From Benin to Nigeria
 

What is te best border crossing if driving from Benin to Nigeria? Many people seem to travel through Nikki, nut I have the impression this crossing is not really pleasant.

We try that one on the coast to Lagos. We can not recommend this border crossing.

Nigeria itself was nice to travel - but i would suggest to take one of the other border crossings. Smaller is better :rolleyes2:

A Surfy says, the crossing near the coast can be a bit of a hassle. At least in my experience, they were pretty aggresive in trying to charge you a fee for not having brown card insurance (which I had) and then they tried to claim that something was wrong with it, (which it wasn't).

They then finally made up some document stamping fee that they tried to insist I had to pay and refused to give me back my passport unless I paid it. Not necessarily recommended, but a couple of kicks to the door of the booth and some general yelling about the fact that the passport belongs to the govenrment of the issuing country and they gave it back and I rode away sans fee.

Other than that, it wasn't bad. Not much of a line up in early morning and traffic was to and from the border. I think most people cross at one of the crossings to the north though.

The Ketou - Ilara crossing was very relaxed, with no hassle on the Nigerian side. Just be aware that the road from the Nigerian border to Abeokuta has a lot of road blocks that will want to inspect and record your passport details.

Don't try to run through these road blocks as they are not averse to putting nail boards in front of your tyres if you try. There is another thread on this elsewhere in the HUBB.

I had the same experience there, the border officials were very friendly, the road blocks after a huge pita.
Thats why i choose Nikki the next time i traveled (Christmas, a special season). No problems at all, scenic bush road, passing the big Kainji Dam, no check points, really recommendable.

Thanks a lot guys. Any advice on the best road from Ouagadougou to Cotonou?

Yup, I went through here to Ibadan a couple weeks ago and it was easy. As mentioned, lots of roadblocks. They never once asked me for any bribe or anything though, usually just a couple questions and maybe a quick look at the passport to make sure it was stamped.

It's worth it too to go and visit Abomey, Benin when you're up there. Massive history and brutal warriors in the past. The UNESCO museum and palace is really interesting.

Hi,
We crossed from Nikki in January, found it an absolute breeze.
We'd certainly recommend it based on our experiences.
The only issue we had in Nigeria was on the way through a suburb on the way into Abuja (non-official check points and an aggressive drunk guy on a moped with a big stick!)

Happy travels
Sam & Cat

We also crossed the border at Nikkie in January and were very happy with that (no hassle at all, sometimes a rough road, but not as bas as the potholes in many parts of the tar roads). That was the only border crossing between Nigeria and Benin for us, so we can't compare.

If you would take that border crossing, you will take the route via Abuja. It has to be said that somewhere after Abuja (west, there was a coord in our GPS, but I don't have it here) you can encounter the so called 'stick men', who may throw spike sticks in front of your car in order to raise some silly taxes. We were lucky; for some reason they pulled away the spike sticks and we could drive on. And in Mokwa, at a police checkpoint, we were informed about many of our violations of their laws: driving with a rooftop tent, driving without a warning triangle reflector sticker, etc.; this caused some hassle, but we could go on without a bribe after about 30 minutes. All in all, this route through Nigeria was definately not that bad (apart from the traffic/drivers).

I'd echo Anacondor's comments.
You instinctively know when a road side stop is ligit or not, if not, we just didn't slow down. They always pulled away before we hit the brakes.
The best were the 'vigilantes'......they looked quite proper and were in uniform, so we stopped.
When we asked who they were they proudly said 'we're vigilantes' and showed us the badges on their arms identifying them as such.
We smiled, exchanged pleasantries and drove off, a little confused but happy we'd met our first official vigilantes!
A friend we'd met following a day or so behind had a similar experience, friendly and nothing to worry about.
The biggest recurring issue for us was being right hand drive (had similar issues since Ghana, but always explained we were only tourists and showed them the carnet stamp authorizing us to be there with the vehicle), but in Nigeria they were a bit more full on, one stop said we had to go to the police station to talk to their boss. It took a while but we did manage to talk our way out of it. The best advice i could give is always remain very friendly and over polite, but keep giving as many reasons as you can think of why you can't possibly go to the station. They got bored in the end and waved us on.

And I in my turn full agree with NivaSayNever that one should always remain friendly when in trouble at the checkpoints, should always say that you respect the local laws and didn't intend to violate them and that you are sorry that you apparently did (because you do, no matter what). After that, you can start acting more strict and if you feel comfortable enough, bluff them away. I stressed many times that a much higher police commander as well as a chief of the customs signed and stamped certain documents to allow us to drive like we do (no reflector tape, etc.); although this was obviously not true and I in the end only could show my carnet if I had to, everybody seemed to believe my point and waved me away. Hierarchy is a big thing in Africa and caused me enough headache, so why not using it sometimes in your own favour ;-)?

Drove from Ketou to Ilara. No problems, except the guy that stamped my passport was almost blind and did not manage very well to read my visa. He refused help and instead used a torch. It took him more than half an hour to write everything down. After that many checkpoints indeed, but most officers were kind. Now parked in Lagos. On to Cameroon and Chad in november. Inch Allah.

Ilara to Abeokuta has loads of check points indeed, I stopped at all of them and had a chat, the folks manning them are courteous and will not hold you up long if your papers are in order. The only problem I had was with the immigration people along the way who found out that the officer at the border stamped my passport with the wrong date (a day early) and it suddenly became such a big deal. In Ilara Benin immigration is on the main road to your left, Nigeria is off the main road along a sandy track, ask someone to take you there.

Yep, same for us as well - also the writing part was unusually long for us :). It's among the easiest bordercrossings we had in Africa.

Keep us posted about situation around Chad. Where you'll go from Chad, to CAR?

Safe travels, Ins' Allah.

Margus

Hope to drive from Chad to Libya, and then to Tunisia and back home. Maybe I will be turned back on Libyan border, but with some good Tubu contacts and Libyan visa in advance it should work, I think