Wonders of Lagos

We know them as mshikaki in Kenya. The skewered mouth-watering pieces of roast meat we so relish turn into suya across the continent in Nigeria.

They are the same succulent stuff, but with a twist: they are garnished with very hot pepper, or pepe in Lagos, the burbling epicentre of Nollywood or Naija films if you like.

A smaller Lagos that in the olden days was the centre of Portuguese expeditions down the African Coast also sits along the Atlantic Ocean in Portugal.

Early Portuguese explorer Rui de Sequeira said to have discovered and named Lagos in 1472 AD could have started his voyage there.

Today, Nigeria’s commercial capital has eclipsed its namesake across the sea to become Africa’s largest metropolitan area. Lagos means “lake” in Portuguese.

The ubiquitous lagoons that characterise what Nigerians prefer to call “the city of excellence” could have influenced the naming.

Lagos and Victoria Islands, separated from each other by creeks running into the lagoons and linked by flyovers, form the core of its central business district where the city’s skyscrapers are concentrated.

They include Nigerian External Communications building that towers 160 metres on 32 floors, the Union Building rears into the skies at 124 metres on 28 floors and Independence House at 103 metres on 23 floors to name but a few.

Though smaller in size and population, Nairobi upstages Lagos with cloud piercing buildings. UAP Towers stands 163 metres on 33 floors, Times Towers 140 metres also on 33 floors and Teleposta 105 metres on 27 floors. The iconic Kenyatta International Convention Centre rises 105 metres on 28 floors.

Most of Lagos’s upscale and most expensive residential areas are located on the twin islands as well as largest wholesale markets, Idumota and Balogun.

Being a fan of Nigerian films, excitement consumed me the moment I exited Murtala Mohamed International Airport for a drive through the city of an estimated 17.5 million that pulsates with humanity and vehicular traffic.

Yes, this was Lagos. Those groggy, yellow matatus so common in Nigerian movies were all over, interspersed with tuk tuk taxis of the same colour and several motorcycles.

I had alighted from the plane apprehensive of Boko Haram, only to realise from the people’s relaxed mien that the bloody insurgent group is a non-issue here.

At Lagos, it is as though the violence in the north of the country is happening a country away.

Besides the bone shaker matatus and door-less tuk tuks, Lagos is home to some of the continent’s most luxurious and expensive vehicles, considering that 60 per cent of Nigeria’s 16,000 odd  dollar millionaires live in the metropolis.

Vehicles — from sleek limousines to ramshackle contraptions that provide transport to the hoi polloi —all have registration plates bearing the words Lagos, Centre of Excellence.

While that is true in the filming industry — the many centres of academic excellence including some of Africa’s largest universities and on the entrepreneurship front where some of the continent’s foremost industrialists call Lagos home — the excellence drowns in the decrepit infrastructure and squalor of the less affluent neighbourhoods.

The 500-year-old city that sits 135 feet above sea level is known to the dominant native Yoruba community of South Western Nigeria as Eko, the name adopted for the proposed ultra-modern Eko Atlantic City. It will occupy 3.5 kilometres of land recovered from the sea.

The main airport, Nigeria’s largest, is located on the mainland district of Ikeja.

Save for the thoroughfare jutting into the facility named in honour of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, a popular military ruler assassinated in a traffic jam in 1976, the roads in surrounding areas are either torn, potholed or cratered.

A downpour that had thinned into a drizzle as our aircraft touched down minutes to noon, local time, created a nightmare for motorists who had to endure diving in and out of the pretty deep potholes.

The resultant traffic jam was mind-boggling even to those of us who daily experience the notorious Nairobi gridlock.

After what looked like an endless maneuvering through the traffic mess, our vehicle hit the main road linking Lagos with Abeokuta, to take us to our destination at a sprawling university just outside the city in Ogun State.

The dual carriageway is reasonably smooth but vehicles cannot travel fast enough given their large numbers.

Hawkers, some balancing wide loads of wares on their heads, engage in a perpetual hide and seek game with vehicles, risking it all to earn a living in this most crowded city where population density can be as high as 13,000 souls per square kilometre in some sections. Lagos is truly a city of contrasts.

From the skyscrapers of Lagos, Ikoyi and Victoria Islands on one hand, to the squalor and clumsiness that obtains in the mainland suburbs where mounds of putrescent garbage are heaped on the medians of the Lagos-Abeokuta highway.

Residents on the chaotic mainland Lagos will tell you how they endure commutes through traffic snarl ups that prompt some of them to carry containers to relieve themselves in. It is that serious.

People who want to catch flights at Murtala Mohamed International Airport are advised to be on the road three to four hours before departure time.

To the north East of Ikeja is the suburb of Agege where an aeroplane crashed in residential buildings in June, 2012, killing all the 153 people on board and 10 others on the ground.

Apapa, across Lagos harbour is the Kilindini of Lagos, the site of a major container terminal. The port is among Africa’s busiest, with crude oil as a major export product.

The harbour is by itself a tourist attraction.

Other places of interest include the National Museum of Nigeria on Lagos Island, Tinubu Square, a historical site on Lagos Island where the Amalgamation Ceremony that unified the North and South protectorates to form Nigeria took place in 1914, the Glover Memorial Hall and the Tafawa Balewa Square.