Day 23: Ibadan

The rain had cleared the air and Wednesday morning was a beautiful one with brilliant sunshine and bright blue skies. After breakfast at Frank’s home we called at his office and then headed off to find a cyber café and an electrician to mend Tolu’s car door. Both were easily located thanks to Frank’s advice and I spent a useful two hours in the café. When I had finished the car was still being worked on so Tolu and I took an okada to the National Museum which had been recommended in the guide book. It is down an untarmacked road but is easily the best museum that we have seen: quite extensive and well worth visiting. It is especially good on Yoruba folk culture – plenty of costumes from the obas and the masquerades. We were of course the only visitors in the building which has serious structural problems and major roof leaks everywhere. We took okadas back to the garage to find the car finished: five hours work and a complex electrical problem solved – how much do you think it cost? The princely sum of 2,100 naira – just over £8 !!

Ibadan itself is a huge sprawl of a city, the former capital of the post-colonial Western Region of Nigeria and of present day Oyo State. Estimates as to its population range from 3.5 million (guidebook) to 5 million (Frank) - and it could easily be more. It is unremarkable and the guide book is blunt in its estimation of how little there is to see in this massive urban centre.

We came back to Frank’s house for lunch and then to rest for the remainder of the day. Frank’s home is really a small farm of 3 acres and although he has made his living as a valuer and surveyor, he is a keen amateur farmer and much of the food that we have consumed here has been grown on their own land. In the evening I went to look at the fishery which has some awesome looking catfish: I would not want to fall in there! The three of us had dinner together after which Frank talked and we listened about all kinds of subjects including his life and faith and various aspects of life in Nigeria. He is a very interesting man – another ex student of Victory College, Ikare, and Tolu’s mentor. Bed about 9pm.