Mission to Enugu!

So, another week over….this time full of adventure. I will say that this week has been my craziest yet since arriving in Nigeria, and not one I wish to soon repeat. The mission itself is 9 hour drive each way on really bad roads, but absolutely stunning scenery, in which we listened to Christian rock/gospel/reggae (who knew there was such thing, but there is!!) the entire way, so at first while I half joked that I had “found the Lord” by the end of each trip, I think it may have helped on our mission!

I did not go into detail about my most recent mission nor about the “BER” months because there was a little bit of chaos involved in it, and wanted to make sure I came back without causing any worry. I spent all of last weekend basically trying to convince my direct supervisor to not make me go on mission….I was being sent to Enugu, which is by far one of the worst areas of Nigeria for unprovoked violence. The “BER” months basically represent the most dangerous and crazy months for the entire year….people are robbing others like crazy as the goal in this region is to produce as much ‘tax’ money as possible…those who pay the most (to the government officials of course) are given titles and privilege as a ‘christmas’ gift and therefore are known as elite in these parts of the country… For some reason, it was felt that I (the white girl who is a bit of a novelty in these parts) would be best to represent WHO Nigeria here, after 2 of our vehicles were sprayed with bullets (no one thankfully injured) and then an ambush on another vehicle, and then another ambush with the driver being shot through the thigh and the administrative assistant left completely traumatized as they held a machine gun to her head and threathened to shoot as she sat a foot away from him in the passenger seat with over a million naira (about $8,000USD) being stolen…so that’s to say she is still in a bit of shock..even being from here, she said she had never expected such violence. It is suspect here that there is some sort of internal arrangement between the various bank branches and local bandits, so that if we go and withdraw a certain amount of money to pay staff salaries, that some or a staff at the bank calls a bandit to attack our vehicles and then they share in the loot. The bullet that was removed from our driver is a police issued bullet, which also means that the pistols and machine guns (the weapon of choice) are police issued, which also means that the police are ‘renting’ out their weapons to known bandits for a fee!!! Of course if you somewhat imply any of this to a police official you will be arrested and probably sentenced to death or something… Myself and another colleague were sent here to more or less plead with the bank officials and senior police officials and government people to better support our work. Many of you that know me, know that I am not one that deals well/appropriately with authority figures, and that I won’t just call someone “Sir” or “Chief” because of their direct role, but I had to bite my tongue and swallow my pride and give in…as I was here representing WHO and the lives of the 30 or so staff that work in this region. This was by far the hardest thing I have had to do…the police are by far the most corrupt I have yet to meet (and I have met many in my short time in Nigeria) and are despicable human beings…lying to our faces about the investigations they are doing ( I should mention that when we entered the Deputy Police Chief’s office he was watching The Office – UK version)…if only I could send you a copy of the police reports on these incidents, it is actually comical….it is even tough to explain it in words, but I have learned that if ever I am in trouble I will NEVER EVER call the police for help, as they are usually involved in whatever crime is being committed…if you do need help, you had better have at least a bottle of Hennessy or Jack Daniels with you to just get your case heard!

I also got to witness my very first car jacking…basically men dressed in camouflage, although full faces showing, armed with shotguns and machine guns jumping off their motorcycles and out of their ‘Peugots’ while blocking travel taking whatever they can from the car they are attacking…one thing we were lucky about is we had a very good driver that knows the area and the problems well, and can get us out of trouble…Bimbo(real name, not making it up!!!) our driver on this mission, got us out of quite a lot of trouble on this mission…we also passed two road blocks where boards with hundreds of sharp nails were lined up along the highway, in an effort to get cars to drive over them and when forced to stop to change the tire, they would be robbed!! I don’t want you to think I took this lightly…by the time you figure out what is going on, it is over…it is actually rather scary to see, and you can’t imagine being the one who is being carjacked.

So, a very exhausting and stressful week. I have to say since getting here I have never really been concerned or stressed about travel, but this time I was a little freaked out and am happy to be back in Abuja…which I never thought I would say! While carjackings are normal here, the violence is not in Abuja, so it is nice to be back, and even nicer to know I am going on holiday to quiet and subtle London and Iceland!

It is actually quite depressing to know what we are up against and who we are dealing with…the governments and police say they support our work, but if they don’t get anything out of it, then they have no reason to help. WHO is a respected agency, that many locals want to work with as we pay our staff directly, where as many other UN agencies that UNICEF, FAO, UNDP pay the local governments who take their own ‘cut’ before giving what ever remains to the people it is intended for, but we still get screwed because of this…the citizens here just don’t seem to see that we are here to help them, so it is an unforgivable and almost impossible battle…although I am an optimist, so I hope for the best.
I am not sure if the work I am doing and the issues we are faced with inspires me to want to work harder or if I should just start to behave like most others who have been here awhile and just give in and do what little you can…as a Taurus and a horse, I should want to fight it out, but I am sure it will be a pointless, useless battle, but we’ll see, I am not quite ready to say “They win”!!

So, all that to say I am safe although somewhat disillusioned by the Nigerian system, and really realizing for the first time that there is a reason that Nigeria has such a bad name in the media and around the world…it truly is a corrupt country…more than one could ever imagine!

Enough is enough…I am sure I will be arrested of something for writing this blog entry..but we’ll see…I still have a bit of fighting power left in me.

Attached are some new photos, taken from this most recent adventure! http://picasaweb.google.com/angelynne78/MissionToEnugu

Enjoy, Andrea