The North

Last week, I was given the opportunity to travel up north to Kano for work. When I told my friends and family, it was immediately followed by two questions: ‘Where is Kano’ and ‘Up North? Boko Haram is??’. My answer would be in the line of ‘Kano is a city up north, north of Abuja and bwah, it’s safe, don’t worry….so, how are things there? ‘. The thing is, I wasn’t really sure of what the situation is up North and to be honest, I still don’t. 

In spite of this, it was a very cool trip. The main reason for the trip was to meet the Emir of Kano.  During the trip I was not only able to meet him but also visit his palace and meet his first wife (the Emir, in respect to Muslim traditions, has four wives). Quite interesting to see how the other side lives…

I got to know more about the economic aspects of Nigeria (sorry, but 5 years of studying business will do this to you) :

Kano state (where Kano city is the capital), known as the centre of commerce, used to be a very important place on the Trans-Sahara trade route (supplying gold and salt) and later the main players for agriculture and textile in Nigeria. However once oil was found in Nigeria, these industries were swept aside and forgotten. The lack of investment in infrastructure due to inconsistent government policies over the years didn’t help either. Now, with oil prices dwindling down, the people are looking to rejuvenate the industries that they ignored for so long. Hopefully not being too late…

All in all, I hope I get more opportunities like this in the future, getting me to say yes without having realized just what it’s all about. As Shani once told me when I told her that my work was everything but routine- ‘Randomness is underrated’.