Traveling in Nigeria – the rites of passage

If you have never sat at a bus terminal or in the lounge of a busy airport while waiting for departure time and exchanged stories – any story, really – with a complete stranger who is probably going in another direction, then you have never really traveled.

Traveling is exciting stuff. The thought of going to an entirely new place, crossing seas and vast lands often, sailing over clouds and zipping past waving bushes is an experience that one can easily come to love. For many, traveling has become a hobby, causing them to move to new places all the time, seeking the thrill that results in a new story for the bus terminal.

The rite of passage for travelers sometimes is that moment of truth arrived at in the middle of the mountain climb in the Himalayas, the sudden epiphany while swaying in a hammock, watching the sun set into the ocean in Zanzibar or discovering true love while sharing a cappuccino in Italy. Traveling in Nigeria has its own rites of passage, various experiences that change your outlook on life and leave you with those excellent stories you tell when you get back.

Eating suspicious looking food at a stopovers

Traveling by road is the most common way to travel in Nigeria. Several of the trips (inter-State) often take at least 3 hours or more. Such trips are usually broken by one or more stopovers, depending on the distance of the trip. During the stopovers, travelers take a few minutes to stretch, eat or drink. You haven’t really traveled in Nigeria until you have eaten a suspicious looking plate of jollof rice with turkey meat or a eaten a steaming skewer of suya that eventually disagrees with you less than one hour later. Seasoned travelers carry along several tablets of antibiotics and anti-laxatives in preparation. If you are caught unawares, the only choice may be to yell out to the driver to find a rest-stop or gas station, or simply to pull over and let you into the bush on the side of the road. Travel experiences vary from one person to another and, the more you travel, the odds of you having a repertoire of awesome travel stories.

Buying items off a roadside hawker

While you might have set out from your house with a full stomach, the allure of buying items right off the road is one of the more exciting parts of traveling by road in Nigeria. At certain spots on the different road routes that crisscross the Nigerian terrain, hawkers selling food items, fruits, beverages, books and even pets line the road, sometimes running after and dodging expertly around vehicles while buyers select items right from the window without having to stop. This is an experience that comes with traveling in Nigeria. The trick is making sure you do not hand over the money before getting your item. The swift-footed hawkers are liable to vanish with the money before you can bring your vehicle to a halt. But then, that’s another experience.

The overnight bus

Traveling often requires you to travel overnight, maybe because you want to meet an early morning appointment or perhaps it’s because of the distance you may have to cover on a road trip that makes you opt to start right at midnight. A lot can happen while on such a trip; some would make excellent fodder for campfire horror stories, others would be good for anecdotes, whichever the case, you would definitely have an experience you would never forget.

Crossing the Niger

Between the East and Western parts of Nigeria cuts the Niger River. The River Niger is the third longest river in Africa after the Nile River and Congo River, and it cuts through the entirety of Nigeria before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean at the Niger Delta. If you have traveled in Nigeria without crossing the Niger, chances are you have been confined to only a very small region. Crossing the Niger river at any one of the major bridges such as the Niger Bridge in Onitsha and the Kaima Bridge between Delta state and Bayelsa is an experience every traveler ought to have. As the vehicle trundles across the bridge, the expanse below yawns wide open and for a few minutes all you can see is water stretching forever on every side.

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