Morogo in Nigeria

Morogo Films has been training the cameramen and picture editors for a pilot TV series in Nigeria called TALK TALK. The project is a collaboration between the UK's department for International Development and the BBC's World Service Trust. The series aims to give ordinary Nigerians a platform to discuss key issues relating to the coming presidential elections in April 2007.

Arriving at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport Abuja my theory holds fast: the way porters behave at airports provide an accurate benchmark to the experiences one might come across in the host country. In Nigeria, I expected to find porters demanding credit cards and bribe money to get my baggage back. This didn't happen and no similar incidents happened during my stay. Although my travel advisers told me not to use credit cards at all but rather carry cash. I was also warned to be careful what information I give away over the Internet and avoid giving my email address out to anyone, I spend ten days there and came away unscathered. I also left with a view that Africa is not a basket case so often thought of in the UK and its doing okay.

Their is an intriguing culture of work in Abuja, everyone is a businessman in his or her own right, especially the staff of the TV stations I worked with. One has to be to survive. Staff are encouraged to find their own clients to make up for their salary shortfalls, using company equipment. This culture is not the foundation of independent broadcasting but it certainly has created an entrepreneural spirit that I have found nowhere else.

Apart from their business skills, the people I have worked with in Abuja - who come from all over Nigeria including Lagos - leave me with a deep sense of humanity. It is true what they say in Africa, "We are people through other people."