Visit to six universities in Nigeria in August 2011

WABER trip to Nigeria

06 August - 20 August 2011

6 [Saturday] Arrival in Lagos (Hadmof Inn) in Yaba. Went to Whitehouse to eat local dish (fufu with ewedu and stew). Spent the night in Lagos.

7 [Sunday] At home. Went to St Dominics Catholic Church in Yaba. Spent the night in Lagos.

8 [Monday] Went to Unilag to meet with staff. Was received by Funlola. She took us round to introduce us to lecturers in the faculty of environmental sciences. Met with Godwin Idoro. He took me to meet with Prof Oduaye (Dean of Faculty of Environmental Sciences) and Dr Ogunsami (Head of Building). We had a ggo meeting discussing WABER 2012 and potential hosting of WABER 2013 in Lagos. Present at the meeting were Dr Godwin Idoro, Dr Dada, Dr Nubi, Dr Ogusami. We ended meeting around 5pm and Dr Ogunsemi took us out for dinner at Tantalizers. Spent the night in Lagos.

9 [Tuesday] Left Lagos at 8am for Ife. Arrived in Ife around 12noon. We were met on arrival by Joshua Dada. He helped us to check into the guest house. Then he brought us to the faculty of environmental management to meet with staff. Spent the night in Ife.

10 [Wednesday] Left Ife at 8am and headed straight to Akure to visit colleagues in FUTA. Plan was to visit FUTA on Friday. However, Unilag has a programme on Thursday where they have offered me a slot to speak on WABER so means I would have to return to Lagos by Thursday. We arrived in FUTA unexpected but Professor Ogunsemi and his colleagues gave us a very warm welcome and they were happy to receive us. Had a good meeting with Dean and HODs in Prof Ogunsemi's office. Then did a tour of departments. Afterwards had a seminar with lecturers in the Faculty of Engineering. Was a good meeting. Left Akure around 5pm for Lagos. Dr Arum and Dr Babatola took us out for late lunch. We left Akure around 5pm and arrived in Lagos before 10.

11 [Thursday] Urban and regional planning event in Unilag. I did an interview on Unilag radio with Mariam Yanusa coordinator for UN Habit World Urbanisation forum. Then we went into the auditorium for Mariam's guest lecture on urbanisation. It was good. Had lunch with Babajide an then a meeting with Henry Onukwube and then went home. Omoh Yadua came to visit me in the evening and took me out to show me parts of Lagos around the Yaba area. We ended up going to sit at a spot at the events centre in Yaba.

12 [Friday] At Unilag for meetings with lecturers. Met with Prof Igwe, Dr Kayode Adebayo, Dr Immaculata Nwokoro. Came home to rest.

13 [Saturday] Henry came to pick me up in the morning at 10am. We did a tour of Lagos. VI, Ikoyi and Lekki, etc. I was hugely impresed with the city and developed ambitions to own property in Lagos one day. Visited a construction site in Unilag with Henry then went with him to Immaculata's house to have lunch. Nice lunch. Went back home to rest a bit. It was 5pm by now. Henry picked me up later around 8pm and we went for "Point and kill".

14 [Sunday] Travel from Lagos to Benin City. This was an eventful journey. We left Lagos around 9am and arrived in Benin around 8pm. We lost our way a bit and took the Ibadan, Ife, Akure, Ore, Benin route. This made our journey very long because we could have taken the direct route from Lagos, Shagamu, Ore, Benin. Anyhow, it was a good journey. Gave us a chance to see Dr Arum again in Akure. We also travelled through Ondo town which was good. We were met on arrival in Benin by Professor Anny Nat Aniekwu. He received us very warmly and helped us to settle into the Uniben guest house. Light off throughout the night.

15 [Monday] Visiting Faculty of Engineering at University of Benin. Our main person was Prof Nat Aniekwu. We went round offices tp greet lecturers. Then went to listen to a Lecture by Esther Ofolue. Visited HOD Civil engineering. Then went to see campus facilities including sports facilities and then went home.

17 [Tuesday] Left Benin City for Abuja. We left at 7 45am and arrived in Abuja around 4pm via Lokoja. We went straight to see Yar'adua conference center, NUC and Merit Awards House, British Council. Then we went in search of hotel. We got misled and ended up with a terrible experience. We could not find our way around Abuja. Finally we got frustrated and decided to sleep in the car. Faisal came to our rescue. We had left him behind at the Yar'dua conference center because he had gone into the mosque to pray while we were inspecting the place. We asked for directions from people along the way and we finally managed to get to Silverbird. Faisal and his friends came to get us from there. We had dinner and went to lodge at CHIDA hotel around 11pm in the night to lodge.

18 [Wednesday] We left the hotel in Abuja at 8am. Faisal was seven minutes late so we left him behind and asked him to get a commercial vehicle (find his own way) to Minna. We arrived in Minna around 11am and had a most wonderful reception. Met with senior management board of the university, dean and staff of school of environmental technology. Then went into hotel around 3:30pm to lodge. Anita and Ladi came with us and we had lunch together.

19 [Thursday] We left Minna for Zaria at 5:30am. Arrived in Zaria around 10am. Was received by Dr Ahmed Doko and his colleagues in QS department. We went round various departments to say hello to colleagues and then went to admin to see Prof Kabir Bala. Had lunch with Kulomri, Peter and Haruna. Left Zaria around 4pm and arrived in Abuja around 8pm. Checked into Alexis hotel and Nat helped us to have a discount. Went out in the evening with Rita to celebrate the end of our successful 2 week trip.

20 [Friday] Went with Rita to check out venue for 2012 [National Merit AWards]. Took pictures and had discussions with them. Rita dropped me off at the airport around 2:30pm. My original flight was postponed from 1:30am to 3:30pm. Even this was delayed and we ended up leaving abuja around 4:30pm. Got to Lagos and flight to Accra was delayed as well. We eventually departed to Accra at 10:20pm instead of 7:30. I have been very displeased with AIR NIGERIA and i plan to use Arik in future. Finally arrived in Accra around 11pm