Monday, December 6, 2010

Hold an ID, when you go out (at night) in Naija.

not only in Naija actually, anywhere.

So, I was in Abuja for the summer and I went out - clubbing, lounging... often. This is not a feat that I am proud of. Rather, it has been eye-opening and I've learnt a few lessons from these outings, besides knowing who and where to swoon, of course.

One major lesson that I learnt is the importance of having my ID on me, even though it doesn't seem necessary in a country like Nigeria. In Yankee, you def need one cos of age-alcohol concerns.

One time, I got to an accident scene in Central District, Abuja, three minutes after it took place. It was around 3am and it was raining. One of the two cars involved, a Honda Accord(end of discussion) belonged to a friend's friend. To imagine that my three other gfs and I would have been in the car because we were going from one club to the other but there were two other guys in the car already. When we got to the accident scene, I thought to myself, 'what if I had been in that car?'. What if?' Thank God no life was lost and that me and my three other gf s had not sandwiched ourselves in the back seat. Otherwise, someone would have suffered the impact of the crash. How would I have been identified? Long thing because those friends are not known by my folks. o_O

This other time, shortly after prostitutes were banned from the streets of Abuja, I was approached by a Police officer. Note, that this officer didn't have his uniform shirt on, did not introduce himself with his ID or cordially talk to my friend and I. He simply accused us of standing by the roadside, past 12am, in above-the-knee dresses. Sho! we were not even hailing cars because our ride was just around the corner and we were standing infront of our house. That was how we started a long story with the officer oh. He asked for our IDs but we had none on us. The only items in our clutches were cash, money, perfumes.... He refused to allow us go back in and bring out IDS but was ready to detain us till dawn. Imagine, ending up in jail for a night because your standing infront of your house at past 12am. All he kept saying was there is a new law that women should not be standing on the street at that time of the night. oh well. After that incident, we went out with our IDs everytime.

Naija was fun. I can't wait to be back there next year, hopefully.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Lol..
You sure did have some good fun..
I'm so guilty of not carrying my ID;
I just hope nemesis doesn't catch up with me..
Errrr...
Were you detained after all?lol

Myne said...

Unless I'm carrying my clutch, my small purse with my IDs and stuff go everywhere with me...Thanks for the reminder as I'm in naija and all...

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

Babe, ID is a must at all times.
Glad you had fun in naija though.

Miss Natural said...

lol wow I didnt knw that. Thanks for the heads up. Glad you had fun in naij, and thank God that your trip was a good one with no mishaps

Yinkuslolo said...

@2cute4u: No we weren't detained but we reported to the so called one-room station, the next morning, to take the officer to and show him our house.

@myne: I hope you're having a nice time touring

@solomonsydelle: I can't even underestimate that because I've learned that lesson, too many times.

@ms. natural: long time! thanks I also did a project in naij. you can check wapnigeria.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

just thank your stars, you were few steps away away from getting locked-up & raped by some skanky policemen. welcome to nigeria

Prism of an Immigrant said...

That "police" man was looking for money. You guys should have asked to see his own ID...(haha, I kid. You would have gone home with a black eye)

http://lookingglassofanimmigrant.blogspot.com/

seye said...

Mschew. I have been arrested before sef. I showed them ID card, the policemen didn't care o. I went to the police station, and then they wanted a 'bribe' of N10,000.

It took a 'powerful' phone call to get them off my case.