Driving in Nigeria
There are certain requirements you would need to meet in order to drive in Nigeria. International drivers licenses are acceptable in Nigeria only for a duration of three (3) months. This should be okay if you are visiting the country and would just need to take a tour of the country's scenery in a rented car. Most car hire services provide a chauffeur anyway.
Driving in Africa is generally erratic, but in Nigeria you will need to get used to the 'me first' syndrome, that is, everyone wants to go first at any opportunity even if it means to drive roughly. It's therefore best to understand this before you ply on our roads.
By law, when driving in Nigeria you must wear seat belts as well as the front-seat passenger as this is taken quite seriously, particularly in Lagos state.
The most important advice you can ever get while driving in Nigeria is to give yourself plenty of time as it could take hours to reach a destination that you can literally see out of your car window at peak periods like 08.00hrs - 10.00hrs and 16.00hrs - 21.00hrs. At this time, there's always traffic jam on most highways and link roads, causing hold -ups and what we call 'go slows' for a long period.
Avoid night driving as much as you can as not all the streets are well lit.
