The story of Uncle Fatty

... and a day in Abuja...

I paid the Uncle 30 € and he drove me around for 5 hours… I think our Belgian cabs should revisit their rates… clean car, good driving skills, and a really too funny guy, best 5 hours I spent in Abuja.

Uncle Fatty asked me whether I wanted to see some tourism attractions, and the menu listed the following options

• The Mosque
• The Catholic Church
• A huge rock with eyes and a nose

After a long reflection I said thank you for the offer, but maybe we can just go into town. Now, Abuja town is not really a town/city in the sense of a business region, a town, people, … drop the last 2…
So he suggested we could see his family, and off we went. Driving out of Abuja city into Nasarawa state, we drive up to other sights and smells.
On the way we talked about his family. He is 41 years old, he lives in a house he proudly built all by himself, close to the Abuja dam, but well outside Abuja. He's married with children (5) aging from 7 to 21. His wife, Asufat, own a photo-store, and is a photographer. Only a few people live in Abuja itself. A house in Abuja costs in between 1 and 3 M €, and when you know that the bulk of Nigerians make 40 € a month, you can do the math. So, like Uncle fatty, most people live 15 minutes drive away in the countryside, and build their lives there.


On the way back from his house 2 children sitting by the side of the road... Don King's haircut seems to inspire many people…. Somehow I felt strange in the beginning as people were staring, but after a while you get used to it, and the children were chasing the car and waving and smiling jumping around. People are always doing something, men and women. The women all wear the most colorful dresses, brightening up the streets, which would be quite desolate without them.

So driving back to the hotel to pick up my stuff I met with some of Fatty’s friends, taxi driver buddies, sitting in the shade on the side of the road. Let me introduce them:

• Abdul a.k.a. The boss, but better known as Adeyi, his nickname, meaning “Someone who loves women” Somehow I think they should all be called Adeyi…
• Abdullahi
• Michael, The Pope
• Sola, better known as Gbajumo, meaning “someone who is very popular and everyone knows.

They are all part of the same tribe, called the Yoruba (the 2 others being Igbo and Hausa)
This afternoon Nigeria plays against Mozambique for a decisive battle for a place in the Worldcup in South-Africa. Everyone is all excited and merchandising is in high season for a day…

The pope talked most of the time and the main story line here is that men are underrepresented in Nigeria, bout 40%, and so the destiny of men is to please women, make them happy, and more then 1, and not necessarily in sequence. The idea is that they can marry multiple women as long as they can provide the financials to do it. It’s a sign of prosperity…