Many Nigerian dishes get much of their sodium from seasoning cubes, salted fish, crayfish stock, canned tomato paste and processed meats, not only from table salt. A single cube can carry a sizeable share of the salt a person with high blood pressure is advised to eat in a day, and most pots of soup use several. The goal is not bland food. It is making salt one flavour among many instead of the main one.
Start by using one seasoning cube where you used two, then try none. Build flavour with fresh onions, garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet, thyme, curry leaf, locust beans (iru) in small amounts, ground crayfish, uziza and utazi. Roast or fry your pepper base well, because browning adds depth. Add lemon, lime or a splash of vinegar at the end to brighten the taste. Cook beans, vegetables and fish fresh in place of canned or heavily salted versions, and rinse canned items before use. Taste before you add salt, and add it at the end of cooking, not at the beginning. If you rely on salted stockfish or dried fish, soak and rinse it in several changes of water first. Your taste adjusts within a few weeks, and the food you once enjoyed may begin to taste too salty. Anyone with kidney disease should ask a doctor before using salt substitutes, which are often high in potassium.