See y'all in 2009!!

I got my eyes on 2009. See you all Next year!!

3 Nations - From The lens of an Iphone

Here are photos that came all the way from Senegal, Sierra Leone and Gambia - All Courtesy a Colleague's Iphone. Boy, I might despise Mac products but I'll give it to their Iphone, that gadget does some real good snapping!

Sierra Leone Ghetto. Kinda bares a similarity with Naija.

Corrugated Iron sheets must be superstars in Sierra Leone Ghettos. Abi?

Wow! Check out this multi-purpose mini-complex. They render all sorts of services, including selling 'tick water' whatever on earth that is!

But they have some nice looking joints though...

Approaching a nice looking Hotel- partially deserted due to the war that took place way a few years back.

Same hotel from inside...

Same hotel with a lagoon view at the back.

Senegal - a roundabout with a funny statue that looks like two goats standing on a gigantic tuber of yam...Sorry about the flurry pix.

View from a hotel in Senegal. Check out the filthy environs.

Senegal - A colorful looking housing estate. Sort of like the projects in the US or barracks in Naija

A group of ghetto Senegalese men my colleague met. He calls them the 'Ganja men'. The reason is clear - they smoke weed like we breath air.

The Gambia - The Banjul Airport. Of the three countries, Gambia seemed to be the neatest and most organised.

Gambia seems to have a lot of Sahara-like terrain.

And the Hotels there aint bad! According to Chris, Gambia is a cool place to holiday.

Lagos Bar Beach...Sad Story

The Lagos Bar beach was a popular spot in the old days and many baby boomers in Nigeria today remember those times. It was characterized by thatched shelters and a sandy shoreline littered with all manners of shells like most beaches. But I guess what made it popular was its proximity to the highbrow environs of Victoria Island.



My childhood was filled with visits to this once famous beach. Sadly, bar beach has undergone changes that have taken away those childhood memories with them. I believe the global warming phenomena is the major cause.



The pictures speak for themselves...



This is bar beach as it was in the mid 1960s. Notice the absence of some buildings at the far end

Picture courtesy www.elderdempster.co.uk

Bar beach as I knew it in the 1980s
Picture courtesy www.onlinenigeria.com




Bar beach by 2004
Picture courtesy alvinvdv

By the mid 1990s, the effects of global warming began to manifest on bar beach. During rainy season, the beach at times would overflood its banks
Picture courtesy www.unesco.org

Gradually, the beach began to loose its features to the seawater.
Picture courtesy www.hitech-company.com

Soon the beach was almost gone. People and companies situated near its shores must have raised alarm. Some moved away, others didn't. Meanwhile, the beach was dangerously very near to the Ahmadu Bello road that ran along its side.
Picture courtesy aaron-rowe.co.uk






A construction company was called to remedy the situation.
Picture courtesy www.hitech-company.com





Today, this is what's left of bar beach



...no sands, no shells, no thatch shelters, nothing but a huge dike blocking the raging waves of the beach.

IJEBU TRIPPING

, pTook a trip to Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State and tried catching anything I could on camera.

There's something about those rusty rooftops and tarred roads that gives me some kind of nostalgia...



... And the hilly landscape littered with ancient old brazillian styled houses...






Some of these ancient houses have very large rooms, you'd wonder if giants lived in them. Like this one wifey posed in front of.



This building which I snapped on the way bares a striking resemblance to Nigeria's first storey building that was built during the slave trade era.

A lumber truck makes its way across the town bearing mighty trunks due for one of the sawmills.

Somebody once said Nigerians are always jacks-of-all-trades. Well this shop with a funny name proves that person right!

This tricycle driver had just dropped us when his colleagues at the taxi park surrounded his vehicle, congratulating him on his newly acquired tricycle. Hmm...every little achievement is worth celebrating.

Two Ijebu school kids wait in anticipation for their Mum to give them lunch money while their younger siblings have fun with dirt lying around.

Around V.I in a few minutes

Victoria Island - the location of quitessential up class Lagos, the location where most companies love to base their head offices. I went a snapping spree in a moving vehicle and caught as much as it would allow...

Nice planning but plenty holdups! The dude with the iphone is Chris, my art director. we always snap everytime we go on an outing, you just don't know when u'll catch something useful on camera.

Governor Fashola has been doing one heck of a job trying to beautify Lagos. This roundabout landscaping is one of such.

Lagos Taxi infront of this neat looking church with a strange name - 'Church of the assumption'

I just love the design on this building - 'Coconut Grove'. Makes you feel like u're in Hawai or somewhere like that.

This building may not be outstanding in architecture but you can't ignore the colors. 

One of Intercontinental bank's new office which I mistook for Bank PHB. They share the same colors.

One of millinoaire Okoya's buildings (The man is always erecting massive structures) flanked by a police station.

Tetrazzini - an eatery that has been around for so long yet is not as popular as Mr. Biggs, Tantalizers, TFC, Chicken republic etc... and they offer you awoof tea in the mornings. 

Union Bank - the old fashioned bank with cute buildings. A successful and strong bank but I can never put a dime in there. No siree! Not me.

A refuse packer at work on VI. These guys dey make money oh! I heard of one that had succeeded in building a house and sent kids to school thru this business. Its not surprising since Naija is not a recycling nation. we generate waste like no man's business.

The beautiful civic centre flanked by 1004 complex (under renovation) at the edge of the lagoon. Sorry I couldnt get a closer and better shot. Car was moving too fast.

This sight horrifies me - Sandfilling of some parts of the lagoon in order to create more land! Why? With all the global warming thats happening, is this a smart thing to do? And I know that when you mess with nature the consequences can be drastic.