Going through store aisles in the UK or US you find racks and racks of spice and recipe mixes. Some of them are dry, some are canned and some are refrigerated. What they have in common is the promise to make any cook appear to be a master chef. World foods such as Indian curries and Mexican fajitas can be prepared quickly just by following the instructions at the back of the pack.
Searching online for Nigerian recipes, one thing I have noticed is that a lot of measurements are not specific or particularly uniform. This makes it a little bit difficult for a non-savvy cook to reproduce the dishes or even be sure if their finished dish actually tastes like it is supposed to.
My friend's Sierra-Leonean mum makes her own spice mixes by blending a variety of spices together which she uses to season her meat and poultry. To me this ensures that there are no surprises, you are sure your food is going to taste the way you set out for it to taste. Of course everyone has to add their own personal flair to their cooking but it I think making nice spice mixes to suit Nigerian/African palettes may save a lot of new wives some embarrassing experimenting!! lol!!
At the moment most of us "assist" our culinary skills with stock cubes like Maggi and Knorr. Curry, thyme and dried peppers fly off market shelves. Dangerous msg's such as Ajinomoto are popularly used to enhance the flavor of foods in restaurants and bukas.
I really think this is a good idea and I am definitely going to look into this and find out the best ways to pull this off.
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