THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED....

It’s 6am, I sense a vibration from my phone so check a message that reads ‘Ola I’m in Paris waiting to board...’

My thoughts are ‘Wow, he’s actually done it’ 😳

On 22nd March 2020 in response to COVID -19 pandemic The Federal Republic of Nigeria closed Nigeria’s airspace thereby banning all commercial flights. This same ban led to an extension of my trip to Lagos by 6 weeks and my exit only possible due to the evacuations flights laid on by the British Government. I left Lagos on the second of such flights, 20th April and a further 10 evacuation flights followed May through to June with the last leaving Nigeria on 8th June.

And since then it’s very much been a case of stalemate for people wishing to return to the UK from Nigeria and the reverse route. The Nigerian government have not been forthcoming on a date for opening of our airspace. 

A few private jets for the privileged few are ‘purportedly’ flying Lagos - London with ticket prices ranging $7000 - $15000 (one way)! 

So that’s how my Bestie of life who had been waiting for a return flight to the UK was contacted by his travel agent. She told him the only available flight was Air France via Cotonou Republic of Benin and that the feelers coming from government were that airspace would not be opening anytime soon. 

He jumped at it with no reservations. Agent emails him the British contact tracing form for completion. She assured him that for an additional fee of 60,000 Naira arrangements were in place to chauffeur him comfortably across the border from Lagos, Nigeria to Cotonou, Republic Of Benin to catch his flight from there. 

D-Day was scheduled for 9am one Saturday morning outside a popular eatery ‘somewhere in Ikeja’ Lagos 👀. The travel agent was also ‘on ground’ to ensure her passengers set off safely. The driver of the vehicle is kitted out in military camouflage vest and has displayed a horse whip on the dashboard. There are 3 passengers, typical of one to rolled up at 9:30 when take off was 9am. Luggage was loaded into the car, a Toyota Camry, 5 suitcases in total. Bestie had 3 including his hand luggage while the other 2 passengers had one piece each. 

Before they set off, the driver of the vehicle collects passports, air tickets and phones with foreign SIM cards from the passengers 😳. Driver then requests any of the passengers to give a short prayer for journey mercies but He is met with a stone wall of silence. 

I asked Bestie ‘how come’ and he replied that he could only speak for himself and that his thoughts at the time were why was the driver issuing instructions. During the course of the journey he later finds out that the female passenger who I’ll refer to as  ‘Grandma’ was Muslim and possibly she thought the driver was asking for a Christian prayer, while the other dude was a ‘millennial’ who had already plugged his earphones, blocking out the world and oblivious of his surroundings.  

And that’s how vehicle heads towards Iyana Ipaja, Oko Oba, Agbara enroute Badagry. Shortly after setting out the driver signals our millennial dude to remove his earphones and tells him that the dreadlocks on his head are going to draw too much attention to the vehicle, as they will keep getting pulled over by SARS (Special Anti Robbery Squad) a special branch of Nigerian police who deal with crimes that relate to arm robbery, kidnapping and yahoo-yahoo. Amnesty International labels SARS as responsible for widespread torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in their custody.

The driver suggests that our millennial dude buys a baseball hat to cover his head. Problem sorted as hats were being sold by hawkers in traffic.  As the journey continues the driver is constantly in touch by phone with ‘his people’ waiting for him at the first stop, Badagry where the first vehicle change is to take place. 

Bestie strikes up a conversation with Grandma and it transpires that it was the birth of a grand child that necessitates her urgent trip to ‘the abroad’. I ask Bestie how did she feel as the only female in the car, he explained that she was relatively calm as her main focus was getting to England to help with the newborn. 

The drive is bad, the roads are horrendous and littered with checkpoints but I’ll spare you the details. Vehicle arrives at Badagry where the 3 passengers are then split up. Bestie and our dreadlock millennial’s luggage are transferred to a 4-wheel drive vehicle while grandma is transferred to another vehicle. 

The reason for this is when one is driving through checkpoints not to make it obvious that they are passengers on their way to the airport. Driver further asks them to undo seatbelts and remove face masks otherwise it becomes obvious that they were air travel passengers from Lagos. They head to the border in a convoy. 

The journey continues for another 90 minutes until they reach Owode, one of several border crossings into Benin Republic. This is where they are reunited with Grandma. Luggage is carried out from the cars across the border on the heads of ‘syndicate members ’ into an awaiting vehicle on the Cotonou side of border.  A member waiting at the border then walks up to the guys manning the border and starts speaking to them in their language. Driver then walks back to the car and asks Bestie, Grandma and Millennial to get down and walk across the border to vehicle on the other side. I am told it is an uneventful 1 minute stroll across from Nigeria to Cotonou. 

I even asked Bestie whether the border had a gate, he rolls eyes and likens the crossing to a sandy village foot path with 2 drums and a rope in between that is lowered for people to pass by some ‘area-boy-looking’ miscreants😩. Apparently some travellers pay a lower fee of N25,000 and navigate this same journey by okada (motorcycle).

Driver pulls to side of road and suggests that ‘The Cotonou Three’ change some of their cash to Benin local currency, CFA. Bestie says he does not need to while grandma and millennial dude decide they do. They now continue the journey to Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport.  Upon arrival their passports, tickets and ‘abroad’ phone are handed back to them (OYA EVERYBODY..... PHEW!!!)👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

The Republic of Benin generally came across as a law abiding society, however there was still that ‘anything for the boys’ mentality by the immigration officials, possibly because of the influx of Nigerians travelling out through their country. Though no place for begging for leeway with excess luggage. And just like their French counterparts they also pretend not to understand English even though they do🙄. 

Grandma used her own hands to remove all her smelly fish and food stuff from her ‘portmanteau’ straight into the bins as requested by customs. No one interested in her ‘omugwu’ plans😢. Bestie helps Grandma with completion of some forms as she has become emotional after binning the fish.  They fly the first part of the trip to Paris seated side by side and also 2nd leg to London Heathrow also. By the end of the trip grandma is trying to match-make Bestie with a 33 year old girl she vouches for and tries to collect his number. Bestie ‘alleges’ that he does not give mama his number assuring her he is spoken for😐 Grandma does short prayer for Bestie before they part ways. It had been a rollercoaster 24-hours😢

For the umpteenth time I ask Bestie another ‘But What if’ question and he eventually admits that his main fear was possibility of being caught up with some smugglers at the border and then being paraded on Nigeria television as one of the suspects. With people asking what was he ‘finding in the abroad’ that he could not just ‘kam down’ and wait for airspace to open. 

He then tells me it was such a great adventure and an experience I would have loved to blog about 😏

Have you any travel tales you’d like to share? Or any COVID friendly ‘staycations’ planned i.e Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Wight, Lake District?

On that note TGIF, enjoy your weekend. 

💋

Travelling - Leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller ~ Ibn Battuta