Our 15 minutes of Nigerian fame

In Nigeria, we had our 15 minutes of fame and were treated like celebrities.

And this was all thanks to Ivy in our group. She went to uni in New York with Reggie, Chief of Staff of Congress, and through him, we met Kelvin, Chief Press Secretary, and the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke. She told us she’d tee’d up a media appearance with them, and we were all excited but had no idea what to expect.

As our truck pulled up in front of the Minister’s offices,

Nigerian TV crew came rushing up alongside us, and began filming each of us getting out of the truck.

They interviewed Ivy, questioning her about her thoughts on Nigeria,

and then the Minister of Culture and Tourism himself welcomed us to the country.

I gave him a bag of clip-on koalas and kangaroos and some Aboriginal design pens from Oz.

A photo was taken, as was my name, and the Minister told me he would ensure the President got one personally! He invited us in to lunch in the Minister’s offices

and introduced us to Ben Murray Bruce, founder of Silverbird Group, one of the largest entertainment companies in Nigeria and Africa, one of Nigeria’s most influential entertainment CEOs and one of Nollywood’s (Nigerian Hollywood’s) 100 most influential people of 2011.

We were then invited by Ben Murray Bruce to spend that evening on him at his Silverbird mall in Abuja. We started off at a café where we could order anything on the menu – I opted for a mojito –

and then were given the choice of free movies, free games, or free salsa lessons and dancing and naturally I opted for the latter. It was tonnes of fun as I hadn’t danced in ages though I was finding it hard keeping up with the dance instructor’s detailed routine, much to the local’s amusement. After the lesson, the salsa music continued for a while and I tried to play the guy’s role as best I could with Ivy and Karen. The music eventually turned to Top 40 and dance hits and mostly us girls (and Harry!) danced all night long. A TV was playing in the background and we saw ourselves on the news that night. What an incredible day!

Another night in Abuja, Reggie and Kelvin took us out for dinner at Cubana.

We ate at the more relaxed section downstairs, up the back. The Nigerian food was great – I had peppered fish and discovered Chapman’s – apparently you should not leave Nigeria without having one.

A massive thank you to Reggie, Kelvin, and the Minister for making our stay in Abuja so full of magic!