Nigeria is officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa, bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Its coast in the south is located on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The federation comprises 36 states and 1 Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja, is located. The constitution defines Nigeria as a democratic secular state. Nigeria has been home to a number of ancient and indigenous kingdoms and states over the millennia.
Being a local guide has made me develop an interest in travelling to see new places, I started by exploring tourist attractions in my city, popularly known as “city of brown roofs”. I started my adventure by visiting Bower’s Tower.
Bower’s Tower was built in December 1936 in honour of Captain Ross L. Bower, the first resident and travelling commissioner of interior Yoruba Land. It sits on the summit of Oke-Are (the highest hill in Ibadan) at a height of 60 feet and a width of 11 feet. With two entrances and a small spiral staircase, the climb to the top of the tower was narrow which can be frightful if you are scared of being in tight places.
Next Stop: Captain Bowers Residence
Captain Robert Lister Bower. Captain Bower at the period was the Resident and Travelling Commissioner for Ibadan and other parts of Yoruba land in South Western Nigeria. Naturally, the tower was named after him. She proceeded to say that it was atop the tower the captain oversaw the activities of the town. I have a strong affinity to things of old, and I found the walls quite interesting.
Next Stop: Mapo Hall & Dugbe Train Station:
Mapo Hall is the colonial-style Ibadan City Hall, perched on top of Mapo Hill, in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Mapo Hall was commissioned during the colonial era by Captain Ross in 1929. It was designed and constructed by Engineer Robert Jones. Officially Robert A.Jones (1882–1949), “Taffy” was a Welsh man who worked in Southern Nigeria between 1910–1944 and was seconded to Ibadan Native Authority in 1923 as a road engineer, where he remained until his retirement to his native Wales. He is also ascribed as being the engineer who built Manor House in Iseyin. I had heard so much about its history and French-style pillars, I was super excited to see and photograph it. Google Maps helped us find our way there, and I could feel my insides jumping in excitement as we approached. I asked the security guard if we could take pictures and he said we were not allowed to take pictures. That if we wanted to take pictures we’d have to pay more money apart from what we had given to him earlier(extortion). At this place, I wasn’t allowed to use my 360 camera. I was disappointed by the way, we were treated, but I still had to admire those pillars at Mapo Hall, they would make good images for a historically themed shoot.
Next Stop : Dugbe Train Station
From a distance, I and my friends could see abandoned trains and people walking up the tracks so we joined them while looking for an open office or someone to speak to. We were accosted by a man. He asked what we were doing there. We told him we came sightseeing and were actually looking for someone we could speak to. Next thing he said was “you’ll explain when you get to the police station.I’ll confiscate your phones and camera. You’ll be arrested” and then went on to make some more sentences involving the police. The interesting thing was that we hadn’t taken any pictures and there were still people walking up the tracks as he spoke to us. So I kept wondering why our being there was such a problem. I asked if there was a procedure we were supposed to have passed through before going there as all the offices were locked, there were no guards around and everyone else we met on the track seemed uninterested in our being there. He went “thank you very much for that question. I’ll give you 15 minutes to do what you want to do but if another person sees you, you’ll be harassed”. I honestly do not know if they were staff of the corporation or some random people around the tracks waiting for people to harass or possibly attack. These scenes could have played out differently as they obviously could tell we were strangers and we seemed defenceless. While we were accosted I was secretly filming on my 360 camera, whenever I play black the memory of that day, it makes me laugh and also reminds me of how difficult it is to be a tourist in this part of the world.
Check out my full list on Google Maps for more interesting places to add to your travel wish list.
Glad you enjoyed it, stay tuned for more…