Harsh Reality in Nigeria's North (brutal living conditions)

How many children would sleep in this bed here? Like around 20. So, these guys over here are going to fight these guys over here. Just so I have this clear, you're telling me that they would stick broken glass to their hands and punch. It is rich in resources, it's got Africa's biggest population, and it's enjoyed democracy since 1999. Kidnappers are demanding money. If you pay ransoms, kidnapping continues. Over 100 students kidnapped from a school in Nigeria's Kaduna State. Armed groups have killed more than 36,000 people in the past 10 years. The only way to end kidnapping is for society to take a stand that we will not pay. Burdened by inflation, economic stagnation. Despite being Africa's largest economy, it does have high unemployment at more than 33%. Credible and disturbing evidence that Nigerian security forces shot and killed at least 12 people, taking part in peaceful protests last night in the country's largest city, Lagos. A city in chaos. Across Lagos, buildings have been torched. Mass kidnappings, attacks by armed groups and criminal gangs, corruption and a lack of jobs. So, where does Nigeria go from here? Nigeria. Many people would think of scammers, kidnapping and violence when they hear the name Nigeria. But how frequent are such events? Shall we go, put our feet in the dirt and see what it's like for ourselves? I think so. Africa's most populous country. No one for kidnapping, for ransom. What's the price? The price of this one is 1,000. A city in chaos. Don't have words. So, we've come to this area of the city and it's where families from villages outside of here in Kanu send their kids here to learn more about the Quran and do religious studies. But the thing is, is these kids come from such poor families that they can't afford to kind of buy themselves food and they sleep in a room with like 30, 40 people inside one room. And so, what they do when they're not learning the Quran and doing religious studies is they go out onto the street and beg. And it's very common here in Kanu. I've seen many, many hundreds and hundreds of beggars and it's widely accepted here that the kids go out with these little colorful buckets and beg for money and traffic. So, we're going to go inside and see what it's like here. It's a very harsh environment and lifestyle that these kids live. Okay, so we've come into Al Majari School. Do you want to just explain a little bit about this place? I know we have a man who's one of the leaders here who looks after the kids. He's the teacher, like a teacher. He's a teacher but he doesn't want to be on camera. So, he's behind the camera but he's going to explain to us how it works. How many children would sleep in this bed here? This bedroom? Around 20. 20 people in this small room? Yeah, around 20 or more, yeah. So, here's the toilet for them. There's a small hole down to the left there where there's a bucket of water. And here's another bedroom here. These are Qur'an scripts? Yeah, these are the Qur'an scripts. This is how they make it and they have to write it by hand. They have to... This is like a handwritten. So, the children make these? Yeah, the children make this. They have to write it handwritten. So, after they have memorized this all, they will wash it with water. And they will write the next chapter. So, they memorize the entire Qur'an? Front page to back. Exactly. So, after he memorized this completely, then if the teacher agrees that, yeah, he memorized it perfectly, then he allow him to wash this and rewrite the next chapter. He will write the next chapter and he will memorize again. When he's done, the teacher approve that, he write the next chapter. Continuously from the beginning until the end. So, what is the man's goal here with this school? What would he like to achieve? His goal is to get them Qur'anic education right from the beginning up to the end so that they can memorize it. That's the goal. And so, he's aware that the children go out and beg for money in the traffic during the day and things? He's quite aware that the students go out to the neighborhood to beg for food and some of them also work in some neighborhood homes to get some income. Work in neighborhood homes? Yeah, in some homes nearby around. Like cleaning or something? Yeah. Your personal thoughts, Mohamed, what do you think of that? Yeah, my personal thoughts actually is like exposing the kids. Exploiting. Exposing them to you don't know what will happen, right? Right. So, you're like exposing them to a lot of maybe bad things that we don't know what will happen. They can be easily influenced maybe to get into something bad or they can get hit maybe by the road or whatever. You don't know what will happen. Better they be in the villages to study the education instead of coming to the cities, I think. But according to him, he says the parents send the kids from the villages because at the villages they couldn't get the good Qur'anic education because of illiteracy in the village. So, they must have to bring them into the cities. According to him, he said that was the reason why they were brought from the villages. Do you think there's anything positive about this system here? Yeah, the positivity is like they study the Qur'an right from the beginning to the end, which is good. Do they do other education or is it mainly restricted to religious studies? I'm not sure, let me ask. They don't go to like any formal Western education. So, no maths or English or language training? No, they don't have that. How long did it take to learn the entire Qur'an? It depends on the capacity of the kids. Okay, you? Yeah, it depends on the intelligence. Like for me, it takes me like around 12 years. 12 years? Yeah, like 12 years, yeah. Amazing. Thank you. And is it possible to meet one of the children? You doubt, but let's ask him. Okay, so we're not able to speak to the children. But I've noticed this part of the school here, it's all boys, right? Is there a part of the school for girls? No, it's completely for boys. Girls are not allowed to be here. Never? Never. Never sent from the village? Yeah, it doesn't happen. But do the girls learn the Qur'an? At home. Okay, but it's not as good, right? It's not as good like the men, yeah. But because, you know, in this part of the world, men or boys are given more priority than the girls. I know this is your personal opinion, but do you think that the children are happy here? From my own personal opinion, I think they're happy. Because that's what they've grown up right from their childhood to the level they are now. So, they don't know really what's happening over the world. So, because you don't know what's happening over there, so you believe that your life here is okay. So, we've come to Chicken Republic, which is basically like the Nigerian version of KFC. And the guys are just grabbing a bite to eat. We've got the big boy's meal here. So, do you love Chicken Republic? Yeah, I love it. Have you had KFC before? Yeah. What's better? This is Nigerian taste and KFC is KFC taste. That's why I prefer the Nigerian taste. Is it more spice? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's spicy. KFC must be much more expensive. It will be expensive compared to this. Yeah, compared to this. Yeah, because this is local, right? Yeah. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Food? So, we've driven from the chicken place and a KK... Hold on. It's coming into this wrestling match. It's insane atmosphere, really. I mean, where is it not in this country, really? A tuk-tuk driver crashed into the back of our car on the way here. So, we've come into this wrestling arena. This area is actually a majority Christian area. So, it's a bit different but... Check out this scene. What is going on? Yeah, we're boxing arena. So crazy, so wild, right? There's huge speakers everywhere. So, these guys over here are going to fight these guys over here. All right. So, we're coming out of that arena there. We will fight. Actually, I think they had like ropes and bandages tied around their hands. So, they weren't really gloves. They were basically like bare knuckle punching, right? Yeah. The chairman of the club here has invited us in to his office. He is the chairman, national chairman of local wrestling in Nigeria. Really? National? National, yeah. That's why he got the title. You can see that. Yeah, so this is you, right? So, this is like the crown and the staff of the office. What do the fighters have on their hands? What is wrapped around their hands? It's a thread. A thread. Yeah, like a thread, yeah. Like ropes. Ropes, yeah. So, they like tied it on their hands. And so, it's even harder than the fist itself. Yeah, it's harder. Okay, I mean, to me, it seems quite dangerous. So, do people get seriously injured doing this? This is like a culture, and they inherited right from generations before. So, it's like a culture they inherit, and it's not dangerous. Yeah, someone, even if he is not punched, he will not be happy because they want to be punched. So, they're happy to fight, but do sometimes they get some harm? Because there were some guys I saw with scars and stuff. Those that you see with scars, they were like heated before. They were punched before, when the time they were using like glasses. Sometimes they used glass, like years ago, they used glasses and they used like bottles. Oh, they would smash each other with bottles. Not really smash, but they used it to tie it on their hands. So, that makes blood to come down, and that made it for them to have the scars. But for now, things have changed, they modernize it. So, they are no more using that one, they are just using the rock. Okay, so just so I have this clear, you're telling me that they would stick broken glass to their hands and punch. Before, they used the bottle, they would like pound it to become like a powder, and they use it. So, you know, it's bottle, right? When you punch somebody, definitely blood will come out. And that was the main reason they do that, because they want the blood to come. I saw a sign over there that says, say no to drugs, do sports. Do you believe that this fighting here keeps teenagers and the young men away from drugs and crime? They put that because now like the local wrestling is becoming more stronger, more popularly known nationally and internationally. So, they are trying hard to make them, the wrestlers stop maybe taking the... If they are taking, they stop taking drugs. So, because anything international, definitely they don't want drugs to be involved, right? So, they are trying as much as possible that nobody takes drugs. Okay, so they're cleaning up the sport so they can compete internationally, and when they get drug tested and things, then it's all good. If you notice at the wrestling arena, there are like two groups, right? So, it's like they are fishers. There is like a battle between fishers and the butchers. It started like traditionally between like fishers and... Butchers? Butchers, yeah. Butchers and fishers? Yeah, so they are like trying to compete themselves. And who's stronger, the fishermen or the... The fishers are mostly the winners. The winners, they always win against the butchers. Okay, Mohammed, we've come to the hotel restaurant here. And we've just come back from that boxing fighting ring. You felt a bit unsafe there, you kind of wanted to get in and get out, right? And you said that there were a few prostitutes around? Yeah, there are some prostitutes around. Most of the ladies there are prostitutes. There was like quite heavy security there. There was like military guys, right? Yeah, yeah. And there was like police? Police, yeah. And so... The idea is actually to protect the environment. Because they are boxers, you don't know what will happen, right? Okay. Yeah, so the idea is just to protect the environment. You were saying before that some of the boxers could potentially be like the hoodlums? Yeah, they could be potentially hoodlums. They could be like snatchers from snatchers, like anything. So, that's why they are there. Okay, let me go on. Yeah. Everywhere I'm looking now, I'm surrounded by your embrace. Baby, I can feel your halo. You know you're my saving grace. Anything I need or more, it's reading all over your face. So, baby, I can see your halo. I pray you wouldn't fade away. I can see your halo, halo, halo. I can feel your halo, halo, halo. I can see your halo, halo, halo. Eating like a ray of sun. Burning through the darkest night. You're the only one that I want. I'm addicted to your light. I swear I'll never fall again. But this don't even feel like falling. Gravity can't forget to pull me back to the ground again. It's like I've been awakened. Every rule I had to break, yeah, yeah. Let's go. So, we're coming to the end of our trip here in Nigeria, right? Yeah, fortunately. How would you describe our trip? Because, I mean, I know that you live here, but we've seen so much on our trip here. Like, how would you explain what we've seen? We've seen such a diverse range of... Yeah, beautiful. And it's a pleasure really having you here because it's really rare to have people like you to be here and to be really adventurous like you. So, I appreciate you to be here. I hope other people can come more. Right. What is something maybe that you've learned or something that you've realized during our time going around meeting people in all different places? In Makako, all the way up here to Makano. People are so diverse. You can meet a different kind of people. Some are funny, some are aggressive, some are welcoming. So, that's the most thing that I got to understand from this trip. You love your country, right? I love my country. And has this trip increased that love? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Okay. This trip has opened my eyes to embrace my country. Really? Yeah. Why is that? Because, you know, it's the beautifully diverse that we have. The beautifully diverse country that we have. Any last words? Let's love one another. Yeah, that's the only... Okay. Yeah. All right, beautiful. Thank you. See you next. When are you coming back? We'll talk about it. Thanks. And on that note, I'm gonna end the entire Nigeria series. It's been a hell of a ride. I know there's so many more places in Nigeria that I need to see. I've only barely scratched the surface. So many incredible people to meet. I want to say a huge thank you to the Nigerian people for having me in your country. And I want to say a huge thank you to you, the audience. In the second video of the Nigeria series, when we visited Makoko Slum, we did a fundraiser and within 24 hours, we far surpassed the goal to be able to build and run an orphanage for the foreseeable future. So, it's absolutely beautiful. This will be a project that I'm involved in for the coming years. I'm in regular contact with Sunday and his dad, the chief there of the Makoko Slum. We're currently working on the fund transfer and installments. We did raise US$80,000 in about 24 hours. I had to take the link down because just so many donations were coming in. And US$80,000 is a lot of money to keep the orphanage running for years to come. So, a huge thank you to you guys. I'll be doing periodic updates on my Instagram if you want to follow along with the orphanage project. A huge thank you to Mohamed. You can see he's a gentle soul with a great sense of humor. I highly recommend checking out Mohamed's Instagram, Bouchy Friends. And you can also actually visit Nigeria with Mohamed. He does customized tours depending on what you're into. You can do the tourist side or you can go a bit off the beaten path like I did and see some of the more extreme sides of the country. Or you can do a combination of the both. If you want to travel Nigeria, I highly recommend it. You know, it's not for the faint of heart. It is quite a full-on country, but it's magical. And the people are next level hospitable. I'll be back soon with another series. It's in the diary. I'm hoping for around February time, but I'll see you then. And in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night. I hope this year brings fulfillment to all of you. Much love. Nick. Let's go.