Plus Ça ne Change pas

After a successful conference in Copenhagen, I got on a flight to Lagos, through Paris. The flight went pretty well, and we got to Lagos late in the evening. I had been out of Nigeria for a little over a while, and what struck me was the way things had not changed. I lived in Uppsala, Sweden, for a while, went back a little over a year later, and I could see visible changes: streets had been renovated – or were being renovated – some pubs had closed down, some had just been opened. The same thing happened when I left my eastern German town of Halle for Stuttgart; even that poor German town had its fair share of new pubs and ongoing renovations. And I was only away for about two months. I think the most striking thing is the fact that one could perceive – in a parody of the owners of the Blackberry brand – society in motion. Although if one were to talk about it one would only be able to mention the ones I just did – renovations, reconstructions, new bars etc. – but one knew that the most profound of the changes could not be put down.

But I got to Lagos and I found that things had not changed in that sense. The church that makes a hell of a noise every Sunday beside where I stay has not stopped doing that; the traffic too was painfully familiar. It was all so uncannily unchanged as to give one a wearying sense of déjà vu. The more I thought about these the more I realised that I was going about things the wrong way. One major difference between Lagos and the cities I found myself comparing it with is the fact that Lagos is a state while the others are mere cities. One could easily infer from that that Lagos would be quite larger. And it is. I am in a part of the state-city, and before I could say that there are no changes I would have to visit other parts of the city.

But then there are a few
Oh yea, before I forget, there are some changes. One of them is that there are many new brands of cars on the roads; and phones too. I have been using the same cell phone for close to two years now, but many of my family members and friends have changed their cell phones in the last couple of months (one even begged me to help him get an iPhone from Germany. I was in Copenhagen when he made the request so it was not too difficult to turn him down.)

To more serious things
I will be in Nigeria for quite a while and I promise to keep blogging. I hope to be able to get and present some perspectives from people who are directly affected by the situations about which we normally theorise. By the way, since I am in Nigeria, anybody who is in Nigeria and would like to socialise should please leave me a note.