Our Trip to Abuja, Nigeria

Last week was a very interesting week for us. Our trip to Abuja, Nigeria for the Africa West Area Mission Presidents Seminar was not without some concern since Nigeria was holding their Presidential election this week. As some of you may know Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has been in the news as a result of civil unrest because of their Presidential election that took place last November. The incumbent refused to accept the results of the election which showed him losing. Early this month it came to a head when citizens of the capital city, Abidjan, became divided between the two men and a skirmish broke out. Over a million people fled their homes to neighboring countries and several hundred people were killed in the fighting between the groups until the incumbent was finally arrested and taken into custody and the new president took over.

This was our first trip outside of Accra since we arrived in Ghana in January. We had no idea what to expect so going a day early with the Director if Temporal Affairs and the Manager of Travel really helped. There are no signs that tell you what to do once you arrive at the airport. If you didn’t have someone to walk you through the process you would really be lost what to do. The early Sunday morning flight helped a lot since the airport was pretty much empty. We had heard that they riffle through baggage at will. Luckily that didn’t happen for us. First we went to a counter where our bags were chalked because we would be checking them on the plane. We then walked to another area (once again, no signs to tell you what to do) where we showed our passports, e-tickets, and had our bags weighed. From there we went to another counter where we checked in our bags and got our seating assignment. From there we went through immigration before going to our gate. The first couple pictures show the terminal and waiting area at about 7:00 am Sunday morning. The busses are for taking passengers to and from the planes.

The flight to Lagos, Nigeria was a nice. We arrived at the Lagos International airport about 1 hour later. The next two pictures are of the Lagos International airport. Notice the heavily armed guards at the entrances. Unfortunately taking pictures is not allowed, so those taken from a moving van does not result in the best photos but should give you an idea.

Our connecting flight to Abuja was a domestic flight requiring us to travel to the old domestic airport for the flight. On our trip to the other side of the airport we drove past these buildings. In an effort to show religious tolerance they have built a Muslim Mosque right next to a Christian church. The mosque is on the left.

We had a wait of about three hours with another hour due to the flight being delayed. The domestic airport was really kind of antiquated (hot and uncomfortable) and reminded us of the airport in Villahermosa, Mexico when we took our Mexico / Guatemala trip in 2007. I thought the picture on the right was telling. It appears to be a bone yard for old planes.

Abuja is about 650 km North of Lagos but very different terrain. Lagos is a humid port city and very green because of the trees and vegetation around it. Abuja is very similar to Southern Utah or Northern Arizona. The soil is red and sandy and quite open, more like we had pictured Africa would be.

The change in landscape was almost like being back home. The hotel was very nice and made you feel like you were back in the States. The food was great! They had four restaurants in the hotel. We ate most of our meals in the Bukka restaurant, buffet style - all three meals. They always had a large selection of Nigerian dishes and other more European typed meals. We tried a couple of the Nigerian dishes but ate mostly from the other selections. A couple nights they had live entertainment outside the restaurant as you approached the entrance. Stephaney took a video clip of the entertainment one night.

Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the center of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Abuja is a planned city, and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos. At the 2006 census, the city of Abuja had a population of 776,298. In light of the ethnic and religious divisions of Nigeria, plans had been devised since Nigeria's independence to have its capital in a location deemed neutral to all parties. The location was eventually designated in the center of the country in the early 1970s as it signified neutrality and national unity. The next few pictures are of the National Mosque and National Cathedral.

From this picture you can see the Christian cathedral in the background. The next picture shows the mosque behind a building, one of the main roads in the city and the Aso rock in the background.

Aso Rock is a large outcrop that is on the outskirts of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The Aso Rock is a 400 meter monolith (a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock) and is the city's most noticeable feature. The Nigerian Presidential Complex, Nigerian National Assembly, and Nigerian Supreme Court are located around it. Much of the town extends to the south of the rock. "Aso" means victorious in the native language of the (now displaced) Asokoro ("the people of victory").

The next couple of pictures show Aso Rock and part of the city from our hotel room. In the one on the left the sun is just coming up.

In the following video clip you can see the National Assembly building. It is the large building with the green dome which is in the middle of the video clip. The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a bicameral legislature established under section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution. It consists of a Senate and a 360-member House of Representatives. The body, modeled after the federal Congress of the United States, is supposed to guarantee equal representation of the states irrespective of size in the Senate and proportional representation of population in the House.

The next few pictures are of the room set up for the seminar with one picture of the Area Presidency and the Executive Secretaries (us!).

Through the window we could see a tree with what looked like nests hanging in the branches. It turns out that this tree was the home for numerous Orange Weavers. A finch like bird that weaves very complex nests for its eggs. It was a beehive of activity, and interesting to watch.

The highlight of our trip happened at the Abuja airport on our way home.

After experiencing something similar to our check-in at Kotoka airport in Accra, we put our luggage through the security screening station and walked through the security screening booth. At the other end we were beginning to pick up our luggage when one of the security agents leaned over the luggage and commented on Stephaney’s missionary badge. He asked do you have anything I can read. Do you have any literature? We had heard that it is not unusual to be asked for literature from people we meet. We didn’t really have anything because of the unique mission we are serving – we work in an office and support the Area Presidency and don’t have much occasion to proselyte. Stephaney said to me, “Give him our Book of Mormon.” We have paperback books that we have carried with us when we travel so that we can keep up our reading each night even when away from home. We have had these books since our trip to Mexico and Guatemala in 2007 and we have marked them well.

Stephaney reached in her luggage and pulled out her BofM and handed it to him. She asked, “You are going to read it, right?” He said yes. He asked if it was a Bible and I told him that the Bible prophesied about this book. He could read about that in Ezekiel 37:15-17. (It’s also mentioned in St John 10:16) He asked what language it was written in as he did not recognize the name of the Book of Nephi. I showed him in the back of the book where the name pronunciation guide was so he would know how to pronounce the names of the prophets. He took it and turned to a women that was also working the luggage belt with him and said excitedly, “This book talks about Jesus.” She reached for the book and he pulled it back. He then turned to us again and asked, “Do you have another copy. This is my sister.” I opened the outside pocket of my luggage and gave him my copy of the BofM. Stephaney pointed to her badge and told him that when he reads, if he has questions there are missionaries in Abuja he can talk to. About that time their supervisor came over and told them to get back to work. We wish we had thought to at least write http://mormon.org in the book. We don’t know if anything with come of this but as much as we didn’t want to give up the books we would have been eternally unhappy had we left that day and not given him something he appeared to have sincerely wanted. It may be the only opportunity for us to testify of the restored gospel through the most public fruit of the restored gospel.

We saw these darling children in the building when we got home from our Friday night session in the temple, and they were happy to let us take a picture with them. It is such a joy to be here among these wonderful people!