Obi is a very small town about thirty minutes by car from Lafia. Unlike how the name sounds, it is not an Igbo town. It is inhabited mainly by a people called the Alago. Their language is also called by the same name, and the king is called the Usuko. As small as it is, it enjoys a relatively regular supply of electricity, a good road, and a clinic where my frien, the doctor, works. The rain of two days ago flooded much of the town and overran the main bridge. A few hours later, it had subsided and life went on as usual.
I entered Jos with some trepidation, but with an open mind, and a five year nostalgia waiting to be assuaged. I also went with an exhilaration reserved for a beautiful place that has gone with me everywhere I went since we first met. When I left the town a few hours later in the evening of Tuesday, I left with some sadness, and a mild confusion as to where the State is headed, and where the crises will lead. On the one hand are ubiquitous police patrols at every hundred metres from Ta Hoss to Makira to Riyom, and on the other hand is a town that still moves as it always does, cheerful, without any hint of danger. Well, welcome to Jos.
Picture #3 is the sign at Kuru which reads: “Nigerian Railway Corporation: The Highest Point in Nigerian Railway. 1318.20 metres or 4324 ft above sea level.
Picture #8 is the famous Riyom rocks that have stood in that delicate design since centuries.
Picture #9 is a carver I saw in Jos, making mortar and pestles with his hand, a chisel and a wooden mallet.
The capital of the relatively new state of Nassarawa does not live up to the standard of its other northern neighbours, but it boasts of an equally serene outlook, but with far less livestock around town.
The road from Abuja to Akwanga, I dare say, is one of the best roads in Nigeria. Surely it’s one of the best roads I’ve been on in the past two weeks, and I’ve been around. One other noticeable thing on the highway is the use of solar technology to power the street lights. This is an innovation that is long overdue in all of all the other states.
The road from Akwanga to Lafia however is one of the dangerous, definitely one of the longest winding roads I’ve been on. It is still undergoing dualization and it might get safer with expansion. It does boast of a good view of the hills and mountains though.
The city of Zaria, about an hour from Kaduna is an ancient settlement founded by the Hausa-Fulani Emirate. Occupied by moslems, headed by an emir and surrounded by a wall thicker from its looks than five feet. Five times every day, devout moslems from the “city” come out to the central mosque in front of the emir’s palace to pray. We arrived there at such a time and such couldn’t do more than mere pacing and a little sight-seeing. From what we learnt later, the suspicions of the emir of the old city of the christian missionaries led to the founding of the first church in Northern Nigeria at a place a few miles out of the city gates. An interesting story.
Here are shots taken around Ilorin last week that I wasn’t able to share due to internet connection issues.