Lagos

By Barnaby Phillips in Africa on January 22nd, 2012
File 58061
A series of bomb blasts hit the northern city of Kano on Friday, killing at least 178 people [Reuters]

I bumped into an old friend at a book launch in London recently. She used to be a senior British diplomat, and is still involved in African affairs. The conversation quickly turned to Nigeria, a country that we are both passionate about, and that we visit regularly.
"I get the feeling that people in Lagos have been reacting to the violence in Northern Nigeria like we Londoners used to react to news from Northern Ireland during the Troubles of the 1970s and 1980s", she said. 
"They recognise that it's terribly sad, but it all feels so far away for many of them, not something that touches their day to day lives," she said. 
By Barnaby Phillips in Africa on April 22nd, 2011
Photo by Reuters

I was having dinner with two Nigerian friends in Lagos, just days before the recent presidential elections. One friend comes from the north of the country, the other from the south.

"There’s an ugly truth to this election campaign, which no-one is talking about," said the northerner.

“In the south, they won’t vote for Muhammadu Buhari simply because they don’t want to give power back to the north.  That’s all there is to it. We will vote along regional lines”, she explained.

By Barnaby Phillips in Africa on April 10th, 2011
Photo by AFP

It’s been ten years since I lived in this vast and heaving city, and much has changed.

Superficially, Lagos looks better. In some places it’s cleaner and tidier, (all those new road-signs), and greener (carefully tended trees and flowers along the embankments and roundabouts).

There are decent public buses, with designated lanes….and even working traffic-lights! All things are relative, of course, and a new comer would be overwhelmed by the congestion and notorious “go-slows”, which are as bad as ever, (and in many parts of the city, decidedly worse).

But credit where credit is due; Governor Babatunde Fashola seems to be a popular man, and many friends here believe he’s working hard to improve things.

Lagos, for most of its inhabitants, is still a stressful, exhausting city, but at least there is now a sense that some of those in charge are trying to make things better. And, sadly, that is not typical of Nigeria’s post-independence history.

By Barnaby Phillips in Africa on January 14th, 2011
Photo by EPA

When you think of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, what comes to mind? War, suffering and lawlessness, I bet.  Me too. So imagine my surprise when I came across an advertisement on the web the other day, from an airline I'd never heard of, Jubba Airlines,  offering flights to Mogadishu, surreally described as "a bustling city with lots to offer visitors".  

Intrigued, I read on. The blurb barely hinted at the chaos that has engulfed that unfortunate place these past twenty years, but instead extolled Mogadishu's rich cultural heritage. One can visit mosques and churches in the old city, "with its many white houses and small streets".  Or maybe you just want a sun-tan, or to shop for souvenirs?

By John Terrett in Americas on January 5th, 2010
Photo by Reuters

At Reagan National airport just outside Washington this morning the runways were still lined with ploughed snow from the biggest storm to hit the city in 80 years.
 
It was freezing cold and a bright but powerless sun was glinting off the US Capitol building in central DC, which could be seen about six miles away across the Potomac River.
 
I was at Reagan National because Federal authorities had just introduced increased random screening for all flights destined for the US from around the world.
 
For passengers from 14 countries in particular, however, the searches will be compulsory.
 
The 14 are the four countries cited by the US state department as sponsors of terrorism - Sudan, Syria, Iran and Cuba - plus a further 10 "countries of interest" which officials say are "terrorism-prone": Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

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