Shaking hands with Hafsat Abiola

I recently attended a production of Seven, the story of Seven inspirational women, from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Russia and of Hafsat Abiola from Nigeria. You may remember the story of Mukhtar Mai, which became international news, she was gang raped as a child by another family as an “honour” punishment, and instead of committing suicide as society expected of her, she brought her rapists to justice and started building schools for women and girls, unfortunately her fight is not over.  The part of each woman was read by an actor, the stories are of pain, but of hope as each woman fought for her own rights and those of others.


Hafsat Abiola from Nigeria, was a student in America when she was asked to sign a petition to release the newly elected Nigerian president, Moshood Abiola from prison, the man was her father.


1993 – Ibrahim Babangida allows elections, but when civilian Moshood Abiola wins, he reneges, annuls the elections and throws Abiola into jail


1998 – Abacha dies suddenly and is succeeded by Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar. Chief Abiola is found dead in his prison cell a month later. (from Bradt Nigeria Guide)


After the production, Hafsat Abiola who was in the audience, spoke about the show, it was the first time she had seen it performed in Nigeria, and also spoke about the work she is doing to campaign for democracy. In April 2011, Nigeria’s 51st year, the next election will be held, Hafsat is part of a campaign called Enough is Enough encouraging people to RSVP, Register to Vote, Select, Vote, Protect your vote by calling for accountability.
 As Nigeria approaches these elections, if you are someone who prays then please pray, for a calm free fair peaceful election, with an outcome that is good for Nigeria and Nigerians.


And whatever happens don’t give up, Hafsat closed with this poem, by Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary General of the United Nations, who died in a plane crash during the time he was trying to bring peace to the Congo


Tired
And lonely,
So tired
The heart achesMeltwater trickles
Down the rocks,
The fingers are numb,
The knees tremble.
It is now,
Now that you must not give in.

On the path of the others
Are resting places,
Places in the sun
Where they can meet.
But this
Is your path,
And it is now,
Now that you must not fail.

Weep
If you can,
Weep,
But do not complain.
The way chose you-
And you must be thankful.

Back to Bida!

If you read my blog back in the “summer” if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, you will have read about Bida. We had a project to install efficient wood-burning stoves in a school. Traditionally around 60% of cooking in Nigeria uses a traditional “three stone” fire, causing smoke in the kitchen, which affects peoples’ health, according to the WHO 79,000 Nigerians die annually of Indoor Air Pollution, and burning inefficiently hence using even more wood than is necessary.

Cooking on wood

When I last wrote we were working with GTZ to source an international stove expert, we did and he is Fred Colgan, from Oregon in the US. He agreed to bring three stoves, install them in the school and train the cooks in their use.


DHL – Delivered Horribly Late!


The stoves were shipped with DHL – now we have all seen adverts for DHL, when whatever you need magically arrives at another part of the world the following day! Well not in my experience, our stoves spent a week in Amsterdam, and a week in Lagos, before they finally arrived. But I did learn some new pidgin English in the process. One day when I had progressed from calling DHL four times daily to sitting in their office in Abuja, my contact telephoned his colleague in Lagos to check the whereabouts of our shipment, “call me back sharp sharp the client is in my front!”


Finally the stoves arrived, and then so did Fred. Fred went off to Bida with my colleague Okey to install the stoves and train the cooks, I got to visit for a day and see what progress they were making. When I arrived at Bida, the stoves had been installed, the cooks loved them and were cooking using 12% of the wood they used using a “three-stone fire”. One of the cooks said “with the new stoves, my eyes don’t water, my chest doesn’t hurt, my back doesn’t ache and the baby on my back has stopped crying.”

 Fred was also highly popular with the girls at the school as you can see in the photos!

 Two weeks later we had an official commissioning with the Dr. Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu , Executive Governor of Niger State Government, represented by the Commissioner for Education, who said in his speech, that “we (the government) shall ensure that this pilot programme goes into all our boarding schools”.

This is me and the Swiss Ambassador, the Swiss Embassy funded the project

Fred and his fan club!

Cooking on wood, part 2!

My name is in Hansard

If you read my blog back in September you will remember that I helped to host Jo Swinson MP, who came to Nigeria for a week as a VSO volunteer, VSO have a scheme enabling MPs to volunteer for a short time. Jo came to support ICEED to advocate for a National Climate Change Commission Bill. The bill has now been accepted by both Houses; in this case the House of Representatives and the House of Senates, and is waiting for the signature of President Goodluck Jonathan, which hopefully will occur in advance of the forthcoming General Election. 

On 24th November, the Overseas Voluntary Sector was discussed in the House of Commons, and you can follow the debate on Hansard or They Work for You, or read the whole day’s proceedings which is quite fascinating, I didn’t know for example that they open in prayer and that they really write down AYES and NOES, and list all those who voted each way. And my name is mentioned on page 102!

Jo (left) wearing the dress made by Chisoba (right)

If you look at the links, I recommend the They Work for You link, you will see that Jo has really tried to tell the story of her time in Nigeria, not just the big things she did, lobbying State Government and so on, but the story of Chisoba, my tailor who made her a dress and Dickson, the ICEED driver. Jo didn't tell Chisoba that she was an MP, as she didn’t want to intimidate her, but next time I go to see Chisoba I will take a print out of p102 from this Hansard document and show her that she has been mentioned in the House of Commons.

A bus and a plane – order and chaos!

Last week I went to Ibadan, reputedly one of the biggest cities in West Africa, I travelled there to have a look at an organisation called NEST and to get a feel for the city, as I have been offered a new VSO placement at NEST, from February 2011. If cities can be opposites then Abuja and Ibadan are opposites, Abuja quiet, empty, organised, rich, dry – Ibadan, noisy, crowded, chaotic, lively, vibrant, poor wet. I liked Ibadan by the way. Anyway this blog post is really about transport, as for the first time in Nigeria, I travelled by bus and by plane.

 The bus – air conditioned, lots of leg room, a toilet on board, a proper break for food and toilet stop, a bottle of water and a meal on board. I went to the bus office the day before to get my ticket, and when I arrived to travel there was orderly queue to tag my luggage and then get on the bus. We were searched before getting on the bus, and when the bus stopped for a break, the doors were locked, and before re-boarding we had to be searched again and present our tickets. The bus was quite slow, the journey took 10 hours, however it was comfortable and unlike most public transport I wasn’t expecting to die at any time, I relaxed, slept, listened to music, read my book and looked out of the window.

View from the window - bikes queuing for fuel

The River Niger or the River Benue - not sure which!

The plane was another story. I travelled with fellow volunteers Brent and Ellen to Lagos airport, it was a Sunday and there are no flights from Ibadan on Sundays, we travelled in luxury being picked up from the house and driven straight to the airport. At the airport we had to push and shove to buy a ticket, while in the queue someone put a business card “office of the President” on the counter next to the guy selling tickets, then push and shove to check in our luggage, while some people tried to jump the queue and others somehow managed to get their luggage checked in without queuing. Once the luggage was checked in we were back to civilisation waiting to board, before completing a pleasant flight back to Abuja.

For those of you who complain there aren't enough photos of me!

If you want to know the cost by the way, the bus was Naira 4,700 and the plane Naira 22,000, and being a cash economy I paid, with 44 Naira 500 notes. The biggest denomination here is Naira 1000, around £4.

CONFLICT AND HOFSTEDE!

There was a conflict, and shortly afterwards I found myself reading about Hofstede. Some of you will know that Hofstede came up with a set of cultural dimensions to help understand how people from different cultures communicate and relate to each other. Now I had read the theory in the past, but then I came across a website which ranks different countries and it is fascinating, I really encourage you to take a look and notice how different even neighbouring countries are to one another, UK and Ireland for example. Read about Hofstede here.

I am probably something like this

Anyway my interest of course is Nigeria where I find myself, and the UK, where I have become the person I am. The main differences I notice between Nigeria and the UK are the Power Distance (PD), and Individualism (IDV).  This basically means peoples ability to challenge authority and whether they behave as an individual or as a group. The UK has a PD figure of 30 compared to 72 in Nigeria, and an IDV figure of 85 compared to 15 in Nigeria. In low individualism countries “harmony may be more important than honesty.” Being an individual I chose to challenge the power rather than maintain the harmony this resulted in CONFLICT! Check out your country here 

The people I am working with are probably something like this!

There is even a place on the website where you can compare where you are from with where you are working, check here.

Go Slow

Last Saturday, I got stuck in a big Go Slow. Go Slow is pidgin for a traffic jam, and I think this was the worst traffic jam in my life so far. I had decided I needed a weekend away and chose to visit Heather in Kaduna, Kaduna is around 200km North of Abuja, and the journey generally takes around two and a half to three hours.

So I went to Mabushi, to get a car to Kaduna, and was very impressed, that 10 minutes after arriving we were on the road, leaving Abuja at 09:25am, I would be there by mid-day. Unfortunately after about half an hour we hit a big Go Slow, and got stuck for two hours of stop start traffic, more stopping, than starting.

Go Slow!

Meanwhile I had plenty of time to chat to my fellow passengers, what was the problem, it was Salah. Salah is a celebration that takes place 40 days after the end of Ramadam, so everyone was travelling as Monday was due to be a public holiday. No I said Tuesday and Wednesday are holidays not Monday. My fellow passengers were determined it was Monday. Public holidays in Nigeria are announced a few days in advance, and I have now found out that one newspaper announced Monday and Tuesday, another Tuesday and Wednesday.

There was plenty of Nigerian entertainment in this Go Slow:

• A crash! Well as much as a crash you can get in semi stationery traffic, “you brushed my car” Nigerians are not particularly patient drivers and seem to imagine in their haste to get one car ahead, that their cars are slimmer than the space, and wing mirrors are an unnecessary accessory useful for scraping other people’s cars.

Helping a bus cross from one Go Slow to another Go Slow

• Shopping, my purchases through the window were limited to some plantain crisps and a sachet of “pure water” – this is water that is sold in a pyramid shaped plastic bag, you simply bite one corner and drink. However there were plenty of other goodies for sale, mostly sold by young boys or men, the only thing I saw being sold by women was bananas.

Duty Free!

FOR SALE

• Goat for Salah, soft drinks, gala meat (a rather disgusting sausage roll), moi moi (a kind of bean cake), cashew nuts, perfume, mobile phone chargers, handkerchiefs, socks, apples, vitamin C, biscuits, palm oil, 20 Naira notes, you can buy 800 Naira worth of money for 1000 Naria! (small change likely to be used for “spraying” the bride and groom at weddings).

Goat!

After two hours we got through the GO SLOW, there appeared to be no cause other than volume of traffic and we were off, the rest of my journey went like a dream, I arrived in Kaduna at 2pm. I needed to get a bus to Stadium, as a taxi driver was trying to persuade me all the buses were full, a bus came along, which later broke down, but quickly transferred me onto another bus, and then onto an okada (motorbike taxi) straight to a bar called “Sea Breeze” (next to a river but a very long way from the sea) where my friends were waiting with a much deserved cold beer!


Fortunately my return journey was much shorter!

At Church with the President, God and Goodluck!

Two days after Independence Day I attended a Church Service to celebrate Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee.  My main motivation for going was actually to see the inside of the National Christian Centre and despite hearing that the President was going to attend the service, I didn’t really expect that he would show up.

Inside the church

However when I arrived all the nearby roads were blocked, and there were Police everywhere, and getting into the building was a little like getting on a plane, only I didn’t have to remove my shoes and I wasn’t wearing a belt!  Inside the church was rather empty to start with, so I took my seat beside Christian, a fellow Oyibo (white person) that I met outside, and waited to see what would happen.  Being the only two white people present, we were asked if we were diplomats, I said no, but Christian said yes, and much to my embarrassment we were taken almost to the front row.  However once things got going I was rather pleased with my front row seat and view of the President, not so pleased with all the cameras in my face, several witnesses have told me they saw me on TV!

Onyeka Onwneu singing Happy Birthday Nigeria 

Onyeka Onwenu singing Happy Birthday Nigeria

The service was amazing, very Nigerian of course, lots of singing and dancing and wonderful clothes, but also a real sense of hope.  It was based on Jubilee, in the biblical sense, with readings from Leviticus 25, Joel 2, and Isaiah 61.  The Jubilee year, as described in the Bible, is about giving land back to its original owners.  When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were each given their share of land.  As trade began the value of the land was to depend on the number of years to the next Jubilee, (every 50 years).  So Jubilee is about re distributing things such that every thing is fare again, as opposed to capitalist economics where the rich keep getting richer at the expense of the poor.  (I imagine Nigeria is one of the richest poorest countries in the world).  The other readings were about reclaiming the stolen years, and preaching good news to the poor, healing the sick and so on.

Year of Jubilee

So in the context of a country that has had a rather troubled first 50 years and is due to have an election in its 51^st year, you can imagine all of the above took on a rather profound meaning.  This was added to by the “Sounding of the Shofar”, the Shofar is a trumpet, usually made from a Ram’s Horn, only blown by a learned man, for religious purposes such as prayer and announcing the Jubilee.

Sounding the Shofar

So that was the God bit, now for Goodluck, he read the second reading, and addressed the Congregation, each time standing at a special lectern.  Unfortunately I can’t remember what he said but a Nigerian sitting next to me said that he is good because he is open to change, and this certainly came across in his speech.

Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Federal Republic of Nigeria

So if you are someone who prays please pray for Nigeria, that the elections are free and fair, and maybe more importantly peaceful, and that the next 50 years are better for the Nigerian people than the last. 

Outside the church