The American tourists explained that their initial plan wasn’t to overstay their visas until they saw the need to save drill monkeys in the country because they were impressed by the dominance of interesting opportunities in science and wildlife conservation.
They were equally thrilled by the nicety and the spirit of friendliness extended to them by Nigerians, which further strengthened their resolve to stay put.
“I’ll tell you what I like about Nigerians. Okay, that’s what makes Nigeria different from every other country in Africa. They would say ‘hey! Oyinbo, come in na, sit down, make we talk. Make I go buy you the drink.’ That is the difference between Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
“There were a lot of interesting opportunities in areas of Science and Wildlife Conservation that we became involved in, and we’re still here 36 years later. We arrived with a 10-day transit visa, and we have been here for 36 years.
“We founded a nonprofit organisation called Pandas that ranches monkey drills in Bano and Calabar in Cross River State. I don’t think that one species is more important than another, just like I don’t think that human beings are more important than drills or elephants are more important than whales; I think we are all of equal value, and the drill is a scarce species, it’s one of the rarest animals in Africa and it’s one of those animals you never thought you would even see when we were traveling across Africa, you know I had my Wildlife Field Guide and you look at the pictures,” Gatsby said.
According to him, no scientist or tourist had discovered that those animals were inhabiting the region until 1987 when they consulted the locals in the community and raised funds to make it habitable while conserving the rare species of monkeys, giraffes and other animals.
“I love Nigeria, this is a great place. Come and live in Calabar and be at rest. When we got here, the population of Nigeria in the early ’90s and the late 80s was around 65 million.
“The amount of natural resources that were still intact was extraordinary, and the density of wildlife generally in the forest was better compared to today. In fact, it’s appallingly low now, but in those days, this was a wonderful place to do research. Communities were very welcoming in those days; life was cheap; here, diesel, which is what our Land Rover ran on, was 35 Kobo, and with 29 kobo to the market, you would come back with two heavy bags with change in the pocket.
“We were comfortable and found Nigeria habitable. It was the best-value country on this continent by far. The food was cheap, the road was perfect. There was no gallop deeper than a bottle cap.” Jenkins stated.
