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After an early rising, we navigated the teeming Lagos morning traffic for a security briefing at the U.S. Consul General’s office. Lagos is officially the second largest city in the world, but more likely it’s the largest.

Walking directly to the door of U.S. Embassy security, we passed hundreds of beautifully dressed Nigerians, who would likely wait in line all day to apply for seldom-granted visas. Some would have a humiliating experience, many not even be given the courtesy of having their documents looked at. The passports in our pockets felt heavy, American privilege weighing us down. An aide informed us that our meeting would be delayed because the security officer was detained, responding to a current crisis. "This is one hot country from a security perspective," she stated. "That is why you are here for a security briefing."

We were briefed by Rob Meyers, Regional Security Officer, and Shannon Ross, Energy/Resources Officer, who gave us the traditional security perspective of dangers in the Niger Delta. It was interesting to learn that most of their information about the situation comes from “private security sector” (mostly, this means oil company security) informants. They themselves rarely visit the area. In fact, they said they’d be interested in reports from us. We intend to provide them. The briefing covered what to do when encountering a military or militia roadblock and advice on trying not to be too conspicuous (followed by the conclusion that this would be impossible).

They shared their expectation that as the 2007 elections grow closer, violence in the Delta will increase. They said they don’t always know which activities are politically motivated and which purely criminal. The discussion touched on problems in the Delta (“will take at least a generation to fix”), the legacy of a 40-year “monoculture” (oil) and what they called “remediation” of the area. The overall solution, according to Shannon, “is above my pay grade.” This was unanimously elected quotation of the day.

We shared our concerns about the visa-granting process, giving examples of our Nigerian friends who had been turned down. Acknowledging problems with the application review process and equal opportunity for interviews, Shannon said reforms are in the works. She also said they believe 98% of the documentation applicants present are fraudulent, which is why they are so seldom looked at. She added that the presumption is that Nigerians’ purpose for obtaining visas is “intended immigration.”

We then piled into the bus for travel to Warri, a coastal city in Delta state and the jumping off point for our village visit. The road was in far worse shape than during our trip in November, presumably due to the recent rainy season. Anxious to get there, as travel in Warri after dark is near-impossible, our driver put pedal to metal – resulting in a speedy but pothole-jarring, bone-bumping seven hours. The landscape became rural, every so often the road dotted with crammed markets. Occasionally traffic came to a halt as vehicles negotiated around an overturned truck or gigantic hole in the asphalt. We passed through Benin, ancient home of one of Africa’s oldest civilizations, then on to our newly constructed hotel.

During the trip down to Warri, we passed through a gauntlet of “check-points”—essentially a loose group of armed men in matching uniforms at random points along the “highway” whose job it is to make sure nothing untoward is going down in randomly selected vehicles. As it turns out, the vehicle selection is not so random and passage past one of these involves a small tribute of some monetary amount. Amazingly, we were not stopped once. This was attributed to the large banner tied across the front of the bus announcing to all that we were a delegation of Niger Delta Professionals For Development along with a brief synopsis of our mission – magic banner.