FG protests BBC documentary on Lagos
By AGENCY REPORTER, Published: Thursday, 22 Apr 2010



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The Lagos State Governor, Mr.


The Federal Government on Wednesday protested against a documentary on Lagos aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation, which portrayed the city as a slum.



The documentary entitled, “Welcome to Lagos,” was broadcast on BBC2 in the United Kingdom on April 15.



Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, conveyed the protest to the BBC just as Nigerians resident in Chicago, United States, advised the government to do more to change the negative perception of Nigeria in the foreign media.



A protest letter by Tafida was sent to the Controller BBC2, Ms. Janice Hadlow, in Glasgow.



A copy of the letter, which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, reads, “The Nigeria High Commission has watched with dismay and disappointment, the first of the three-part series of your sinister documentary on Lagos which featured on April 15.



“The commission would therefore like to register its strong rejection of this documentary as a deliberate distortion of life in Lagos, and totally unwarranted.”



Tafida also said that the documentary was an attempt to bring Nigeria and its hardworking people to international odium and scorn.



He noted that the High Commission could not comprehend the motives behind the documentary, especially at a time when Nigeria was celebrating the Golden Jubilee of its independence from the British Government.



“Even by your own admission and standards, you have only succeeded in assaulting your viewers with upsetting scenes, that fail to reflect the true and complete story of life in Lagos,” the envoy added.



Tafida, who noted that sites of slums and ghettos were global phenomena, argued that “even in London, it is not uncommon to see people (not Nigerians) scavenge dustbins in search of food and other valuables.‘‘



Tafida stated that by not airing other aspects of life in the city, the BBC demonstrated a lack of balance and fairness.



He said, “What is more galling and most disconcerting is your refusal to document the excellent performance of the incumbent governor of the state.



“Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is widely acknowledged to be doing his utmost to address the challenges in the state.‘‘



Tafida pointed out that for a television station that prides itself of wider coverage and credibility, one expected a greater demonstration of professionalism.



When our correspondent contacted the BBC reporter in Lagos, Mr. Umar Elleman, he said that he had no right to reply to such an enquiry on the documentary.



“The BBC has a policy. A reporter has no right to reply on behalf of the organisation,” he said.



Elleman advised our correspondent to direct the enquiry to his email address so that he could forward it to the London office of the BBC for a reply tomorrow.



Meanwhile, Nigerians in Chicago have urged the government to promote a positive image of Nigeria in the US to change the wrong perception of the nation in foreign media.



They said at a US-Nigeria Business Forum, that the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications needed to embark on a more aggressive promotion of Nigeria’s image abroad.



According to them, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as well the Ministry of Information and Communications should have been part of the business delegation led by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, to the US.



The President, Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce in the US, Mr. Ademola Dada, said the forum would help to counter the negative perception of Nigeria created by the foreign media.



“We have to promote many face-to-face meetings like this continually since we cannot influence bad news about Nigeria,” Dada said.



The Managing Director of Air Cargo and Travel Agency, Chicago, Dr. Wale Ajifolokun, told NAN that Nigeria had to boost its ego and write its story.



“If you wait for people to write it for you, they will do that from their own perspectives, which may be wrong,’’ he said.



Ajifolokun said apart from the infrastructural challenges and insecurity, the bad image of the country had been chasing away investors from Nigeria.



An exporter, Dr. Adetunji Oyedele, called on the government to address the problems of insecurity and kidnapping in the country.



He expressed surprise that the ministries of Information and Communication as well as Tourism and Culture were not part of the delegation.



He lamented that the government had not made concerted effort to sell Nigeria to the whole world, saying that the only time “they (foreign media) got to know about us is when something bad happens.”



“If you go to the tourism department in the US, Nigeria is not one of the countries which they have information on,’’ he said.



A business consultant, Chief David Olupitan, said the forum would go a long way to correct some of the wrong perceptions about Nigeria.



He called on Nigerians to come to the US to promote their products through direct advertisements and business meetings.



“Nobody can speak well of you than yourself. We need to start talking and shouting about ourselves and what we are doing,’’ Olupitan said.



http://punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100422311576

@op, what do you mean by hate the truth? So the Nigerian government should cheer bbc and send them goodwill messages because of their documentary? They sorta have a point. The documentary did not give a true and complete view of life as it is in Lagos. I live in Lagos and i certainly don't live in a slum. Why should people outside the country think I live among towers of refuse? The documentary did not even try to highlight the efforts of the Governor in making Lagos a better place. It's not fair on him cos anyone who watches that documentary would think the governor is some fat slob who sits in some office everyday siphoning state money and doing nothing else. It's not fair at all. Maybe they should have done "welcome to Oyo". That would have been fitting for akala!

Why is everyone trying to undemine Gov.fashola efforts in lagos?i can see oppositions at work.as for i dont give a poo about the bbc crap.

A lot of Nigerians continue to miss the point, There is a lot of solid good men working for the improvement and better image of this country Nigeria.
We have seen great leadership performances from Nigerians Abroad and locally.

But there is one key point we keep missing, you cannot pour clean water into a glass of piss and expect it to turn to drinkable water.

Nigeria is polluted, even when we have a few good men, their efforts will simply become polluted by the many corrupt men.

The Palm Oil that stains one finger will eventually stain the entire hand, that is how corruption works.

We must look inward and tackle our deepest evils before we can begin to fight negative perceptions outside, there is no need saying you are aggressively fighting corruption on international TV when the continues to experience corruption 1st hand in Nigeria

The Ambassador is clearly right.

I think the BBC erred in its titular selection for the programme. It would have done better calling it "Welcome to Lagos Slums" or by showing the wide span of life in Lagos (from Makoko to Yaba to Ikoyi to Banana island) if it was to call the programme "Welcome to Lagos".

Despite this, the BBC documentary was brilliant.

lagerwhenindoubt:

A lot of Nigerians continue to miss the point, There is a lot of solid good men working for the improvement and better image of this country Nigeria.
We have seen great leadership performances from Nigerians Abroad and locally.

But there is one key point we keep missing, you cannot pour clean water into a glass of piss and expect it to turn to drinkable water.

Nigeria is polluted, even when we have a few good men, their efforts will simply become polluted by the many corrupt men.

The Palm Oil that stains one finger will eventually stain the entire hand, that is how corruption works.

We must look inward and tackle our deepest evils before we can begin to fight negative perceptions outside, there is no need saying you are aggressively fighting corruption on international TV when the continues to experience corruption 1st hand in Nigeria

Larger, na the real thing you dey talk!

Haba, Nigerians are wicked, so they are not happy that these scavengers have been exposed so they can get help /action.They should put themselves in these peoples shoes. If these things are not shown, they will continue. There are more dignified and refined ways of carrying out recycling. Also, whether you are a pauper or a prince everybody deserves a decent environment. Children deserve free education.

So they want these people to continue suffering in silence and go unnoticed. I am sure Olusosun is still much better than so many places in Nigeria, at least that is just Lagos, what about Oyo, Osun and then the East and the North etc? Do you know that there are some places in Ogun State where electricity has never reached since the creation of electricity in Nigeria. And they are heavily populated.Men, women, children live there. Ogun State o! Some don't even have road (only a river connects them to the world).

What is so special about Ikeja GRA, VGC, Lekki, Ajah, Ikoyi, V.I., Magodo, Abuja that the BBC or the world has not seen before? I pray BBC continues exposing the stinkiest and dirtiest slums so that those people there will get help. Nigerians will not help them now BBC is making an effort and all we get is noise.

The thing is Nigerians are too emotional, worship appearances and they only make noise. They don't like to act. Instead of shouting about the issue, get to work and make a change. After a while, the world will notice. Fashola is doing great things but he cannot repair and re-construct the system all in four years. Development takes time and time lost can never be regained.

But Nigerians enjoy living a lie sha.

It is all too apparent that this issue is NOT about the title, but yet again, their resistance to having the lives of ALL Caliber of lagosians highlighted. The men in the documentary clearly speak of themselves living in Lagos, why then can the title not be “Welcome to Lagos”?
We saw Eric’s Lagos, and scavenging to achieve his dream, in Lagos. We Saw Joseph’s side of Lagos where he has to work hard to cater to his family. We saw the blood-fertilizer man’s Lagos, as well as the Fulani man’s Lagos. Who are we to declare their experience of Lagos INVALID because some egomaniac somewhere wants to pretend they do not exist?
How anyone can watch that program and not comprehend the motive of the documentary (i.e. after setting his/her own ignorance at the door before watching) escapes me. How can anyone conclude that viewers were assaulted with disturbing images? Are said images works of fiction? Is he to say that lives of those we saw in the documentary are not worthy of some respect? Their lives are disturbing and should not get any airtime by any corp., even the BBC?

One day, years ago, I returned home looking shell shocked and almost in tears. My girlfriend wondered what the problem was. . . I had just been to Ijora Badia and seen shockingly depressing levels of sub-human existance in the midst of plenty in Lagos.

We need to clean up our act, if you have ever been to Ijora Badia, you will know it is like visiting hell, yet fellow Nigerians exist there. You have to watch where you step, because there is faecal matter everywhere; avoid anything blowing on you in the wind; keep your balance, so you don't fall through the precarious plank walkways into the dark, fetid water below; hold your breath against the pervading stench. . .

Nigeria is commiting a crime against a vast proportion of its masses. I will never forget that experience.

The negative portrayal of Nigeria and Africa by The BBC is a deliberate and systematic process that is created and sustained by the bias in the way this British media select African news stories. In the past, the BBC also portrayed Nairobi as a slum. The BBC also portrayed Soweto as a slum; Coincidence?. Is it “Welcome to Lagos”? or "Welcome to the slum"?

The title of that documentary sucks.

Had a tough time explaining to a collegue at work that that's not the real Lagos.

Why didn't they show all the posh luxury flats at banana island, ikoyi, etc occupied by the staff of BHC and other Britons living here in Naija.

Yeye people

Kobojunkie:

It is all too apparent that this issue is NOT about the title, but yet again, their resistance to having the lives of ALL Caliber of lagosians highlighted. The men in the documentary clearly speak of themselves living in Lagos, why then can the title not be “Welcome to Lagos”?
We saw Eric’s Lagos, and scavenging to achieve his dream, in Lagos. We Saw Joseph’s side of Lagos where he has to work hard to cater to his family. We saw the blood-fertilizer man’s Lagos, as well as the Fulani man’s Lagos. Who are we to declare their experience of Lagos INVALID because some egomaniac somewhere wants to pretend they do not exist?
How anyone can watch that program and not comprehend the motive of the documentary (i.e. after setting his/her own ignorance at the door before watching) escapes me. How can anyone conclude that viewers were assaulted with disturbing images? Are said images works of fiction? Is he to say that lives of those we saw in the documentary are not worthy of some respect? Their lives are disturbing and should not get any airtime by any corp., even the BBC?

What rubbish argument.

When one refers to “Welcome to Lagos”, the subconcious conception is that the programme is a representation of the city as a whole is being presented.

Are the 1000 people working in the thrash dump a representation of the 16m people that live in Lagos?

What utter clunking rubbish argument.

funkybaby:

The title of that documentary sucks.

Had a tough time explaining to a collegue at work that that's not the real Lagos.

Why didn't they show all the posh luxury flats at banana island, ikoyi, etc occupied by the staff of BHC and other Britons living here in Naija.

Yeye people

I thought you live in Nigeria?

@ sagamite
Do where I reside matter? Lol. International lo'mo

@ kobojunkie

Very rubbish argument.

Only an idiot will think the introduction at the beginning of the documentary clearly justifies the title.

Horus:

The negative portrayal of Nigeria and Africa by The BBC is a deliberate and systematic process that is created and sustained by the bias in the way this British media select African news stories. In the past, the BBC also portrayed Nairobi as a slum. The BBC also portrayed Soweto as a slum; Coincidence?. Is it “Welcome to Lagos”? or "Welcome to the slum"?

Yes, the British media have a certain negative stereotype applied to some African and third world countries.

For example, see the pictures they use when they are reporting on elections in an European country like Macedonia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7343933.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3625910.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3492388.stm

Civilised setting.

See the ones they use for African countries:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/8012225.stm

Always looking for the toothless old woman.

My friends have been to Macedonia and Romania. You go there and then go to SA and come and tell me which is more advanced.

Kobojunkie:

I am not sure of the rest of your post, but IF YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUE HAD LISTENED TO THE INTRODUCTION, at the very beginning, You would not have to ask why the Title.  Only an idiot, after LISTENING and Viewing ( Note EARS AND EYES REQUIRED HERE), is likely to come away still confused as to why the Title.

There was recently a documentary on Discovery "America, the history of us”. That program did not show the part of America I live in, nor did it show the parts of America about 70% of Americans live in but it was still about America and Americans, right? Do you think it would make sense for me to accuse Discovery of showing FAKE America? Please, make we begin to dey think DEEP, rather than continue to cater to our emotions.

Why do you have to insult to get your redundant point across Are you high on skunk ^{Its a question, mind you}


And with regards to the documentary on discovery which you mentioned, why should a story documenting the history of America involve your location if it wasn't a part of said history or the location didn't exist at that point in time  

What I know is that Fashola is focusing on area that are already developed,he should focus on remote area where majority are residing.If he can achieved this life will be better for all in Lagos.

Kobojunkie:

I am not sure of the rest of your post, but IF YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUE HAD LISTENED TO THE INTRODUCTION, at the very beginning, You would not have to ask why the Title.  Only an idiot, after LISTENING and Viewing ( Note EARS AND EYES REQUIRED HERE), is likely to come away still confused as to why the Title.

There was recently a documentary on Discovery "America, the history of us”. That program did not show the part of America I live in, nor did it show the parts of America about 70% of Americans live in but it was still about America and Americans, right? Do you think it would make sense for me to accuse Discovery of showing FAKE America? Please, make we begin to dey think DEEP, rather than continue to cater to our emotions.

You are a slowpoke, I asked you a simple question: Is the 1000 or 500 people of the slums representative of the 16m people that live in Lagos?

When you saw the title, was your first instincts not that the programme was about how Lagos is? Is "Welcome to Lagos Slums" not a more apt title?

Vomit more moronic arguments.

@ busy_body

Don't mind the Madam Ode. She must really be high on skunk

Sagamite:

The Ambassador is clearly right.

I think the BBC erred in its titular selection for the programme. It would have done better calling it "Welcome to Lagos Slums" or by showing the wide span of life in Lagos (from Makoko to Yaba to Ikoyi to Banana island) if it was to call the programme "Welcome to Lagos".

You dey mind the silly Aunty Beeb And apparently the second episode is on Maroko, from frying pan to fire Small time now, people would start crawling outta the woodworks that it is the first of a balanced 3-series programme. Arrant nonsense

funkybaby:

@ sagamite
Does where I reside matter? Lol. International lo'mo

Airports wo ni international yin de?

She Teshas ni, abi Yankee, abi Londonu?

[size=13pt]Welcome to Lagos, BBC2 The Prisoner, ITV[/size]


An uplifting gem of a documentary from the refuse tips of Lagos contrasts with a lacklustre US remake of a British classic

Reviewed by John Walsh


[size=13pt]While the nation (or 9.4 million of us, anyway) was glued to the Great Debate on Thursday night, a real beauty, Welcome to Lagos, was blushing unseen on BBC2.


In Nigeria's biggest city (population 16 million and rising by 600,000 a year) the film-maker Gavin Searle took his camera into the most god-forsaken, rat-infested, polymorphously revolting territory you can imagine – the vast Olusosun rubbish dump, about the size of Slough – and discovered within it a miniature model society.

The 1,000-odd inhabitants scavenge directly from the back of refuse lorries, sorting through the reeking cascade of rubbish with fearsome metal hooks. They're all experts at spotting the morsels of brass or rubber, wire or plastic that can be parlayed into a few Nigerian pennies, and you'd naturally expect them to be rivalrous thugs, forever at each other's throats. Nothing of the sort. The dump is a mini-city, with its own bars, restaurants, shops, a mosque, even a barber's shop. Sometimes a thief is caught pinching another man's meagre trove of debris, whereupon he's tied up and a bald overseer called Ericho, with the grave implacability of Solomon, decides on his fate.

Searle's restlessly nosey camera concentrated on two men. Joseph was the wily entrepreneur who negotiates a price for the scavengers' findings with the city's metal dealers. Puckish, witty and wise, he was the documentary's hero. "Our business is just like the stock market," he told the camera. "It's governed by what happens to the dollar. The only difference between us and the City guys is the suit, the tie and the fine shoes."

We met his beautiful wife Elizabeth and their sweet children, Peace and Patience, while he displayed his random collection of special trophies liberated from the dump – an electric lamp, binoculars, a teddy bear , it was like Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, gleefully handling her life's belongings.

The other central figure was Joseph's friend Eric, a singer, aka Vocal Slender, who works the dump to make enough money to mix his Yoruba song in a recording studio, and get some cool photos for a T-shirt. It seemed a ludicrous ambition for a man at the bottom of the food chain, but Eric was a hustler to the soles of his bare feet. When a street fracas left him accused of assault and facing a crippling compensation bill, the dump rats all chipped in to help, while Joseph threw a party for baby Patience's first birthday. The commentary by David Harewood was overly folksy ("You know what? Where you see filth, the scavengers see opportunity", but this little hymn to human resourcefulness fairly twanged the heartstrings.

Forty-three years after the original series tantalised the nation for 17 weeks in late 1967, the American remake of The Prisoner finally hit the screens. Jim Caviezel, whose handsome fizzog was obscured by blood and matted hair when he played the lead in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, awoke in a desert to see an old man on a nearby hillside being hunted down by men with guns. Soon he found himself in The Village, where everyone has a number and any attempts to escape or do anything individual are met by the baffled enquiry: "Why would you want to do that?"

The new Village wholly lacks the sterile menace of Portmeirion in Patrick McGoohan's original; with its palm trees and beach huts, it looks like Venice Beach en fete. Ian McKellen as the riddling, omniscient Number Six – terribly English in a cream suit, blue tie and cup of tea – glides about cheerily with a boyish catamite by his side, radiating bonhomie rather than evil. Caviezel is athletic and noisily rebellious as the former secret agent but is one-dimensional where McGoohan was a moody existentialist. The flashbacks to his Manhattan life concentrate more on his affair with a foxy brunette (Hayley Atwell) than with any government secrets.

Altogether, the show is merely puzzling where once it was genuinely surreal. It features explosions where there used to be tense cat-and-mouse drama. A shame to find such a TV classic remade as some sort of hybrid of Lost and Life On Mars.[/size]  

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/welcome-to-lagos-bbc2brthe-prisoner-itv-1947511.html

What I notice about Nigerians is that we dont like to support each other, If we see a Nigerian trying to make things right we will definitely pull him down, we cannot standby each other, we dont care about each other (even the gov dont care).

Ok for example look at  the reply of the BBC reporter (Mr. Umar Elleman,) when he was contacted "he said that he had no right to reply to such an enquiry on the documentary. " Trust me if he is a Nigeria, he will just spit out the whole reply to such an enquiry. Beside what is Nigerian government doing? dont they have power over anybody that enters Nigeria as a Reporter, I mean power to ban or not given permission or is our government powerless. What about the right to protect citizens, fight for each citizen regardless of where you as a Nigeria is living around the world. Well I think it is time for our government to stand up to its feet. As a matter of fact any bad image about UK will not be shown on the TV and if it was shown on one of the African TV then the UK government will stand up and protest it never to be shown again. So why cant we stand up to protest it as well?

May God help us, we need to change the way we live and do things for our own betterment and the coming generation.

Busy_body:

You dey mind the silly Aunty Beeb And apparently the second episode is on Maroko, from frying pan to fire Small time now, people would start crawling outta the woodworks that it is the first of a balanced 3-series programme. Arrant nonsense

The series is brilliant and an eye opener but definitely not balanced for a "Welcome to Lagos" titled programme.

It could easily have been titled the "The Lives of Slum-dwellers of Lagos" , "The challenges of the poor of Lagos" etc.

funkybaby:

@ busy_body

Don't mind the Madam Ode. She must really be high on skunk

That wasn't what I said biko, no put weed for my pocket Na only question I get liver to ask Don't wanna spend the next 72 hours locking horns with the legendary Kobojunkie. She is that good she can argue with herself

skfa1:

Beside what is Nigerian government doing? dont they have power over anybody that enters Nigeria as a Reporter, I mean power to ban or not given permission or is our government powerless. What about the right to protect citizens, fight for each citizen regardless of where you as a Nigeria is living around the world.

That is not the way to go, my friend.

@ becomricha

I dont get you at all, I bet you will be one of the type that will collect money as a bribe from the BBC to kill Nigeria. what a shame.

Beside your map prove nothing.

LOL @ busy_body

Me neither. I have better things to do with my fingers on me mobile.

Sagamite:

That is not the way to go, my friend.

Pls tell me the way to go bros

@sagamite

LOL. Location ko matter. International lo'mo. Fi le be. Lol

Your dumb ambassador to the UK declared 'It is not unusual to see people (not Nigerians) in London eating from dustbins'. Your dumb illiterate ambassador should be able to differentiate between normal hard working men and women scavenging in Olusosun not through choice but as a result of the hopless situation they are in and your drug addict fiend, who through personal choice picks food from dustbins in London. I will like this dumb ambassador to tell me where in London or the UK you can find what obtains in Olusosun and I,ll personally go there and film a documentary for NTA to broadcast.

skfa1:

Pls tell me the way to go bros

The way to go is:

1) Work hard to ensure they have no such to report on in the first place.

2) Nigerians themselves should engage in developing and telling their own story but with a strong reflection of reality, not too embroided and not left to outsiders to be the sole tellers of the world your stories.

Daft arse nollywood only knows about jilted lovers and witchcraft when Nigeria is impregnated with millions of storylines that are far more insightful. You should think why did Nollywood not think about the "Blood and Oil" BBC did so briliiantly.