A 28-year-old solo driver and travel content creator, Pelumi Nubi, who embarked on a road trip from London to Lagos in a Peugeot 107, said she commenced the journey to open up West Africa to other parts of the world.
Nubi, upon her arrival in Lagos on Sunday, expressed happiness about the size of fanfare that greeted her arrival and also noted that she embarked on the journey to inspire young women.
Nubi began her journey in January from England, crossed into France, Spain and headed for Morocco then through the West Sahara Desert, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin before finally entering Lagos.
The solo driver was on Sunday given a heroic welcome at the Nigeria-Benin border by fans and Lagos officials.
“Pelumi was received at the Nigeria-Benin Republic border on behalf of Lagos State Government by the Honourable Commissioner of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka, and the Special Adviser, Tourism, Arts and Culture,” Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile, wrote on X on Sunday.
Nubi survived a car crash in March in the cause of the trip.
She disclosed this in a post on her Instagram page, where she shared a video of the wrecked vehicle, revealing severe damage to the front and a shattered windshield.
She was later discharged from the hospital and fixed the damaged car, according to Akosile.
While speaking with pressmen on Sunday, Nubi said she felt elated and wasn’t expecting such an elaborate homecoming event.
She said, “I was trying to connect the two places I consider home. I was born in Lagos and I grew up in London, so I wanted to connect both places. Usually, I would fly in, but most times, I wanted to see what West Africa is like and this was an opportunity to do so. In terms of overland travel, there was not enough representation.
“There were not enough people that looked like me. This would inspire the next generation of young women that they can do daring things, they can step out of their comfort zone and change the narrative of the African continent out there. This journey is opening up the world to other people to visit the continent.
“It was challenging; having to do it all by myself was challenging. However, the cheering from my online family, which grew from 10,000 to more than 200,000, motivated me. I am so grateful to everyone and I do not take it all for granted.”
On his part, Nubi’s father, Prof. Nubi Gbenga, said, “We are grateful to God because nobody deserves it other than Him. Whatever has happened is God’s blessing. It is not that we deserve it. Many times, we were scared. For me, I was scared every day, particularly when she was sleeping, because she was sleeping on the roadside in this tiny car (Peugeot 107). In the desert, she slept by the roadside and woke up in the morning in a forest. When she moved to another town, we would start praying again. For us, it’s been two months of sleepless nights.”
