Poll What Nigerian City Do You Recommend That A Tourist Or Foreigner Must Visit And Experience While In Nigeria?

Abeokuta is not in the poll, but a place to visit while in Nigeria. The city is snuggled inland and has a sizeable northern part that spreads out to Lagos and the Ogun State's capital. If you want to see historical farms, there are many yam fields, maize farms, swaying wooded savanna, and palm oil plantations all over the great city.

It is also a historic place on the crucial trade paths between the coast and the heart of West Africa led to previous residents raising sun-dried bricks and clays ramparts around the old town, making it historically beautiful. The beauty can be seen from a close range, distance even more from an aerial view. Many of which can still be seen today.

However, the pear-shaped heaps of the Olumo Rock that soars atop the town draw the eye and perfectly define its beauty.

This antique natural fort plays host to an excellent art museum, a craftwork shop selling locally made artworks and historic shelters that showcase the human narrative of the Ogun region as an entirety.

Lagos, of course, and I am sure that's the entry point for almost any tourist. It can be risky walking around Lagos, but it is a magical city. I have been to New York City, so Lagos is like NYC on some African steroids. Real-life drama is as if it was scripted. It is just magical and mentally healing to experience the hustling and bustling of Lagos. Fierce and bursting, Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria and the single largest on the entire African continent.

Yep, nearly 30 million people call this one abode, and boy, does it show! Throbbing avenues of beer bars and clubs pepper the districts of Ikeja and Victoria Island, where ex-pats, sailors, and locals chat over frothy brews.

There are also salt-washed promenades on the coast and the gorgeous beaches of Lagos Bar Beach – a diagonal sweep of golden sand that meets the surges of the Atlantic Ocean in style.

Meanwhile, jet skis purr across Tarkwa Bay, and the sobering chronologies of the slave trade persist in moving at the Point of No Return.

I recommend Benin city if you can and with the aid of a local guide that knows the in and out of the town and where to go and not go as a tourist. Located just a little to the east of the reserves above the Okomu National Park, Benin City is not only a great place to establish your explorations through the wilds of southern Nigeria but also an attractive, lived-in industrial town with plenty of history of its own.

The town was once the middle of the Benin Empire, back when it was called Edo, and thrived with the creation of architectural feats like the old Oba Palace – still visible in the center.

There are also fascinating open-air bronze workshops along bustling Igun Street and a branch of the National Museum.

Okay, so Abuja isn’t any Lagos. Purpose-built, shrouded by the gentle landscape of the inland hills, and formed from clearly outlined neighborhoods that accommodate business-suited men and politicians, there’s no grit or grime here (or at least not relatively). That means the capital is an excellent place to rest and unwind, following the vitality and vibrancy of the Lagos megalopolis on the beachfront.

And there are other interesting sights, too, like the Abuja Millennium Park and the quad of spear-like minarets, a tall, slender tower of the beautiful Abuja National Mosque.

Meanwhile, Wuse Market is fantastic for customers, and the National Assembly Complex looks into the country’s modern political system.

My honest pick will be Enugu, and I may be biased because I am from Enugu. Enugu is an innocent and lush town nestled almost equidistant between the Cross River National Park, which is also the home of Nigeria's gorillas, and the delta of the River Niger. There is also the Bayelsa National Forest, which has beautiful baby chimps.

That prime spot close to some of the best natural draws of the Nigerian southeast is one of the main motivations for tourists to come here.

Others will appreciate the orderly roads and the low-rise structures, the down-to-earth residents, and the lifeblood of the small bottling and film enterprises that have grown here. Think about the famous OG of Nigerian movies(Nollywood), Living in bondage. And the gushing waterfalls and caves of the Ezeagu Tourist Complex are just on the city's edge.

You can always get it right with a visit to Calabar. The gateway to the reserves of the Cross River State, which Calabar is the capital, and the further-flung rainforests of the Afi Mountains.

The Afi Mountains are also home to gorillas, chimps, rare rockfowl, craggy peaks of stone, and many more animals that are native and original residents of the area. The town of Calabar is a well-honed sightseer stop-off on the way through to Cameroon or the southern Nigerian shore.

Before completing a beeline for the great primate shelters outside the town, visit the neighborhoods around the Calabar Museum. The great city of Calabar was once one of the central slave trading ports in West Africa.

Also worth a glimpse is the Duke Town chapel, considered one of Nigeria's oldest Christian worshipping houses.

Ibadan is a must visist for any traveler or tourist to Nigeria. The state capital and former stronghold of the old Oyo Empire, Ibadan, hides quite a lot of history and heritage between its streets. Ibadan is also known for the brown roofs that beautify the city from an aerial view.

The only concern is streets in Ibadan go on forever and ever. Some assessments say that Ibadan is the single most extensive municipality by geographical coverage in Africa, making the exciting parts hard to find!

An ideal place to start is in the showrooms of the National Museum of Ibadan, where traditional Egungun apparels meet tribal war drums and more.

Then, try to discover the famous Bower Memorial Tower before hitting the colonial fronts of Mapo Hall.

Uyo is an excellent gateway to the trans-border Cross River National Park and a competent stopover to Calabar city. Uyo is a neat and efficient metropolitan epicenter with a vibrant nightlife setting of music, pubs, and beer haunts.

It’s enveloped by the green cloak of mangrove forest, which spurs the city’s renowned golf lodge run by the prestigious reputation of Le Méridien, no less.

The town also has the regular boutiques and fashion shops of the Ibom Plaza, where Nigerian celebrities often swagger their stuff. And if the city gets too much, make a beeline for the coast. Ibeno Beach is the ultimate preference, with its footprint-spotted sands some of the most extended in West Africa.

Port Harcourt for me, so it’s hardly a secret that industry comes first in the wild oil boomtown of Port Harcourt.

A high population, continuous growths of cookie-cutter tenements, and the emblems of significant oil companies are just a few of the things this throbbing oil town wears on its sleeve.

And while the frantic ring of depots, trucks, and tankers here certainly isn’t for everyone, the down-to-earth qualities of the place, mixed with a remarkably boisterous nightlife setting, means that some will love the earthy, natural and genuine essence of it all.