Settling down

Four days in and we’re settling down to life in Abuja. The children are acclimatising to the heat and having to clean their teeth with bottled water, I'm adapting (pretty quickly, it must be said) to having someone else to do the washing and ironing and Simon is adjusting to watching the Five Nations with South African commentary. We've unpacked our cases, become regulars at our nearest swimming pool and are starting to be able to find our way through the city. I'm still not used to the UHT milk or the sporadic nature of our internet access, but we're getting there. 

Abuja is a pretty easy place to navigate, being relatively small and fairly well-planned. The purpose-built city officially became the nation's capital in December 1991 and is situated within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) - an area of about 8000 square kilometres. Abuja is home to governmental and administrative offices, the Nigerian parliament, the presidential villa, embassies, aid agencies and numerous associated consultancies and businesses. Distinguishing landmarks include the Aso Rock, the National Mosque, the National Christian Centre and the as-yet-unfinished Millennium Tower. Designed to be Nigeria's tallest building and due for completion in 2011 (to mark Abuja's 20-year anniversary), it remains a construction site, joining the list of many hundreds of half-completed projects around the city. On almost every street one sees abandoned residential blocks or offices, which adds a rather strange half-finished feel to the city (the reasons for this merits a separate blog post, with many of these projects apparently being a front for money laundering). 

Abuja is located in the geographical centre of Nigeria, with the states of Kaduna to the north, Niger to the west, Kogi to the south-west and Plateau state (from whence most of the FCT's fruit and vegetables derive) to the east/south-east. The population of Abuja is approximately a million people, although another three million live in the greater metropolitan area (of which more anon - this is in itself a controversial states of affairs). Daily life in Abuja is very expensive - and astronomical in relation to the average Nigerian wage. There are several good restaurants in the city, but prices are not dissimilar to those in the UK. There are also a growing number of Western-style supermarkets selling imported consumer goods - which is handy if you fancy paying £10 for a small block of cheese.

The rainy season runs roughly from March to October, with the heaviest rains being in July/August. We are currently nearing the end of the Harmattan season, which is the coldest and driest time of year (it being a mere 29'C most days), with the Harmattan wind blowing red dust down from the Sahara and covering the city is a dusty haze. Thus far, the climate is very pleasant and we haven't suffered too much at all from the Harmattan dust. Abuja gets a pretty bad press from Nigerians and ex-pats alike for being bland, devoid of character and without much to offer socially (I should add that the page on the official FCT website headed 'Giving Abuja a Character' is rather amusingly completely devoid of content), but I would argue that bright sunshine every morning certainly beats the flooding taking place in the UK at the moment and, from the little we've seen, Abuja seems a pretty pleasant place to be. I'm not sure I'd give it quite the rave review that the FCT website does, but it is encouraging to find someone being enthusiastic about the place: 

" Abuja is in tune with nature with abundant hills, highlands and other distinguishing features that make it a delight to behold. A scene that cannot be missed about Abuja is the coming together of the Savannah grassland of the north and the middle belt with the richness of the tropical rain forests of the south. This marriage of nature has ensured that Nigeriaʼs capital is endowed with fertile land for agriculture and at the same time a yearly climate that is neither too hot nor too cold ".

 

Whether our favourable initial impressions are justified remains to be seen, but we've already met some really interesting people and there is certainly more to this city than meets the eye - as long as one makes the effort to get out and explore. We chose to come to Abuja because we wanted to experience life in Nigeria and try to understand the country and its people for ourselves, rather than through the (inevitably distorted) lens of the international media. The limited coverage of Nigeria in the West tends to focus either on the worst of Nigeria (Boko Haram, corruption, massive wealth inequality) or rave about the untapped economic growth and commercial potential of Africa's most populous nation. What I'm interested in is learning more about is the reality between these two extremes, understanding what daily life feels like here, discovering more about the vibrant literary and arts scene and understanding more about Nigeria's rich and varied cultural heritage. That should be enough to keep me busy for a while. I'll keep you posted...