In case anyone is wondering, I think I did okay on the FSO Exam today. I will post something vague about scores in three to five weeks. Please do not ask specific questions as to what was on it as I signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Going into the Embassy was fun too as Accra has a very nice, new compound. When the foreign national employee was unsure of whom to call about my test, an American employee was kind enough to suggest whom to call, saving me from a potential bureaucratic Charlie Foxtrot (or least several minutes of anxiety). Thank you again!
Also taking the exam was a kind lady from Abuja. The capital of Nigeria, Abuja is a planned city in the spirit of Brasilia, although the execution may not have been quite as successful as in Brazil. As we had both arrived early, we discussed with the proctor why and how we got to Accra.
Her husband is an FSO at Embassy Abuja, his first overseas post. She said we were very lucky to have all that we have in Accra for there is nothing to do in Abuja. The only attraction worthy of mention was a tiny, “pitiful” national zoo which informs visitors that “the last wild animal in Nigeria was killed in 1972” as a political prize. Embassy Abuja suffers from budget cuts so the cafeteria is located inside several shipping containers welded together.
Even leaving is difficult. When pricing out a safari vacation in Kenya, she concluded that it would be cheaper to fly from their next post, Vatican City, to Nairobi. While Delta Air Lines had a couple of seasonal non-stops from Abuja to New York, they seem to have disappeared; either courtesy of the Nigerian aviation ministry and their shenanigans[1], lack of demand or fuel prices.
Spending money on things is hard because there is nothing to buy. She asked about a movie theater in the Accra Mall as Netflix was the only source of the compound’s films. It takes two weeks to get a film (actually fast for African mail although they may use the diplomatic pouch) and after it is viewed by the household who received it, the film makes its way around the other households in the compound.
Power is severely lacking. She asked how many times the power has gone out since I have been here. To my knowledge, the answer was none. In Abuja, blackouts are daily occurrences. The richer folks in Nigeria cope with generators as well as the few remaining manufacturers and the diplomatic community. While blaming China is easy, not having a reliable source of power is the biggest cause of Nigeria’s almost complete loss of manufacturing capability. While surge protectors are attached to every appliance as well as the transformer into the compound, this has been inadequate for stopping the destruction of several personal TV’s, computers and other electronic devices. When visiting relatives in the US, she found herself explaining why she was sitting in the kitchen to watch the food cook. When the power in Nigeria goes out, it turns off the oven.
The Nigeria grid has become so bad that USG recently made a several hundred million dollar grant available in order to begin to actually fix the situation. The problem stems from two issues. Lack of grid maintenance as Nigeria has spent almost nothing on their grid since the colonial era. Couple this with demand that out paces supply by about a factor of four to one.
That is the quintessential hardship post for FSOs. It is becoming typical to do at least one and sometimes two hardship posts in the modern FSO’s career. It does have a few benefits. The embassy community is very tight (Netflix is the tip of the iceberg). USG gives out some extra plane tickets for those who want to get away. Danger pay is lucrative. Posh posts usually follow these sorts of postings; language training in Washington and then Vatican City is in this family’s cards.
[1] A few years ago after Delta Air Lines applied for New York-Lagos and New York-Abuja route authorities, the ministry demanded that Delta upgrade their plane on the Atlanta-Lagos route to a new one with in-flight entertainment, flat bed seats in business class and more space for Nigerian checked bags (Average on ATL-LOS, 5 per person despite hefty baggage fees). Like a parent giving a misbehaving child candy to quiet them, a newish Boeing 777 now plies that route. To top it off, Delta never got their potentially lucrative New York-Lagos authority., likely because the ministry was looking out for a private Nigerian carrier’s best interests (Arik Air flies Lagos-New York a mere three times a week). The ministry’s release (I dearly wish I could find it now) even sounded third grade-ish as they complained that British Airways and Delta intentionally flew “old planes” (747’s and 767’s respectively) to Nigeria just because it was Nigeria, ignoring the fact that the mainstay of BA fleet is the 747 and Delta flies more 767’s than anyone else. Both carriers fly those jets worldwide without similar complaints from other aviation administrations. More recently, the ministry wined that none of the Western airlines overnight their planes and crews in Lagos, Abuja or Kano, depriving Nigeria of much needed revenue in the form of airline services such as plane cleaning and hotel stays. They ignore that fact that this is often done in many locales as planes only make money when they are actually flying. This is lifted right out of their own press releases and this article http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/business/aviation/27190.html.
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