For some reason I don’t really know what or how to write about my trip. So I’m just going to try and not rant or write an epistle. It was meant to be a road trip to see some new (specific) places in the Northern part of Nigeria. I however didn’t see most of what I hoped to see. Thanks partly to my poor planning skills and my initial decision to go for comfort as opposed to involving the inner explorer in me. 

I made a decision last year to always travel to new places whenever I’m on leave from work. Last December it was a weekend in Benin Republic where I spent a day in Cotonou and the other going round Ouidah. My May trip was just me bored at home and deciding to see Olumo Rock but ended up going through three cities in one day (Abeokuta – Ibadan – Ife). That made me realise the ease of travelling across states in Nigeria…or so I thought. So I came up with the crazy idea of going to and through as any Nigerian states as possible in as few days as possible

While this is very possible, it would be very expensive and too stressful. Also, I didn’t know at the time the difficulty involved in travelling across Nigeria through commercial transport. So I decided to cut it down to Five states in 7 days. Abuja to Niger to Taraba to Enugu to Ondo. My trip to Abuja wasn’t really for tourism purpose as there is nothing interesting there to see. Well, except for the nearly empty good roads during work hours where you can drive at high speeds and the places where Nigerian money is spent (shared). 

My trip started on Tuesday morning 04/12/2018. Took a G.U.O bus from Jibowu, Lagos to Utako, Abuja. Comfortable bus at fairly low price compared to that yeye GIGM that their price is high. Lesson number one of travelling by road with commercial bus in Nigeria is that you should never rely on their timing. Departure time on the bus ticket was 6:30 am. That according to the front-desk person is just the time the bus will start loading. I should have spent more time in English class. The bus eventually left at few minutes past seven after prayers from someone I assume is the resident pastor as he went from bus to bus leading prayers in each, sharing pamphlets and of course people have to donate to the work of God.  

Now I should mention that there is one person not in support of me going anywhere near the North, my Mum. From the very first day I slightly made mention of it in a conversation that I’ll be travelling north when I sign-off, we’ve been having issues. Thanks to media sensationalism, the image of the north to most people is just conflicts (boko-haram, herdsmen-farmers conflict, kidnappings). All those and a quite impractical prophesy which I won’t talk about. 

Less than two hours into the trip, our driver suddenly stopped by the road side somewhere in Sagamu without saying anything to us for a couple of minutes. When he eventually spoke, he told us the bus is not “entering gear 3 and 4” and only 1, 2 and 5 are working okay. For safety reasons, it is best we stop and wait for the company to send a replacement bus to our location. At that point, the Nigerian in me remembered my mum but the unbeliever in me took a bike from there to the nearest restaurant to buy breakfast since the replacement bus won’t arrive for an hour or two. Got myself a place of fried rice without chicken or beef because the restaurant didn’t think all those should be ready before they open their doors.

The replacement bus eventually arrived at about 10 am. We helped move all the luggage into the bus and sorta unanimously told the driver to fly us to Abuja. A couple of stops at filling stations in unfamiliar places to refuel and discharge urines. I slept through most of the ride thanks to having to wake up very early to get to the park. That means seeing very little on the road and taking no pictures.

We made our third stop at Okene for fuel and I must say, Kogi state has some of the worst roads in Nigeria. Driving through Okene-Lokoja wasn’t really a smooth one. We made our last stop at Lokoja at around 7/8pm where I got really good suya. Got to Abuja not too long after that and I must say, Abuja is fine at night. Well, not the whole of Abuja sha. And the fine I’m talking about is more of clean and not congested like Lagos where smoke and dust will welcome you into town. Got to Utako at 9:45 pm and got to my hotel (CitiLodge) at few minutes past 10 pm to settle for my first night.

When traveling on a budget, you want to get the best services for your money. That isn’t always the case with most Nigerian hotels as I discovered. Lesson number two of traveling in Nigeria is – if you’re not ready to spend money, you won’t really get good service. You’ll have to just manage whatever they offer you. Oh, don’t rely on pictures they post online, that’s usually their pricey rooms. You’ll sometimes get lucky though…I did on two occasions. 

The second day started fairly early as I had to get somethings sorted out. Once I was done with that, I took a taxi from Wuse Area 1 to Mabushi. From there a taxi for the long ride from Niger state to Kaduna. In hindsight, that was a wrong decision as that prevented me from getting to see more places in Niger state. I did see the two things I had on my list – Zuma Rock (didn’t visit) and Gurrara Falls (really explored).

After the exercise of walking down the waterfall and climbing back up, we set out for Kaduna. I didn’t initially have that on my list of states to visit but since it is very close to Abuja, I decided to make a stop there. We got into Kaduna early enough for my kind driver to take me round the places in kaduna he considered safe for us. I didn’t know much about the division along religious lines that existed in kaduna till that day. It was just so obvious with the concentration of churches in certain areas and near zero churches in others. Went to KD Poly, drove through Governor’s office, secretariat, KD Central mosque, the abandoned factories, the house of Reps e.t.c.

He drove me to an hotel to crash for the night (Ze-Cool Hotel) but that was fully booked which is surprising considering how expensive their rooms were. We ended up at Trophy Hotel. Got the Single Studio for 8000 naira a night. That happened to be the one hotel in the who of my trip where I got a lot of good for low price. Another thing I didn’t know about Kaduna is the Lagos-style nightlife that exists there – the christian part of Kaduna though. I think that is because of the population of South-Eastern traders living there. Many businesses in Kaduna are owned by Igbos. From hotels to bars, restaurants, boutiques and of course, electronics shops. I managed to visit two bars in Barnawa that night – Vault Lounge (for one can of heineken) and Barcode (for the best goat meat peppersoup I’ve had in a really long time). Day 2 of my trip was indeed a success.

Woke up very early on Day 3. Had my bath and ordered for breakfast (Fries, omelette and coffee). Driver that was meant to show up at 9 didn’t appear till past 10 am. For his good behaviour the previous day, I decided to overlook that as we have a long drive to Jos. Kaduna is a really big state. I think we spent more time driving within Kaduna than we did out of Kaduna. Also I think Kaduna houses most of Nigeria’s military institutions from the Army to the Navy and Airforce. All have a training facility somewhere in Kaduna. I might be wrong but I also think Kachia is the largest part of Kaduna. Will google that at a later time, when I have the time for it.

Got into Plateau state late in the afternoon but before heading to Jos, I told the driver who doubled as my road trip partner that we have to head in the opposite direction to see something interesting – Assop Waterfalls. 

Story to be continued…