Just my two cents; I'm in Calabar now, waiting for my visa for Cameroon (CFA 51,000 with no hassle whatsoever, same-day service), having just crossed Nigeria. First of all: loved the country - scenery is spectacular, most people are extremely friendly (and for me, speaking English was quite a relief after francophone Africa). So, here's my story:
- Got my visa in Benin with A LOT of hassle (actually, first I had to go through two days of hassling for my Benin visa-extension, but that's another story). My embassy (Netherlands) wouldn't write me a letter of introduction, so after many phonecalls between embassies and my going to-and-fro on zemidjans the people at the Nigerian embassy got tired of me and asked me to write a letter declaring that I would be the only one responsible for my safety during my transit through Nigeria. So, an hour later I collected my passport with a visa valid for two (!) weeks.
- From Benin to Nigeria I took the Ketou bordercrossing, which turned out to be really relaxed; accidentally didn't stop at neither the Benin, nor the Nigerian side, and the guy at the first checkpoint got on the back of my bike (on my luggage) and directed to the immigration office a few kms down a small dirt road. No problem getting my passport and carnet stamped.
- From the border to Abeokuta got stopped A LOT; no hassle, just small-talk and a lot of "You're welcome!" and "Hello white man!". All these checkpoints do have nailboards and use them on bikes (seen it happen, ouch), so it's propably better to just endure and stop at most of them.
- From Abeokuta to Benin City was a whole different story. Superhighway half of the way, other half supermudway. Aweful riding, not too many checkpoints, most of them even directed me to cut in front of the cue and go on.
- Benin City to Aba is tarmac all the way with just a few rough sections. Like on the road to Benin City, not too many checkpoints; on the bike I got into the habit of passing them alongside a minivan, staying in their blindspot until it was too late to stop me (only got stopped three times, twice by extremely friendly soldiers both warning me for Aba, once by angry policemen requesting me to open all my bags - told them I was already searched in Abeokuta, and when a truck drew their attention I got away)
- Aba to Calabar (same day) must have been the worst chapter of this trip so far; the first checkpoint, right after a horrible watercrossing (sandy ground, water to above my ankles), a policeman cocked his kalashnikov at me - no fun. He stopped me, and started explaining that he would arrest the machine {sic}. He seemed serious, and only after half and hour of bargaining did his collegue come saying something like 'He's just a tourist' and could I ride on. I had to speed up from here to reach Calabar before dark. A lot of checkpoints on the following 20kms, but just a few of them actually stopped me - having no idea what a tourist was ("then, what is your business in Calabar?" "obtaining a visa for cameroon and travelling on" "who's your business associate?" "nobody, I'm just a tourist" "terrorist?" - well, you get the gist). But one friendly checkpoint policeman explained the hassle around this town - a lot of disturbances and kidnaps in the previous weeks; oops. Still, got to Calabar before dark no further problems and 80% tarmac roads up to there.
So, at least to Abeokuta this side of Nigeria poses no problems. The real hassle only starts after Benin City, and only at Aba is it that it starts getting really tedious. $0.02.
Mike