Finally, we have our belongings and yes they arrived 7 days before we leave Nigeria for our home leave. Our belongings (furniture, kitchen and household items) were packed in May 2008. They were moved to storage till a sea freight container became available (which took about 10 days). Our stuff was then packed into the container and shifted to the dock where at the end of June it was placed on a ship for Nigeria. However, once it got to sea it developed problems and had to be towed back to dock and put in dry dock for repairs. Thus our container was unloaded and sat on the dock awaiting another ship to Nigeria. It started on its way to us again in August and arrived in Nigeria in early September. It took a while before it cleared customs and tariffs and taxes were paid. But October 31st after calling the port for a solid week, our belongings arrived at 6:30pm. Then they had to be unloaded the container. The container was too big to get into the complex so 6 guys unloaded in the street and either carried the boxes through the gate past the guards, 
across the parking lot, around the pool, up a flight of stairs to us or loaded the smaller items into a small van and drove the van to the closest entry and brought the items to us. 
It took about 4 hours to unload. But what a relief to finally have our own stuff! We removed the bubble wrapping from the living room furniture and popped some champagne. Celebration time!
