Every region fries something different
Puff-puff is the southern yeast puff, sold after church, after school, from glass cases. Meat pies sit beside them, mince and curry-adjacent spice, a British bakery ghost that became Nigerian. Chin-chin is the cube that survives a twelve-hour bus. None of this is Ghanaian bofrot, even when the dough looks related; nutmeg and the meat-pie case are local.
The north is peanut and meat sheets
Kuli-kuli is peanut without apology. Kilichi is beef or ram, dried, spiced, a sheet you tear. Masa and suya belong to the same map, suya more evening grill than candy. If you only eat Lagos puff-puff, you have not snacked in Nigeria. You have snacked in one city.
Kiosks are a food group
Gala sausage rolls, plantain chips, and a bottled drink is a complete format in go-slow traffic. Coconut candy from markets is the sweet that is not fried dough. Okpa, baked bambara pudding, is more meal, sometimes a travel food. The packaged industry is huge: biscuits, sweets, drinks. The street still wins on smell.
How people actually snack
After church, a bag of puff-puff. On the bus, chin-chin. In the north, kuli-kuli with water. At night, suya or kilichi. Travelers should buy chin-chin, plantain chips, kilichi, and kuli-kuli. Puff-puff dies. Meat pies last a few hours. Do not reduce this country to jollof; jollof is a meal. The snack is dough, peanut, and dried meat.