Just watched a program on Al jazeera claiming 9 out of 10 Nigerians bleached. It's funny but i found myself uncharacteristically annoyed. Few things annoy me,so why this trivial TV show. I concluded that the blatant lies and the casual way that Nigerians accept these lies, annoyed me.

Yes blatant lies, 90 percent of Nigerians bleach, where did they pluck these figures? The implication is that naturally fair Nigerians do not exists when it is on record for instance that Slavers recognized many Igbos as fair complexioned. In Jamaica, there is historic allusions to this fact in the words,RED IBO. Scientific research even exists on incidence of fairs skinned people in eastern Nigeria which concluded that Lime Stone plays a part. Moreover, not just the Igbos, many peoples' in the Delta and even subgroups among Yourobas have significant fair folks. And of course, many ethnic subgroups in Northern Nigeria are fair complexioned.

In any case, it is as if we Nigerians have no appreciation of history. The way in which Africans were always mislabelled by the West in the most casual and brutal ways belongs to recent history. In those days, blacks argued that white people controlled Media and thus we were powerless to present counter arguments. The consensus among blacks was that we needed to create our own Media network so that we could control our own stories. Now however, plethora of technologies, has created an environment whereby the power of the Media is in the hands of ordinary people. In addition, the world has progressed; at least I thought so - to the extent that there is an unspoken acknowledgment of the wrongs of the past. This implies also sensitivity to issues of race, gender nationality and so on. I guess, therefore, it is in the light of this reality that the Al Jazeera program stuck out like a sore thumb. The report and investigation was so unprofessional, unapologetic in its refusal to acknowledge even some form of modifier, it amounted to the crudest form of disrespect to Nigerians and Africans.

Al Jazeera has form; you see, for several months now it has shown reportage on Nigeria informed at best by sloppy journalism. Ironically, Al Jeera came about, if memory serves right, as a means to countering what Arabs felt were biased reporting on Middle East affairs. And yet here they are perpetrating a similar sort of wicked misinformation on Nigerians and Africans. I guess it goes to show what some people increasingly say, which is that Arabs are not friends of Africans. Arabs leave one in no doubt that if it was up to them they will reintroduce every form of subjugation on blacks that human progress has consigned to history.