Cotonou, c'est aussi chez moi!

The Lonely Planet for West Africa summarises what each country in West Africa is famous for. According to Lonely Planet, Benin is mainly famous for Voodoo, slavery, the kings of Dahomey and Angelique Kidjo. Nigeria on the other hand, is famous for corruption, email scams and writers. This gives you a very different first impression of the two countries. And believe me, it is true!


View from my hotel room

I visited Cotonou for the first time in three years. It was amazing. It is really weird to realize the big differences between two neighbouring countries. Simply the atmosphere is incomparable. It’s hard to define the difference, but I can really feel it when I am there.

And of course I loved seeing my friends again. It is amazing how the little baby who was just born last time I saw him, goes to school now and speaks better French than me. I loved eating pizza at the beach, enjoyed a great buffet with loads of Lebanese food and shopped in the new hyper marché. Of course, Cotonou is the economic centre of the country and I should not be surprised I can find more western products and food than in Ilorin. But still, it was great!

 

It was interesting to see how Cotonou is developing. In some areas, so many new building arose that I hardly recognised it. New roads and fly overs are making the traffic easier. Power is much more reliable than it was some years ago. My friends told me there are still power cuts, but they last only a few hours and are not on daily base. Compare that to Nigeria where we often have no power for a day or more. (And keep in mind that Nigeria exports power to neighbouring countries).

It seems like the government in Benin is doing a quite good job, while in Nigeria things seems to slow down. For example, a company has been assigned to repair the road between and Ilorin and Abuja several times. So far, nothing has happened.


With my good friend Armand

I think I understand what the problem is. When I crossed the border between Nigeria and Benin, at the Benin side the most heard words were: Bon Arrivee! Welcome in Benin! Only one official tried to get money from me.




Travelling back to Nigeria, the officials stamping my passport at the border were ok, but as soon as we passed the border, problems start. Here people don’t say Welcome in Nigeria, they say; what do you have for me? And the poor taxi driver had to pay. All the time. Within 500 meter he got stopped probably 10 times, not by officials but by normal people. They have a kind of a golf club with nails in it and if you don’t stop they destroy your tires. So, what can you do? Telling them you just paid 10m before (what the guy saw of course), doesn’t help, you have to pay. The police sees it and the only thing they say is; ‘Anything for us?’ so you have to pay again.

When I was living in Benin in 2006 I never expected to go to Benin to be in a ‘normal’ and ‘developed’ country. Or that I would go to Cotonou because of the variety of food. Or the great condition of the roads… But now… Spending months in Ilorin changes everything! So, hopefully again in September. It feels like home. Because, well, Cotonou, c’est aussi chez moi!



Pizza at the beach

This is Nigeria - about traffic and visa

Travelling to Abuja should take 7-8 hours. We left Ilorin at 6.30 so we would be in Abuja in time and I could go to the embassy of Benin Republic to apply for visa. But well, this is Nigeria! So, no, I didn’t manage…

Just outside Ilorin, our driver started to drive in a weird way, stepping on the brake all the time. After 3 hours he stopped to ‘repair something on the brake’. It took him 15 minutes or so and all passengers were ok with it. Our halfway stop took one hour instead on 30 minutes as a mechanic had to ‘repair something on the brake’. People started complaining a bit, but not too much. Then, we drove 30 minutes and the driver stopped again. Then it turned out the car was really broken and we could not continue.

This is Nigeria, so of course people try to fix it (failed), try to fix it again (failed) and try to fix it again (failed). After 3 hours, the passengers told the driver he had to arrange us another car to travel. To shorten the few hours of waiting and discussion into a few sentences; the driver arranged us another car, and offered the driver half of the money. What the driver agreed with. But, he had to pick the money in Abuja but the new driver has no permission to enter Abuja so he could not go there. The bus company said they will arrange something to solve this and then switched off their phones. So we ended up paying extra to the new driver, to be dropped somewhere outside Abuja. In the end, we made it to the hotel at 8 instead of 3. In case we forgot it, this is Nigeria!

 

My visa application had to wait till next day. But I had to give training first, so could only make it after the training. And this is Nigeria, so…

‘A visa? Now? At this time? It is already 4!’ The simple fact that the embassy should be open till 5, doesn’t change anything, there is no way to get a visa ‘at this time’.  It took quite some time to find the embassy in, the address mentioned online is not the address of the embassy and the phone numbers don’t work (no, they just closed the lines so you can’t call them, this is Nigeria). But now that I made it, it seems like I can’t apply for the visa.

I explain the security guy that I live in Ilorin (Ilorin!? Really? Why?) and that there is no way to get to Abuja in the morning from there. So in the end, he gave me two forms to fill in and bring the next morning (At 8, ok, what time does the embassy open? At 8.30... I think…).  

Visa is ready

So next morning I arrived at the embassy at 8.20. The same security guy tells me no-one arrived yet and that it might be late before anyone arrives (remember, this is Nigeria!). But I can leave all my documents with him and call him later that day to see if my visa is done. As I did not really have other options, I had to give training at 9 again, I decided to do it like this. And well, apparently this is a normal procedure (it’s Nigeria in the end) and at 4 I could pick up my passport, with my multi-entry visa for Benin!

Interesting fact; they also stamped a visa in my passport which they cancelled. I expect some questions at the border! Hopefully the story that Jean Claude van Damme is my uncle (don’t I look like him?) will do the trick again.

But now, finally, I can make it. I plan to travel to Benin in a few weeks. If nothing happens in between, in the end, this is Nigeria!