On 20 Years of Space Exploration in Nigeria

A cluster of satellite dishes sits in Misau Street, Garki at the heart of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. This ‘bank of satellites’, according to Tade Ipadeola, forms a part of Nigeria’s Earth station, which connects the five Nigerian satellites currently orbiting the Earth in outer space. Indeed, countries, as Ipadeola notes, do not typically locate such structures in a central business district, choosing instead to establish them in city outskirts. But these countries are not Nigeria. The choice of Abuja is quite obvious. Nigerians are loud, proud, show-offs, even with our under-developed utopian structures, which is what the National Space Research Development Agency is: a dilapidating utopian project.