Nigerian Part 2

Fresh off the African express, we are back in Munich. I am 2 shades darker, 5 kilos heavier, have a better golf handicap and I am currently suffering from protein overdose. Priya also similairly suffers from the same vacation maladies. A few more observations about Kaduna. The 2 wheeled demons have taken over the roads, all of them chinese made and the heavy polluters to boot. I did not spot a single non-chinese made motorcycle though this thriftiness was not evident with the cars. I also noticed that women are more conservastively dressed, perhaps residual effects from the introduction of Sharia (not sure if its still in force). Alms begging does not seem to have increased, seems to be the same as 10 years ago. Most of the roads are in good condition, lots of money still being spent on infrastrucure. The erstwhile Peugeot 504, horse of the african roads, is still on the roads but seems to have been replaced with Peugeot 406. My dad 504 was still there, the car turned 26 last month. The small car concepts seems to have picked up even though while I was not cool to drive a small car. Many more affluent looking cars on the road, Mercedes and Hondas seem to be the popular choice. Most of the cars in Africa, including Nigeria, are the cars that are used cars from Europe because they have exceeded their useful life. They are shipped across the seas, driven through the desserts, sold in Benin Republic and distributed to other African countries. So it was common to see a lot of pickup with german inscriptions on them. All the major textile mills in Kaduna have shut down, textiles used to be the biggest industry in Northern Nigeria as recent as the 90's. Similairly many other factories have also closed down though a few seem to be doing well particularly those in plastics and beer. The biggest issues facing industry is the lack of electricity and water. All factories and business establishments run on generators and some don't seem to have received any water for more than 3 years. The service industry is in better shape but without the service infrastructure it will be tough for it to survive long term. However the biggest failure is probably in the education system and civil services. In the 70's and 80's Nigerian graduates were better trained than most graduates worldwide ones however that has erudition has slowly vapourised. The civil servants sometimes don't get paid for months at end, if they are transferred then they have pay for the move themselves this includes the Police. Grand sum total, not much has changed in the last 5 years, poverty is still prevalent and disprotionate wealth distribution is also sadly obvious. Corruption still seems to be biggest problem, lots of noise being made about fixing it but this would not have been the first time. Siemens has been banned from doing business in Nigeria as a penalty for the corruption scandal involving the Nigerian ministers. The latest addition to the Nigerian diction is 'Siemenize'. When some palms need to be greased, then this verbage can be appropriately used. For example, 'Let us Siemenize the minister to make sure that we can win the contract'. I will try to go back more often, my parents were very happy to have us there. Need to go back more often. The India itinerary is finally ready, very exciting. Will share in the next post