by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

It didn’t look planned in the way that say a new city or a new estate would be planned. Instead, the development seemed somewhat random, like a patchy haircut.

The other day, while I was doing some reading, I came across a quote from this 2010 book; “Diary of a Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager”.

“Lagos looked to me like a city where aliens had come and built the city and then left, and then just sort of let it decay.”

In my mind that quote is actually more descriptive of Nigeria as a whole. Nigeria looks like a city built on astro-turf. At the top, everything hums quite right and there are even times when it really looks too good to be true but once you delve even a little bit deeper into its underbelly, you begin to see that the emperor of Africa has barely any clothes. It is interesting to watch.

I have been back in Nigeria for barely a month now after living abroad for more than half a decade and my first impression was that for all the complaints and murmuring, this Nigeria is actually a markedly different place from the Nigeria I left behind a few years ago. Perhaps it was the blessing of low expectations but I have actually been pleasantly surprised by how manageable the experience has been so far.

My first surprise was walking out the gates at Nnamdi Azikwe airport and discovering the escalator worked and the airport looked like one. Fair enough, the airport car park doesn’t quite look like one, but seeing tarred roads from the airport all the way home did surprise me too. The next day, when I went to visit my alma mater, I saw even more of the city and it was in the words of Obama “not bad”. Sure, there is room for improvement but it was enough proof for me that in Nigeria some things work.

What disappointed me however was that it didn’t seem like the development I saw was process driven.

It didn’t look planned in the way that say a new city or a new estate would be planned. Instead, the development seemed somewhat random, like a patchy haircut.

Signs of state failure abound; like red lights that no one will stop for because they will never change, like airport style security at Churches of all places because the security situation is that much of a nightmare, like beautiful homes for Abuja’s best area without running water for days at a time, like government offices that turn to moin moin spots and Nollywood cinema because not much else is happening there.

Maybe the barbers are still working. Maybe they are done, waiting for the next set of aliens to come and build. Maybe I am mistaken and I should just shut up and see more – I hope I am. But one month in, Nigeria already seems to me like a country where aliens had come and built the city and then left, and then are just sort of letting it decay.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.