One week in Lagos

I went to Nigeria one week for business. Actually this is the only way to visit the country if you are not a local because the Nigerian Government does not issue tourist visas.

I spent the whole week in Lagos, a city port and the commercial capital of the country. With a population between 17.5 and 21 million of people, this is the largest city in Africa. In a country where kidnapping white people is the national sport, the security rules of my company were very strict and my movements very limited.

My working day started at 7.30 when a small van came to pick us up at the hotel to take us to the business district, on Lagos Island. Every day the van took a different way to go to work so that allowed me seeing “a little bit of the country”. The offices were in a secured area where security is granted by private companies. When you see that local people’s guns are bigger than police’s guns you say to yourself that it is private security is ok. Inside the protected enclosure I had a little bit of freedom and sometimes I went to have lunch and a small tour by myself. However there was not much to see apart from a private club, few restaurants and some streets with private houses. Our working day finished at 5:30 when the van picked us up back to the hotel. Once in the hotel we could chat or have some drinks with colleagues in the public areas, otherwise one stayed in his room. The hotel was located by the beach and it also had swimming pool. We were not allowed to go to the beach but from what I saw from the garden that was not a big sacrifice, lol