don’t see the paint on the floor. Human values are important - there is always time to talk, if a guest comes, you drop everything and stay with them as long as it takes. In business, this means a deadline has no meaning, because there is always an excuse - sometimes no NEPA, sometimes no worker - but the real reason is it’s just not important. In this culture, if I have a goat, I invite all the neighbors and we all eat goat. Now, there may be no goat left for tomorrow - but who cares? Tomorrow someone else may have a goat. This translates to what Westerners see as theft - if I (a white guy) have something and a Nigerian needs it, he does not hesitate to take it. Because in his mind, if he had something and I needed it, I could take it from him. The fact that I do have things and he doesn’t, to his mind simply proves the point. Lying? No such thing. You always tell the master what he wants to hear. What you think he wants to hear. That’s the job of a servant. (That another relic from the colonial times, everyone is Master.) If you ask a Nigerian if he can do something, the answer is yes. Can you fix this camera? Ah Master, no problem. Now this man has never held a camera in his life and may well try a hammer and chisel, but he is absolutely confident in his ability to do anything. Education and experience? Ah, white man’s words.

Do what you can with all this rambling. Sorry it’s not more organized or coherent, but you know me, coherence has never been a strong point. Ask if there is anything that needs further clarification..

There is a web site for the Guardian newspaper, probably the best of the Nigerian papers - probably something like - www. Guardian.ng - there is also a Nigeria web page, government sponsored so take that with more than a grain of salt.

Good luck

John s