7 things that Nigeria is addicted to.

Social scientists describe a being of disorientation as a result of being in a new socio-cultural environment as “culture Shock”. That being the case I was in Nigeria for the better part of last week. I am documenting on this modest blog things that might generally make a Kenya disoriented in Naija land. By and large I think Nigerians and Nigeria as a country are addicted to the following things.
1. Power generators; in Naija land every home has its own petrol run power generator. The norm in Nigeria is that every home runs on this generator and the electricity company provides backup power. I guess that would make Kenya Power look like saints. But again we could understand this as the price of a liter of Petrol (gas) is 65 Naira, something that loosely translates to 35 Kenyan shillings.
2. Pepper; my god! If you want to ever die of gastric discomfiture, try Nigerian bitter herb, peppered food. I actually shed a tear the first time I dipped a morsel of Amala, into the stew and pushed it into my mouth. I bet Nigerians could pepper their tea if they could. Tongue in cheek I actually think Nigerian food is wholesomely great. They out-feed us in every aspect and that is why they outplay us to in the football field.
3. Title; Nigerians like titles a lot, now your average Nigerian undergraduate will proudly tell you that his is the “President” of the Sociology and anthropology club. In Naija students’ government is big business or should I say big government. At Ahmadu Bello University, apparently the biggest University in sub-Saharan Africa, the Student Union President drives self in a Subaru Legacy, provided for by school. Now Ahmadu Bello has a stand-alone campus that is aptly named “The Great Kongo Republic. May we should have “The Great Bondo Republic as well”.
4. Big cars; ohooh! Now the average car on a Nigerian road is not a Vitz, an Ist or a Demio, or any other car model that gives you the satisfaction of owning a car while you actually do not own one. Your average Nigerian car is the V-Boot, Pidgin for big car. Now a V-boot is a Lexus, a BMW X5, a V6 or any other big car that is generally big and runs on petrol. Diesel is actually more expensive than petrol which is incredulous isn’t it?
5. Smart phones; greaaaaaat! I guess Apple, Research in Motion, Nokia and other smart phone makers had Nigeria in mind when developing their products. A Nigerian owns an I-phone, and blackberry some other small phone for texting and calling mum and dad. The cost of using a blackberry for a month is actually 3000 Naira, approx. 1700KSHs in Kenya it’s around 1000KSHs; do we Kenyans own that many a Blackberry?
6. Rice; Nigeria is a rice eating nation; rice is a staple food in Nigeria, from Jollof rice, to fried rice, to mashed rice. Given that Nigeria does not grow any of her own rice this compounds an already complex situation of Pakistani rice importation. The positive though is that Nigerians are not as conservative as we are when it comes to food. That is why we go hungry and they do not.
7. Higher education; Nigerians like being educated and super educated, which is good, everybody wants to become a doctor a professor well that is good in itself but I generally think an economy needs low level skilled workers willing to work for something more than a pittance for balanced economic growth. (forgive my usage of the word pittance)