Christmas Eve in Lagos. I’m told by Chris that the traffic is a little worse today, especially heading to the Supermarkets and market in Lekke, which are both on my hitlist for this morning. Instead of following the main roads, we duck down some of the back routes of varying surface quality. Drivers down these back roads are a little crazier than those on the main roads, if such a thing is possible. Even so, it takes a good while for us to cover the distance.
Driving through Lekke is like driving through the middle of a field of construction, with great open spaces awaiting development. Along the roadside are hundreds of merchants waiting for the traffic to build up so they can walk in between the cars caught in the inevitable go-slow – or traffic jam – and tout their wares.
After a while, the car pulls off the main road onto a dusty track, winding about stalls filled with merchandise of all types. Chris manoeuvres the car into a fenced area, and as he does, scores of children spot the oyiebos – white men – in the car and come running up alongside, following us to where we park. I take a deep breath and step out the car. My brother and I are swarmed with hands reaching out for us to shake as they shout their names and tell us to remember them.
This wasn’t unexpected. Eventually, one of the older boys seems to take control and chases away the others until it’s just him and a younger lad called David who accompanies us. Their role is to point stalls of interest and to carry anything we buy. At the end, we’ll give them a ‘Dash’ for their efforts. Chris shows us around the market, and does a little negotiation on our behalf as we pick up some fruit and vegetables – mangos, pineapple, tomatoes and potent little peppers. My brother is offered a DVD loaded with 48 movies, which he decides isn’t bad value. Chris negotiates the merchant down from 1500 Naira to 500, about £2.50. Everything out here is negotiable, especially when oyiebo is involved. As you can imagine, the price they offer the first time around is vastly inflated.
We see a lot of African art, carvings and beads, clothing and more knock-off DVDs than you can shake a stick at. Movies only just coming out at home are available for purchase on pirate DVD and I’m told, though I can’t confirm, that the quality is pretty good.
After a while wandering the market we jump back in the Toyota Pradu and head for the Supermarket, still in Lekke but a good half hour in traffic and around some sneaky back-ways that Chris knows. Entering the mall, you could be anywhere. The supermarket is packed – everyone is stocking up at the last minute for Christmas. As I said, you really could be anywhere.
What strikes me most about the supermarket and the mall surrounding is how expensive everything is. These really are luxury goods. There is a lot of money rolling about Nigeria, and hard as it might be to believe, most of it is in the pockets of Nigerians. There are a lot more millionaires, per capita, in Nigeria than there are in the UK. There are also a lot more per capita below the poverty line. It is very much a country of extremes.
Tonight we will be heading down to the yacht club for small chop – food – and carols. It’s a little slice of tradition with a Nigerian flavour, and given that there’s a bar involved, promises to hold just the right sort of tradition for me.
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