The students, who should have been busy taking theirbaths and getting set for lectures, sat idly...discussing… — Helon Habila

The houses were old and craggy and lichened. The place had theunfinished, abandoned appearance of an under waterscape.Crouching under the bigger or in their own clusters were hastilybuilt wood and zinc structures that housed an incredibly largenumber of families: the fathers were mostly out-of-work drivers,laborers, fugitives convalescing between prison terms

More than once ourtaxi was forced to hug the kerb as siren blaring military jeepspassed at top speed...”

Look out there, see the long queue of cars waiting for fuel. Someof them have been there for three days...And we are a majorproducer of oil