NIGERIA: Lagos: Lagos Lagoon

If you're in Lagos for the first time... you would notice a huge body of water while crossing from Lagos Mainland to Lagos Island, vice versa. It's so huge that it must be one of the largest lake in West Africa, right? Wrong...

That is, my friend the Lagos Lagoon. Yes, a lagoon. More specifically, an inland lagoon. It's very much inland that I thought it was a lake with murky water. Even the Portuguese who came ashore in the 1400s got it all wrong. They named the place Lagos, built some trading post along the shore of the "new" found place and the name stuck! The original name, Èkó still in use too, by the Yoruba. After all, we are in Yoruba land. 

 Map of Lagos state and the huge inland lagoon, Lagos Lagoon

NIGERIA: Oyo State: Trip to Ibadan

A phone call by a fellow Malaysian, Haji Wan Zamri inviting me to a short trip to Ibadan. The purpose of the trip was to visit a school, a few mosque/masjid and some water well which were donated by the people back in Malaysia. I said 'Yes' and in turn invited Amaludin and Huda to follow us too.

The usual route to take would be the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It seemed that a few areas of the expressway had received a new fresh coat of road pavement. There's a lot going on at the moment on the expressway. Some areas the road are busy with lorries making interstate travel laden with goods, then you have the danfos (passenger van) and all manner of vehicles (US and Japanese made SUVs and sedans). 

Some parts of the expressway we managed to speed up, and some was just a slow paced due to vehicles that broke down in the middle of the road. Broken axle, overheat, puncture etc...take your pick. There were also settlements which would slow down the traffic due to people selling and buying by the roadside. 

The journey took about 3hr plus and behold, the town of Ibadan in Oyo state. Welcome!!! Geographically (size) it is the biggest town in Nigeria and at one time, in the 60's it was 2nd most populous town after Cairo. In terms of size for my readers in Malaysia, you can put 2 states of Malacca in Ibadan town. That is just the town, not Oyo state mind you.

Ibadan town

NIGERIA: Lagos: Eid al-Kabir / Eid ul-Adha 2016 (Part 1)

This would be our second time celebrating Eid al-Kabir/Eid ul-Adha (click here) in Lagos, Nigeria. Alhamdulillah, thank Allah this year we were able to participate in the Qurban (sacrifice of livestock during Eid ul-Adha). 

In the morning of Eid, I went to my usual masjeed near Awolowo Road. The jama'ah (congregation) this year is much bigger and even the imam took his time before we began to perform the solar (pray). It was not until 9.30am and still, throngs of people entered the area we performed the solah so special, only twice a year according to the Islamic calendar. 

NIGERIA: Ogun State: The visit to the Family Vocational Institute for Disable by Bringing Netball Back Club (BNB)

Bringing Netball Back Club is a club that provides... 

"both veteran and new to the sport, the opportunity to play netball on a regular basis."

Apart form the usual practise, matches and promoting the game; they do visit the orphanage in Ogun state. It's the state next door to Lagos (state). Newcomers would be a little bit confused about Lagos. The fact it is a state and also an area within the state itself (in the next post, will explain).

The trip on Saturday 19th, March 2106 was memorable. We left Lagos Island around 7plus in the morning, a convoy of three 4wd with members of the club including me, Madam and my daughter. 

on-going renovation for the dedicated bus lane

 

Busses of Lagos