…..Of course everyone, including Nigerians, tell me this is far, far different than most of the rest of the country—especially Lagos. Abuja was created around 1992 to be the new capital of Nigeria after horrendous violence had divided almost all the rest of the country. Today Abuja represents what the government would like for the rest of the country to be—clean, modern, and relatively violence free. However, it’s still not recommended I wander off the hotel compound by myself—especially at night. The hotel is very self-contained: three restaurants, several lounges, a sports bar, shops, and basically everything I could need—albeit at outrageous prices. I have eaten a couple of times at the Mongolian BBQ but most evenings I go down to the sports bar by the pool and eat a pizza, a hamburger or chicken wings—you know, the really healthy food that only costs about half as much as at the restaurants.
I have a couple of Nigerian contacts at the Embassy and they have taken care of everything involving the training and the first week went especially well and smooth by US State Department standards. I’ve been here a week and haven’t talked with a single US citizen but that’s not that unusual. Security, as you would imagine, is at high alert all the time. The embassy was moved to Abuja in 2005 so the building is still fairly new. From the road, it looks like a prison—surrounded by razor wire, guards everywhere, concrete barriers and blast-proof windows starting at the third floor level. Basically a really ugly building….. The United Nations building that was basically destroyed by a truck bomb last August is just down the road.
Like most African nations, security is a big business here in Nigeria. You have soldiers, police, traffic officers, tourist police, and hundreds of private security companies. The trick is knowing who is responsible for what. The use of force by security varies depending on the level of the security agency. Tourist police simply watch crowds and attempt to negotiate a compromise in cases such as a store owner taking advantage of tourists or they may run off street vendors who become too aggressive. Traffic wardens are unarmed and stand in the middle of intersections and attempt to direct traffic. Since most traffic lights here don’t work, it is a thankless and very dangerous job and most motorists simply ignore them. After that, the security gets more complicated and involves the carrying of batons, pistols, automatic rifles and even shotguns. But even the carrying of guns can be misleading.
Several years ago I was working in Equatorial Guinea which is possibly one of the most repressive governments in Africa. There are road blocks everywhere and most of them are to extort money from drivers. We were in a training vehicle with a British driver when we were stopped at a roadblock by an obviously very drunk soldier who was extremely belligerent. The soldier was leaning in the driver window and waving his gun barrel inside the vehicle but the British guy didn’t seem too concerned. When he finally realized we weren’t going to give him any money, he slapped the top of the vehicle and waved us on. Later I asked the driver if the gun being pointed inside the vehicle didn’t bother him and his answer was “No, the drunk soldier was wearing a purple beret and they don’t give them ammunition.” So, not everybody walking around Abuja with a gun has ammunition but I don’t know which do and which don’t so I keep a low profile.
We did have an interesting situation Thursday after work when we were being transported back to the hotel. There was a major intersection without a traffic warden and traffic was unbelievably snarled. It was basically gridlocked and nobody would back up or let anybody else go in front. We sat there about five minutes and a soldier showed up and tried to sort it out. The military don’t usually do traffic control but this guy was trying to get people to back up and let others through and even though he was screaming and yelling, nobody was paying attention to him. All of a sudden he pulled his pistol out and pointed it into the air and it was amazing how fast people started throwing their cars into reverse and backing up. I’m assuming he probably did carry ammunition.
At any given moment there are literally hundreds of security officers around the hotel grounds and some of them are carrying automatic weapons and I don’t question for a minute that they do have ammunition. The Nigerian Army has soldiers stationed at the entrances and I’ve seen an armored carrier parked outside the main entrance several days. I do feel safe here, however.
Nigeria as lots of oil and of course that attracts lots of people wanting that oil. It’s interesting in the lobby of the hotel at any given time: you have American and European businessmen; Arab oil sheiks, and Nigerian businessmen in Western clothing as well as traditional clothing. For several days I would see in the morning and in the evening a group of about twelve men in very ornate and intricate clothing that looked much like what we visualize the Three Wise Men looking like: very ornate robes and cloaks with head turbans wound around the tops of their heads. I asked my contact at the embassy and he told me they are palace guards. In Nigeria, there are still sultans who consider themselves royalty and, since they control considerable areas of oil-rich land, nobody really confutes them. These men in ornate robes are their palace guards and what was really distinctive about them was the fact that not one of them was probably under seven feet tall and several were well over that.
And it's possible to see all types of ethnic clothing in the lobby.....
This Hilton is very large, I would guess with as many as 3,000 rooms and since I’ve been here, they’ve been getting into the holiday spirit. Nigerian has very large populations of Muslims and Christians and Christmas is very prominently celebrated here. The hotel has decorated with Christmas trees, holly and lights everywhere and Wednesday evening, they had a choir in the lobby singing traditional Christmas songs and they were really outstanding.
For lunch during the day, we’ve been going to a local restaurant named “Mama Cas
s.” I don’t know if it has any direct reference to the singer of the 1960s but they have traditional Nigerian food and I’ve been very careful but so far haven’t had any negative repercussions.
Every African town or city has a central craft market and here in Abuja it is conveniently located on the grounds of the Hilton Hotel which means it’s safe and the vendors aren’t nearly as aggressive as other places I’ve gone. Basically the goods are the usual wooden masks, beads, pottery and lower to mid-level quality souvenirs that I usually refer to as “Africrap.” What gets me, though, is the hotel brochure describing the village: “It has various collections including such amazing treasures dating as far back as the 15th century slave trade era.” Yeah right—I think Blackbeard may have worn these beads……
