ADEREMI'S NOTEBOOK

— Teju Cole has a blog about his trip to Nigeria along with some great photos. This should compensate for my boring notes from agidigbi (1)

Notes from Agidigbi (3)

I made a few observations during my trip to Lagos.

At Heathrow, a British guy holding naira notes in a transparent bag approached me. He wanted to sell me naira notes. I politely refused. It just looked wrong. I am probably making a fuss out of something that is probably common to other frequent Nigerian travellers. Nigerians do carry a lot of stuff. Did you know that only flights to Nigeria and America have a 32kg weight limit per bag, other countries have a mere 20kg limit.

First guy I spoke said to, “dude I thought you said you were based in London” It seemed my sessions with Ben TV had paid off.

The only form of transport that guarantees your arrival to a destination on time is the okada. It is not the safest I might add.

National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) has changed its name to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). As the name suggests, it is holding power. It can choose to take or release the power as it wishes. The smart way to outmanoeuvre the PHCN is have both diesel and petroleum generators.

A nice house in Ikoyi will cost you 80 million naira (£0.32 million). If you are after some capital gain, I suggest you get a few plots near Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Lagos is expanding outward.

All the fun is on the Island (Victoria Island, Lekki, Ikoyi). If you go to Silverbird Galleria in December/January, you will definitely find someone you know regardless of where you have been in last 7years.

I think most Expatriates in Lagos hang out at Saipan. If you are visiting Nigeria, at least you know where to find your people.

Takeaway is big business in Nigeria, so many of joints now (Big treat, Mr Biggs etc). Even Ogun state has a Mr Biggs. A nice meal (pounded yam with efo and assorted meat) will cost you 700 naira (£3) compared with £14 in Nigerian restaurants in London.

Remember Video clubs? Well those clubs have disappeared. Pushed out of business by VCD and DVD technologies, which are extremely cheap to purchase.

There are more local TV stations (AIT, Mbi, MiTV, Silverbird TV) in Lagos. I noticed DBN has ceased to exist. Nollywood movies have replaced the 10pm slot for Hollywood movies at most stations.

I can now do the electric slide.

I think Glo has the coolest brand in the Nigerian telecoms sector. I still can’t believe that MTN is making that much money, someone send me the company’s financial statement.

Lagos and lovin’ it (8)

Currently I am in Lagos. The flight to Lagos was full of various events. I will update later.

Nigeria homecoming (10)

After making so much noise about my plans to tour the world (Ok I did go to Spain), I finally picked up a ticket to Nigeria. Who plans to go to Singapore and Malaysia, then books a ticket to Nigeria? Well me. My defence - I was hoping my bank manager at NatWest would not authorise the transaction. He did.

7years and finally returning to see what has changed in my beautiful country. I am very excited but a little nervous. Started practising my “broken english (pidgin)” again after years of misplaced Queen’s English speaking. As friends will testify, “This guy too dey blow fone”. I have been reading Lagos Live religiously.

Everyone in my family thinks I will get bored. 28 days is a long time, so they tell me. I fly out later this week, still unpacked. As you would expect, my people have started sending me stuff to carry for them.

I think it would be cool to meet up with other Nigerian bloggers in Lagos. Ideas are welcomed!

Virgin Nigeria CEO resigns (1)

Maybe airlines should be owned by national governments (tax payers). Ok maybe not, a charity status perhaps. Most airlines are not profitable apart from Ryanair and Emirates. Nevertheless it was very gratifying to learn that Nigerian Airways had been reborn as Virgin Nigeria. A year later, the honeymoon ended with its pioneer CEO, Mr. Simon Harford resigning last week. Of course the fact that the international airport at Lagos has only one functional runway (18L) which is overused and cracking away was probably not a factor. (via)

4 ways to spend money (0)

Dead and Taxes are almost certain. High Taxes is debatable. Allow me to steal a post from TMF about the Nobel prizewinner, Milton Friedman:

There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.

Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.

Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!

Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.

Eh did someone mention Dubai? Oh I need a part time job, I need to travel? Any Ideas? Singapore?

— Naija Airways; If our engines are too noisy for you, on passenger request, we can arrange to turn them off! #

Virgin Nigeria (13)

It seems it is Virgin Group Month here. Yesterday, I posted about Virgin Galactic.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic has entered into a partnership to form a National Carrier to be called ‘Virgin Nigeria‘.

“With the appointment of Virgin, it has been agreed that the new flag carrier will bear the name ‘Virgin Nigeria’ for commercially prudent reason. The airline would be authentically Nigerian, covered by the Virgin brand, which has been quite successful in its various businesses,” Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda

I like the bit that it says commercially prudent. I think the company is begining to see some influx of foriegn, lets hope that is it is the start of a lot more to come.

Even though privately owned, it remains the collective property of the Nigerian nation and people and its existence must be reflective of this fact,” he added. He, however, regretted the unwillingness of Nigerian Airline Operators to respond to earlier invitations to be part of the flag carrier project but expressed hope that they would avail themselves of the new opportunities offered by the coming of Virgin Nigeria.

It is slightly discouraging that the local operators refused to join the venture. Nigeria Airways, the last national carriage before it disappeared had alot of teething problem including bad debt, bad management and entry refusal to certain parts of the world because of political reasons at that time. Richard Branson is more connected and experienced in the aviation industry so having him on board could get Nigeria the National Carriage to be proud of.

Come fly with me (0)

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has formed Virgin Galactic with the intent to take the average man to Space. It does not come cheap, apparently I will need around £115,000 in the bank before I can speak to Virgin Galactic.