Talk:Nigeria Voyage Tips and guide

There is a project to improve articles about Nigeria – see the Nigeria Expedition page.

wikipedia:Nigeria For future reference the Project:CIA World Factbook 2002 import can be found at Talk:Nigeria/CIA World Factbook 2002 import.

Is there a policy on the number of cities that can/should be listed on a country page? I seem to recall reading somewhere that the maximum should be 9; but I can't remember where I saw it, not can I find a policy. (WT-en) Nrms 05:30, 4 November 2008 (EST)

Yes, the limit is nine (7 plus/minus 2, to be precise). See eg. Project:Country article template. (WT-en) Jpatokal 07:19, 4 November 2008 (EST)

Cheers! I'll get rid of the ones that aren't linked to. Seems easiest. Convo is on here, so if someone objects to what's left, they can do some work on it :) (WT-en) Nrms 07:26, 4 November 2008 (EST)

Actually, when we don't have subregions, the consensus is to allow more than 9 cities in the list until we do create subregions. But since the city articles weren't even created yet, no harm done. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 16:15, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Nigeria needs a set of travel regions. The administrative division list would make for too many divisions, but it might be useful to make the travel regions by amalgamating administrative districts. Here's the old admin division list:

; Administrative divisions : 36 states and 1 territory*; Abia, Abuja Federal Capital Territory*, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara

--(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 16:15, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Alright, here is my attempt at creating a set of regions for Nigeria (references are to this map):

• Southwest Nigeria—land of the Yoruba, the city of Lagos; comprises everything to the south of Kwara state and to the south & west of the Niger River
• Southeast Nigeria—land of the Igbo and mostly tropical rainforests on coastal plains and includes the Niger Delta region; comprises Delta state, Kogi state east of the Niger & south of the Benue, the western half of Benue state (draw a smooth line/curve from the bottom of the dip in the Benue River to the top protrusion of Cross River state), Cross River state and everything inside that.
• Central Nigeria— nothing unifying, but it's a transitional area from the Christian/forested south to the Islamic/savanna north; the southern boundary is the Niger/Kwara border, Niger River, Benue River all the way to about the "n" in the blue "Benue"...the northern border is a bit tricky...see the horizontal east-west border between Kaduna & Niger states SW of Kaduna city? That's the middle of a shallow, sweeping curve...from the western tip, draw a gentle curve to the northernmost point on the border between Niger state and Benin (paralleling the Niger River at its westernmost)...from the eastern tip, continue to the eastern tip of the river (SE of the last "a" in bold "Kaduna") and continue to the Baluchi-Plateau border which wraps around to where you left off on the southern border at the "n" in Benue (you cut off the top protrusion in Plateau state and smooth around that border)
• Eastern Nigeria—simmilar to the SE with its Igbo and forests, but more rural , has many nature reserves and includes highlands and short mountains along the Cameroon border; includes eastern Benue state (that's not in SE Nigeria region) and the portion of Taraba & Adamawa states south of the Benue river.
• Northern Nigeria—home to the Hausa and their historical city-state such as Kaduna & Kano, all this area practices Sharia law (which applies to Muslims only, not poor travellers); comprises everything in the northern part of Nigeria, with an eastern boundary along (and including) Bauchi & Jigawa states and for the sake of smooth boundaries can include the NW protrusion of Yobe state
• Northeastern Nigeria—simmilar to Northern Nigeria, but Fulani people/culture (known as Peul in French lang. and thus it the term used for them in neighboring Niger & Cameroon) are more prevalent than Hausa, also it's a bit more arid except near Lake Chad, Shiria law in these states as well; comprises everything else (Borno, Yobe, Gombe states and remaining parts of Adamawa & Taraba states).

You can smooth out the borders as the political borders are a bit jagged. The reason I did the complex thing (it's not that difficult once you visulalize what I'm describing) between Central-North Nigeria is that the Central part of the country is a gradual transition and there is no natural or political boundary between the two...the southern border of Kaduna state is too close to Abuja, yet using the river is not a good choice as Kaduna city is a prominent Hausa city and once a prominent Hausa city-state. I've based this roughly on the Bradt Guide which has only one map of Nigeria's regions about 4cm x 4cm and with no cities, rivers, political borders, etc...so I had to figure out decent descriptions. The guidebook had Eastern & Northeastern Nigeria in one region, but I think they are quite different (I think the reason was their rural/remoteness and the ease of describing the few parks/cities in those regions). If anything were to be changed, North & Northeast could be merged. Any thoughts, comments? (WT-en) AHeneen 04:39, 21 January 2010 (EST)

The Bradt guides are well done, and your descriptions of each region seem sensible to me. (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 22:09, 24 January 2010 (EST)

Any chance of some less sterile region names? --(WT-en) Burmesedays 05:32, 27 January 2010 (EST)

Unfortunately none as far as I can tell. (WT-en) AHeneen 06:15, 27 January 2010 (EST)

I will get on with the regionalisation before actually drawing the map. This is a big one, with 36 state redirects required as well as all the existing article breadcrumbs etc. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 01:33, 28 January 2010 (EST)

Done. I followed the spirit of the suggested division and made minor adjustments using rivers as boundaries where appropriate. That was a tough one both to figure out and to draw. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 05:04, 29 January 2010 (EST)

I was hoping the central/northern border would pass a bit further south, but I guess this will work. (WT-en) AHeneen 07:03, 29 January 2010 (EST)

I can change that easily if it is important.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 12:26, 29 January 2010 (EST)

I agree...I was in Nigeria in October (2008) in Lagos and my ten days were without criminal incident. I found people very nice and quite respectful. The food was excellent!!! Taxi drivers are a bit special though, even if you have a Yoruba companion. I would go back again and again. (Clifton E. Hill) —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Clifton Hill (talk • contribs)

this article made me laugh til my insides hurt. of course i am nigerian. much of it is true, and the writer is obviously an experienced oyinbo who has lived in nigeria. but also some of it is ridiculous, as is the perception of many oyinbos about nigeria, especially those who have never visited and have no intention of doing so based on the well constructed and perhaps valid phobias out there about the country.... (WT-en) Ayo Adene 11:28, 20 December 2010 (EST)Ayo Adene

Fortunately, this is a wiki, so you can change the text yourself to make it more accurate and useful. Plunge forward! --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 17:38, 21 December 2010 (EST)

This opening article is quite ridiculous. The danger sign the ober-the-top manner of portraying the health situations. Elkaamilah (talk) 14:13, 1 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

As long as the COVID-19 plague is continuing, that's the first thing travellers are going to want to know about a country. If you disagree with the placement of the warnings/information, I think the place to discuss that is the Travellers' pub, because you can see information or warningboxes about COVID-19 at the top of many articles, and therefore, it's a much larger question than just what to do in this article. Here's a somewhat random sampling: United States of America, Germany, South Africa (looks somewhat outdated, though), Malaysia. Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:24, 1 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Is a bit of a joke, right? Most of those places aren't even wikilinks... Hobbitschuster (talk) 18:06, 16 July 2017 (UTC)Reply

Below is a proposed infobox to let readers know which formatting conventions to use in Wikivoyage articles. Do you agree with these proposals? If you have direct knowledge of what is most commonly used in the country, please let us know. Ground Zero (talk) 18:12, 9 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

Moved to the top of this page. Ground Zero (talk) 04:38, 28 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

Recently a couple of new users have edited the Port Harcourt article to avoid saying that it's in Southeast Nigeria, and I wonder if this is a sign that our region divisions don't match the local understanding. While our regions don't have to match the local understanding completely, it's better if they do when feasible, because that makes things easier for travellers. I see there's only been minimal discussion about Nigeria's regions above—should we change them in some way to make them more useful for travellers? Pinging User:Eneniflo and User:197.210.84.221 for input. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:48, 6 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

I also invite comments from User:197.210.227.68, who describes the location as Southern Nigeria. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:06, 6 June 2020 (UTC)Reply

"A couple of new users"? You mean the same person, using two IPs and a registered account, right? I'm all for having a new discussion, and for soliciting the opinion of the person who has been edit-warring, but let's not pretend it was more than one individual.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 08:37, 6 June 2020 (UTC)Reply

Mezaya1 My submission to this topic is, Nigeria has six recognized geographical zones and Port Harcourt is located in South South zone and Rivers State is not among the South Eastern States. Lets correct this. —The preceding comment was added by Mezaya1 (talk • contribs) 00:23, 3 February 2021

Hi Mezaya1, thanks for the comment. It sounds like you're talking about these zones, is that right? It's important to keep in mind that Wikivoyage is concerned with what regions make sense from the traveller's perspective; we're not so concerned with political administration. So are these six zones the most sensible way to organize Nigeria articles for the traveller? —Granger (talk · contribs) 06:46, 3 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

Hi Granger, Yes the Geography of Nigeria which is also taught today in Nigerian schools is structured to show these 6 Geopolitical zones and so is the literature and all official documents available to travellers. It would be much easy for a traveller to use these 6 zones as a guide and not get misunderstood. If you tell anyone to take you to the south east, they would understand South east to mean any of the 5 Igbo speaking States of Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo state. On the other hand, South South states are Rivers, Edo ,Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross River state respectively. Lets update our articles sing this info. Thanks —The preceding comment was added by Mezaya1 (talk • contribs) 13:59, 3 February 2021‎

That makes sense to me. Does anyone else have input? —Granger (talk · contribs) 19:09, 4 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

Not except that unless someone gives a good rebuttal to Mezaya1's points within 24 hours, we should go with the guidance they gave us. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:10, 4 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

I agree. It'll take a bit of work to make a new map and move all the cities to the right regions. I'll try to do this sometime soon (unless someone else gets to it first). —Granger (talk · contribs) 07:40, 6 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

I think this is done. Please fix any errors if you see them. @Mezaya1: Is there any chance you'd be able to help write descriptions for these six regions? You can look at other articles like Ghana and United States of America for examples of what region descriptions should look like. —Granger (talk · contribs) 18:40, 7 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Ogui Road Enugu.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:54, 2 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

The map lists a city in the Northeastern region called "Maidugiri". Presumably that's a typo for Maiduguri. Could someone who knows how to edit maps fix that please? —Granger (talk · contribs) 18:04, 16 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

Done -Shaundd (talk) 03:55, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

Thank you! —Granger (talk · contribs) 11:06, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

Ikan Kekek, Ground Zero, SHB2000, Timmylegend I have moved the discussion here.

I recently noticed that the standard article category for Nigeria is Region>>>Cities, it should be Region>>State>>Cities, for example, Ibadan is under the southwestern Nigeria region, I feel there's an omission for states in Nigeria. I am saying Ibadan should be under Oyo-state, not directly under Southwestern Nigeria. I noticed the California article exist, and California is a state in the US. Also, the article about Lagos should be a stand-alone article called Lagos State (very debatable). States in each Nigerian region should have articles of their own, as there is an article for New York (state), there should be an article for Lagos State as well. The New York article is under the Mid Atlantic region, this should be replicated for Nigerian states. Another important thing to note is that towns like Lanlate, Ibarapa, Eruwa, Oke-Ogun etc, in Oyo State will be under the Southwestern Nigeria region, I feel it doesn't make enough logical sense. The same arguments go for the towns and Cities in Ekiti state being directly under Southwestern Nigeria is not appropriate as well, as there are quite a few Ekiti Towns and settlements, grouping Ado Ekiti, Igede Ekiti, Itaji Ekiti, Oye Ekiti, etc will be under the southwestern region is not cool. There is enough content for States in Nigeria and will be creating and recruiting new persons to create them.Haylad (talk) 10:04, 7 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

@Haylad: - thanks. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 10:07, 7 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

@Haylad: we are definitely looking forward to having more content in Nigerian articles and will help out with your work, including creating states articles as they become needed.

I've started going through the articles to make sure that the state is mentioned in the text for each city, and will continue over the next few days.

Haylad, can you tell us how time is usually shown in Nigeria? Do people mostly use the 24-hour clock (09:00-17:00), or the 12-hour clock (9AM-5PM)? Thanks, Ground Zero (talk) 10:50, 7 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

@Ground Zero:, Thanks for the motivation. I am planning on creating an article for Ado-Ekiti and all other Ekiti townships, do you think I should create the Ekiti State article first?

The Official time format in Nigeria is the 12-hour clock (9AM-5PM), My friends in the Military do use the 24-hour clock (09:00-17:00), but most Nigerians use the 12-hour clock. I hope this helps.Haylad (talk) 14:02, 7 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

@Haylad: I have put sub-headings in the list of cities in South West Nigeria to sort them by state. I think this is a better approach for now. It does show that we don't have any city/town articles for Ekiti State yet. I am looking forward to reading about your state when you write some articles.

Our policy on creating articles for regions says: "Importantly, we only add a level of regions when there is too much content in the existing breakdown. As a result, the regional hierarchy at Wikivoyage doesn't always follow the official breakdown — and frequently is much "flatter" than the official political or administrative breakdown." I think it's it us best that we follow the policy, and create the state article after the destination articles.

Thank you for the information on the time format. I have corrected the formatting conventions box at the top of this page to reflect your advice. Best regards, Ground Zero (talk) 15:25, 7 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

As I wrote in the pub, South West Nigeria now has lots of articles and creating state articles within that region would make sense. The other regions don't need to be broken up yet, though. Creating state articles under one region doesn't mean we have to do it for all regions. The state articles in other regions should be created when there are enough city articles in each one. Ground Zero (talk) 12:50, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Agree. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 12:51, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

@Favourdare123, Ikan Kekek, Kingaustin07: We generally provide information at the highest level of article to which it applies. For example, we only provide information on getting visas to enter Nigeria only in the Nigeria article. Although that information would also be relevant for someone who wants to visit Kaduna or Ife Ife, putting it in every city article for Nigeria would add a lot of repetitive text to the city articles. Also, it means a lot of work updating articles if the visa rules change. There is also risk that the information won't be updated consistently, and it will appear like there are different rules for different cities.

For mobile phone services, if these are nationwide providers, the listings should be only in the Nigeria article, and we should just specify which companies have usable service in each city. This way when a provider changes its name, for example, like when ZAIN became Airtel, we don't have to update dozens of articles.

So far, the information that us available in articles like Ikorodu hasn't been added to the Nigeria article. Ground Zero (talk) 11:11, 17 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Yes, often this is how often article inconsistencies occur. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 11:15, 17 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

I made a remark to the same effect in an edit summary. Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:18, 17 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

[undent] I've moved this from the Ilesa article, so we can edit these listings here as appropriate and add the info to Nigeria#Connect:

• 1.3-9.51 Airtel (Bharti Airtel) (Formerly Zain, Celtel). Services include Pay and Recharge with post-paid ,prepaid, data bundle and recharge with easy options *444# .Voice and Data with voice, data and devices ,home broad band (WIFI) devices. VAS with support, easy recharge. Me2U, MyAirtel App Postpaid plans.2G 3G 4G LTE. (updated Jun 2021)
• 1.2-12.72 MTN. Services include Pay and Recharge with post-paid ,prepaid, data bundle and recharge with easy options *131# .Voice and Data with voice, data and devices ,home broad band(WIFI) devices. VAS with support, Easy recharge. Me2U, MyMTN App Postpaid plans.2G 3G 4G LTE.
  It has the largest network coverage. (updated Jun 2021)

• 81.65.13 9mobile (former Etisalat). Services include Pay and Recharge with post-paid ,prepaid, data bundle and recharge with easy options *222# .Voice and Data with voice, data and devices ,home broad band(WIFI) devices. VAS with support, Easy recharge. Me2U, My9Mobile App Postpaid plans.2G 3G 4G LTE.
  It has the largest network coverage. (updated Jun 2021)
• 1.3-9.14 Glo (Globalcom). Services include pay and recharge with post-paid, prepaid, data bundle and recharge with easy options *777#. Voice and data with voice, data and devices, home broad band (WIFI) devices. VAS with support, easy recharge. Me2U, MyGlo app postpaid plans. 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE. Mobile money. Network wlowest offerings for airtime and data. (updated Jun 2021)

Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:17, 17 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Also pinging @Osenibabalola0: as you might also want to have a look at this (and @Ikan Kekek:'s comment above) SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 03:29, 21 June 2021 (UTC).Reply

Thanks SHB2000 for notifying me of this. You would have noticed I have not been engaging myself with the "Connect" section for most articles I've worked on. That's partly because I haven't gotten a clear picture of how to go about it. And this discussion you've directed me to, it's very enlightening. Thanks. Osenibabalola0 (talk) 09:15, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

No worries mate! SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 11:03, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Why do these listings have coordinates? They seem to point to somewhere in the Atlantic (one north of Svalbard, the rest west of the Gulf of Guinea). Can they just be removed? –LPfi (talk) 16:38, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Also, in the Connect section you are asked to use "the International Code". On mobile phones you have the plus sign. On land lines you must dial the digits of this code. Is it the same all over Nigeria? Does it vary by operator? We should either provide the code or tell how visitors can find out what code to use. –LPfi (talk) 16:49, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

I removed the coordinates. Ground Zero (talk) 17:21, 21 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Despite having Q503923 in the mapshape, the area (containing the marker for Port Harcourt) is not colored on the map. The other 5 states do have the color. --FredTC (talk) 11:57, 30 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

@FredTC: It may be better to move this to the Nigeria café. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 12:05, 30 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

@SHB2000: Yes that might be a good idea, but over there with some different text. The problem is that River State has no mapshape data via Wikidata (Q503923). That will also be a problem when another suggestion I'm thinking of would be followed. That suggestion is: "Make all top level region articles similar to the South West Nigeria article". The South South Nigeria article would in that case suffer from the same problem. --FredTC (talk) 12:36, 30 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

I think it would be very nice to present also the typical budget options, and the typical options in smaller towns. Are there types of accommodation you should avoid even if you don't need the comfort of a good hotel? What do you do if you cannot find any accommodation in our guides or on the net for a place where you'd like to spend the night? Should you stay away or could you trust there to be some place if only you arrive early enough in the afternoon? –LPfi (talk) 10:35, 1 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

I don't think we should use an image in the other destinations section for a destination that is not listed. Any suggestions on what to replace it with? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 10:38, 20 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

We don't need an image in that section: it's too crowded right now. Zuma Rock is mentioned in "See," so the best solution is simply to move the thumbnail down the page to a section that has a good deal of free space with no images. Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:06, 20 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

The infobox at the top of this page says:

"Phone numbers should be formatted as +234 XXX YYY-YYYY."

Connect says nothing about the numbers, other that that the area code (etc.) prefix "0" should be left out when using the +234 international prefix.

The formatting advice implies that the XXX can always be left out when dialling "locally", when having the same prefix on the calling phone. Is this also true for mobile phones (with local SIM)?

What about numbers like "+234 707 097 8948" and "0903 491 0703"? Do people really have phone numbers with leading zeroes (in the form used for local calls)?

Are there prefixes that imply a higher charge, local calls only or other things travellers should be aware of?

–LPfi (talk) 06:21, 15 July 2024 (UTC)Reply