Happenings

It was not until after accepting an assignment that would take me to Lagos that I bought a copy of The Rough Guide to West Africa . The Nigeria section was prefaced with remarks by Nigerian writer, the late Chinua Achebe: "Listen to Nigerian leaders," he wrote, "and you will frequently hear the phrase 'this great country of ours'.  "Nigeria is not a great a country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short it is among the most unpleasant places on earth." Not the best of introductions, but there was no going back. A contract had been signed, airline ticket issued, hotel reservation made. I'd grown up in Tanzania and was confident I could handle whatever Lagos had to offer. The flight landed at midnight local time. Immigration procedure was an unnerving bl