Ahh, the State Department. What can you say?

Samaritan’s Feet spokesman Todd Melloh said Tuesday that the State Department contacted the charity to say the trip might be a bad idea.

The State Department website has a travel warning against going to the West African nation, saying unusually high levels of violence and crimes are committed there by police, militias and ordinary citizens.

“Nigeria has an unsettled situation,” Melloh said. “They (the State Department) intercepted communication that it was not going to be positive for our trip. It was almost like they were waiting for us.”

Dance legend Bill T. Jones is directing an Off-Broadway show about the one and only Mr. Anikulapo Kuti, and we can only hope they bring the show to Naija at some point.

“But is it possible to create a musical about a firebrand, pot-smoking, Afro-beat, womanizing black man and get people to come who also want to see “South Pacific”? That’s the question.”

Here’s a story in the NYTimes that I contributed reporting to.

While talking to the pharmacist quoted in the story, a woman walked past me and slapped, then grabbed my ass and told me to go with her to her car. There was still daylight, and there were hundreds of people around.

I said, “No, thank you.”

She said, “You’re crazy. You must be South African.”

I’m not sure what that meant.

A local newspaper (The Punch) ran these two stories - on the same day.

Nigeria to Upgrade Relations with the Philippines

and

Government Arrests 15 Filipinos Stealing Oil