2/9/06 The border town of Banki straddles both countries and is incredibly open. It is almost a no-mans land town full of import-export goods. Nigerian authorities were very polite and helpful. As we waited a storm moved overhead and we were pleased to be off the dirt and across the river. It was a dry change with dusty wind and showers elsewhere but our route was dry heading towards Maiduguri and onto Potiskum for the night. The first 60 km's had more than 30 road blocks, immigration, police, customs, border patrol, revenue, etc, we gave up looking. We rode through each one without stopping. Most are here only to get their share of the petrol smuggling money, mostly police road blocks with nail boards which we rode around. Some tried flagging us down but a polite wave seemed to be sufficient as they probably only wanted a look at the motorcycle. We did however get chased by the immigration check point
officers. A 4x4 flagged us down and they were initially abrupt asking
why we hadn't stopped at their check point. They had been resting in chairs
in the shade some distance from the road as we passed. They eventually
saw the humour in us wanting to avoid all the other check points and after
checking our documents we were allowed to continue. Nigeria is flat, here
agriculture spreads in all directions. It's population dense, 20% of all
Africans live in Nigeria. It's people are close but polite. Each time we
stop they mass around the motorcycle. We stopped a few times for tea and
grilled meat and the thin cloud cover kept away most of the heat. 
teenage kids on Chinese motorcycles. Robed men sit under leafy trees
wearing their Muslim hats and talking business. We changed some US dollars
with one of them after locating him through a motorcycle taxi. The rest
of the day was spent oscillating between our room with air-conditioning
when the power was on to outside under a leafy tree when it went off.
and welcoming. Both Kay and I have been feeling unwell the last few days
and needed to make a dash into the tall stands of guinea corn to help with
their fertilising. Water borne amoeba seem to be the problem and a course
of Metronidazole was started. We avoided buying the medicine in Nigeria because
in a recent BBC interview the head of the department responsible for drug
quality stated that over 60% of all drugs in Nigeria are fake, imported
corruptly from India or China. This importing and selling of fake drugs
with little or no active ingredients has been responsible for many deaths
including the department head's sister who died because of fake insulin.
Children die daily from fake malaria treatment drugs or fake antibiotics.
The manufacturers and distributors of these fake drugs are killing people
yet there seems to be little effort to prosecute them. The problem is more
far reaching because it creates a hesitancy to spend a family's small savings
on life saving drugs because they are likely to be useless, so more people
die unnecessarily. 
can better afford it. We have noticed many more hours without electricity
this time to Africa than on our last visit. An easy ride to the border where
we were assailed by a security officer who interrogated and questioned us
for over half an hour about where we had been in Nigeria? What route had
we ridden? Which other countries we had visited? Which towns we slept in and
which hotels? Where we were going to stay in Niger and in which hotels would
we be staying in Niger? Where would we be going after Niger? When he asked
for my home address I had had enough and asked to see his identity card.
It was flashed in front of me but he would not allow me to see his name or
his ID number. We were then refused permission to leave Nigeria unless we
gave our home address. Nigeria constantly rates amongst the highest countries
in the world for corruption. It is where much of the internet fraud originates,
particularly banking scams. We were not happy to provide an unidentified
officer unnecessary details. For the next half hour we waited as the superior
and his superior were informed, each refusing to identify themselves, and
finally a phone call was made to a higher official in Katsina and we were
allowed to leave after an hour. Customs and Immigration were efficient and
polite. It is a shame that a visit to such a welcoming country was spoilt
by an over zealous security officer.