Nigeria’s big spenders make a flamboyant splash

LAGOS – The waiter at Caliente bar sticks a sparkler into yet another bottle of champagne and hits a siren mounted behind the bar to draw everyone’s attention to the sleek Nigerian businessmen who ordered it.

Near their table, oil traders, sports stars and politicians’ children grind to a hip-hop beat.Most of Nigeria’s 150 million citizens may live in desperate poverty, but the West African oil giant also has an elite that revels in ‘shakara’ – the flaunting of success.’Nigerians who have money like to splash it,’ explains Naomi Okaja, whose company imports goods into Lagos, the commercial capital. ‘There are a lot of bad things about this country, like the leadership, but there’s a real entrepreneurial spirit.’At the Megaplaza mall, a flat-screen TV taller than a man sells for US$53 000, a crystal chandelier for US$10 000. A 2009 survey by US consulting firm Mercer finds Lagos pricier for expatriates than Berlin or Madrid.Meanwhile, four-fifths of Nigerians live on less than US$2 a day.In this city of over 17 million, power shortages caused by neglect and mismanagement mean even rich areas only get a couple of hours of electricity a day. A fleet of diesel generators keeps the Megaplaza lights burning.The wealthy import everything from refined gasoline for their Mercedes-Benzes to their children’s favourite foods.At night the line of lights from vessels waiting to berth stretches across the horizon like a diamond necklace on the throat of a Lagos socialite. They enter heavily laden but head out riding high above the water. Only the tankers leave low-bellied; crude oil accounts for 95 per cent of Nigerian exports but production has been slashed following attacks by militants protesting widespread pollution and poverty.Violent robberies, fraud and kidnappings pit the haves against the have-nots. Restaurants post armed guards; the homes of the wealthy have walls with razor-wire, floodlights, cameras and security guards. Newspaper ads for luxury armoured Hummers blare: ‘you are a person in authority and influence. Protect yourself.’An island and the connecting peninsula jutting into Lagos Lagoon offer the best real-estate. At night the neighbourhoods become the ultimate gated communities, reachable only by bridges and checkpoints guarded by sullen police with rifles.But the guns can’t protect against fraud. ‘This home is not for sale’ is spray-painted across the walls of many mansions in case fraudsters get the keys and sell the home for a briefcase full of US$100 notes.And since even Hummers must contend with Lagos’ legendary traffic jams, there are yacht moorings and helipads for the super-rich.All great cities have gaps between rich and poor but Nigeria has only the smallest of middle classes sandwiched between the desperate and the fabulously wealthy.Okaja, the importer, a svelte, black-clad 30-year-old, sees the positive side of conspicuous consumption, calling it an African tradition and a celebration of businesses overcoming poor infrastructure, corruption and political unrest.But success stories, especially for the politically unconnected, are still the exception.’You must have a big man behind to you succeed,’ insists 25-year-old Ifane Okuro as he haggles with customers over his brightly coloured swaths of cloth. ‘Can you give me a job?’Okuro’s margins have been squeezed by the closure of most of Nigeria’s textile factories and a ban on importing fabrics, meaning he must smuggle in cheap Chinese cloth through neighbouring Benin. Police collect unofficial ‘taxes’ and he was robbed on his way home from work three months ago.Authorities say 600 newcomers arrive in Lagos every day to find work. Most end up living in crime-ridden slums, or sleeping under bridges, or in shacks they build on stilts in the fetid lagoon.- Nampa-AP