A trip is often defined by its surprises, so here
are my biggest revelations from six days in Lagos, Nigeria. Most of all, I
found Lagos to be much safer than advertised. It is frequently described as one
of the most dangerous cities on earth. Many people told me I was crazy to go
there, and some Nigerian expats warned me I might not get out of the airport
alive.
The reality is that I walked around freely and in
many parts of town. I didn’t try to go everywhere or at all hours, and I may
have been lucky. Yet not once did I feel threatened, and I strongly suspect
that a trip to Lagos is safer than a trip to Rio de Janeiro, a major tourist
destination. (In my first trip to Rio I was attacked by children with pointed
sticks. In my second I found myself caught in a gunfight between drug lords).
Many Lagos residents credit the advent of closed-circuit television cameras for
their safety improvements.
So if you’re an experienced traveler, and tempted to
visit Africa’s largest and arguably most dynamic city, don’t let safety
concerns be a deal killer. The surprises mount. For all the negative publicity,
many parts of Nigeria, especially Lagos, could and should serve as exemplars
for religious tolerance.
The reports of Boko Haram and terror killings are
well known, and they reflect the interlocking and sometimes deadly combinations
of regional, religious, sectarian and ethnic identities in the country, not to
mention extreme inequalities of income and opportunity. Yet Nigeria has about
180 million people and is larger than Texas. The violence is the most
frequently reported story in the West, but the underlying reality is far more
complex and shows positive features.
For instance, the city of Lagos is in many regards a
marvel of religious tolerance. Nigeria is about 50 percent Muslim and 40
percent Christian, and the area surrounding Lagos is also highly mixed in terms
of religion. That may sound like a recipe for trouble, but in matters of
religion Lagos is almost entirely peaceful. Religious intermarriage is common and
usually not problematic, as is the case in many (not all) other parts of
Nigeria as well. Many top Nigerian politicians have married outside their
religion, kept two separate religions in the family and enjoyed continued
political success.
Consider the scale and speed of this achievement.
Lagos, with a population of about 20 million, is larger than many countries. It
is the most commercially oriented part of Nigeria, and it grew so large only in
the last few decades, as it attracted entrepreneurially minded people from many
parts of Nigeria and other African countries. By one estimate, 85 new residents
arrive every hour. That may sound chaotic, but in essence Nigeria has in a few
decades created an almost entirely new, country-sized city built on the ideals
and practice of religious tolerance.
The current president, Muhammadu Buhari,
is a Muslim who was supported in his election by many Christian leaders, on the
grounds that he would fight corruption more effectively. His running mate
served as a Pentecostal pastor. The
recent history of Nigeria, Lagos in particular, is also a counterweight to some
recent Western political trends. Many Westerners today fear resurgent
nationalism, as illustrated by the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union and
the election of Donald Trump.
In Nigeria, nationalism is largely a progressive
force, bringing the country together and allowing nation-building and
infrastructure development. However imperfect or backward these processes might
be -- Nigeria has at least 270 distinct ethnic groups and 370 languages -- in
Nigeria one is rooting for nationalism to succeed. And it’s in Lagos, the
country’s largest and most important window to the outside world, where the
understanding of the importance of a common and stable national identity has
made such progress.
Many Westerners used to consider much of Africa
backward in this regard, but we Westerners are learning again that national
cohesion isn’t always so easy. Perhaps the political spectrum in many Western
countries can realign itself in a direction analogous to some features of
Nigeria, to ally liberalism and nationalism once again.
By Tyler Cowen: tcowen2@bloomberg.net – Bloomberg
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