Kobojunkie:

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

. . . 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  . . .

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

NEWSFLASH


*They don't live there, they work there

* Thankfully, that dump got closed a year or two ago, so make BBC carry them two left leg waka go look for the next most God-forsaken, rat-infested territory on their "list", shior

pappilo:

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.

Dumb and Illiterate?

I have met the man (Tafida) twice and sat down and discussed with him. Believe me, he is far more intelligent and EDUCATED than you.

It is his job to challenge the portrayal of his country.

pappilo:

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.

Wow, so those who end up homeless and are forced to live on the streets in London and have no choice than to scavenge for food from dustbins and resort to drugs to numb the pain and reality they are forced into, ARE DOING IT AS A MATTER OF PERSONAL CHOICE


WHAT AN IGNORAMUS

Yes he is dumb. Just because you met him and think he is smart doesn’t necessarily mean he is smart. After all they say; in a country of blind men the one eyed man is king.

If he was a proper diplomat and as smart as you claim he will know there are some things a diplomat doesn’t say. While I am not against him trying to defend your country, his trying to draw comparisons between people eating from bins in London and Lagos was dumb!

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

Excuse me, who are you to say that Eric and Joseph's perspective of living in Lagos is not real?

In the opening introduction of the documentary the presenter clearly states.

"This is certainly not the best part of Lagos, but it is home to thousands”. It seems that Nigerians are so hurt that the BBC didn’t show the posh houses in Lekki and that is the reason why they are overlooking this. To me this overt act of defensiveness is pathetic. I also think that the FG is clearly operated by jobless individuals.
The BBC can only be held accountable by the TV license payer and not the Nigerian public especially when they have done nothing but broadcast the truth.

So you people would rather BBC showed posh houses in VGC and the gleaming Yachts of those who robbed you blind, abi?

at least 60% of lagosians experience the terrible lifestyle shown in that video. If you feel so patriotic and embittered about the whole matter, why not do something to ease the suffering of those people? Why are you not troubling your councillors, your senators, your Governors to redouble their efforts to clear Lagos of those slums, or at least improve the way they work?

But this is Nigeria, the country of cowards. Since it's much easier to petiton BBC and claim conspiracy theories than to actually fix the problem, we start sending protest letters and pointing accusing fingers. a
We'll never amount to anything with you pathetic, whining lot.

Busy Body

Your mother is the ignoramus

Spin it as you like but it is a known fact that the odd person you may see eating from bins on the streets of a town or city in the UK is a drug addict whose decision to take drugs is a personal one. Drugs are very expensive and your attempt to spin it the other way round that homeless people who find themselves broke and on the streets, turn to drugs and end up eating from bins is very far from the truth. It costs less to stay in a hostel per day than to get a daily drug fix.

pappilo:

Yes he is dumb. Just because you met him and think he is smart doesn’t necessarily mean he is smart. After all they say; in a country of blind men the one eyed man is king.

If he was a proper diplomat and as smart as you claim he will know there are some things a diplomat doesn’t say. While I am not against him trying to defend your country, his trying to draw comparisons between people eating from bins in London and Lagos was dumb!

His point, which I completely agree with by the way, is that it is easy to find a minority in any country and it is wrong to portray that minority as a represention of the whole place.

Not everyone living in Makoko, Ajegunle or other slums work in refuse dumps. One can easily come here go to a homeless shelter and film a documentary claiming that the poor of UK are suffering and any ignorant that has not been to London would think that is the case. Most western ignorants would think, from the programme that the average poor man and majority of poor people in Lagos scavenge for a living.

You can not compare the resources available to the UK to that of Nigeria. The UK's health budget ALONE is $160Bn, Nigeria's OVERALL budget is about $32Bn. Cambridge (one university) annual budget is £1.1Bn, Nigeria's entire education budget (for all universities, secondary and primary schools) is about 0.8Bn. And UK still has 120 more universities, hundreds of colleges, thousands or secondary and primary schools that funds are provided for, so imagine the education budget.

So people being homeless and eating from a bin in the UK is almost at parity as 1000 Nigerians working in hazardous conditions in a dump.

@elo sela

Am not denying the fact that the slum problem exists in nigeria. We both know Naija is faced with so many problems so there's no need arguing over that.

My major grouse with the documentary is the title 'welcome to Lagos'. For an individual that has never been to Naija, such title/report leaves a very bad impression about the cournty.

BBC should have been a little balanced with the documentary. Naija is bad but not as bad as they make it look

@texazzpete

So it's only barawos that own posh houses, abi?

Well, there are many 'posh' neighbourhoods in Naija and some lovely architectural pieces (houses) that they could have showed in the documentary.

EloSela:


Excuse me, who are you to say that Eric and Joseph's perspective of living in Lagos is not real?

In the opening introduction of the documentary the presenter clearly states.

"This is certainly not the best part of Lagos, but it is home to thousands”. It seems that Nigerians are so hurt that the BBC didn’t show the posh houses in Lekki and that is the reason why they are overlooking this. To me this overt act of defensiveness is pathetic. I also think that the FG is clearly operated by jobless individuals.
The BBC can only be held accountable by the TV license payer and not the Nigerian public especially when they have done nothing but broadcast the truth.

texazzpete:

So you people would rather BBC showed posh houses in VGC and the gleaming Yachts of those who robbed you blind, abi?

at least 60% of lagosians experience the terrible lifestyle shown in that video. If you feel so patriotic and embittered about the whole matter, why not do something to ease the suffering of those people? Why are you not troubling your councillors, your senators, your Governors to redouble their efforts to clear Lagos of those slums, or at least improve the way they work?

But this is Nigeria, the country of cowards. Since it's much easier to petiton BBC and claim conspiracy theories than to actually fix the problem, we start sending protest letters and pointing accusing fingers. a
We'll never amount to anything with you pathetic, whining lot.

There are 16m or more people living in Lagos, less than 80K live in Makoko, less than 50K like in Badia, overall, not up to a third live in slums.

About half live in our squaky, dingy 2-bed, 3-bed flats in Onipanu, Isolo, Gbagada, Shomolu, Agege, Festac etc.

I personally do not say BBC should not show the squalor, but for that title, they would have done better showing a fair representation. If you want to show squalor only, perfectly fine by me, but clearly highlight that is your aim.

funkybaby:

@ kobojunkie

Very rubbish argument.

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

This is exactly the sort of retort I expected from you, and I am glad you did not fail. After listening to the narrator tell you that Lagos is not all about poverty and corruption; following that up by telling you that this documentary documentary follows the lives of people who live in the ghetto, and how they have survived the extreme conditions, care to tell us all what part of that is not to be considered Lagos enough to use the Title “Welcome to Lagos”?
I ask because I do not understand your argument here. Are you saying the BBC ought not to have used the title "Welcome to Lagos" because, as someone already said, you were not shown the skyscrapers, yachts and people who live in them UPCLOSE( up-close because there are skyscrapers, and then the mainland bridge which is an engineering marvel, in the picture). Is it that NOT ENOUGH airtime was given to the RICH of Lagos?

pappilo:

Busy Body

Your mother is the ignoramus

Spin it as you like but it is a known fact that the odd person you may see eating from bins on the streets of a town or city in the UK is a drug addict whose decision to take drugs is a personal one. Drugs are very expensive and your attempt to spin it the other way round that homeless people who find themselves broke and on the streets, turn to drugs and end up eating from bins is very far from the truth. It costs less to stay in a hostel per day than to get a daily drug fix.

It is obvious you are clueless and an idiot when it comes to homelessness in the UK. aS IF ONE CAN LIVE A NORMAL EXISTENCE OUT OF AN HOSTEL, WHERE YOU ARE REQUIRED TO VACATE IN MORNING AND HAVE SET TIMES TO OCCUPY, DUMBO


Is it a new thing to you that homeless White people don't know how to lie hence reason you hardly ever see people from other Countries on the streets of London, dumb heifer


NB
It is obvious whoever raised you did a woeful job, but thats not my prerogative, its yours and theirs

Kobojunkie:

This is exactly the sort of retort I expected from you, and I am glad you did not fail. So, after listening to the narrator tell you that Lagos is not all about poverty and corruption, before then telling you that this documentary documents the lives of people who live in the ghetto and how they have survived in even the extreme conditions, care to tell us all what part of that is not to be considered Lagos? I ask because I do not understand your argument here. Are you saying the BBC ought not to have used the title "Welcome to Lagos" because, as someone already said, you were not shown the skyscrapers, yachts and people who live in them UPCLOSE( upclose because there are skyscrapers, and then the mainland bridge which is an engineering marvel, in the picture). Is it that NOT ENOUGH air time was given to the RICH of Lagos?

Dumbo, they should have used an appropriate title instead of having an ineffective, unnoticeable "narrative line" for a millisecond in the documentary body.

roflmao!!!

@ Texazzpete


If you can still read, DIGEST THIS POST OF SAGAMITE, PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE FIRST PARAGRAGH

Sagamite:

His point, which I completely agree with by the way, is that it is easy to find a minority in any country and it is wrong to portray that minority as a represention of the whole place.

Not everyone living in Makoko, Ajegunle or other slums work in refuse dumps. One can easily come here go to a homeless shelter and film a documentary claiming that the poor of UK are suffering and any ignorant that has not been to London would think that is the case. Most western ignorants would think, from the programme that the average poor man and majority of poor people in Lagos scavenge for a living.

You can not compare the resources available to the UK to that of Nigeria. The UK's health budget ALONE is $160Bn, Nigeria's OVERALL budget is about $32Bn. Cambridge (one university) annual budget is £1.1Bn, Nigeria's entire education budget is about 0.8Bn.

So people being homeless and eating from a bin in the UK is almost at parity as 1000 Nigerians working in hazardous conditions in a dump.

Before emotions run high.

what is the 'motive(s)' of BBC for this documentary?

answer to that, will guide the response.

The FG should go and sleep. If they feel so insensed then they should clean up the country, and get thier act together, if they want people to take them seriously. But I think the FG has really got the motive wrong on this one. They really do not think thing through before acting.

Have we not seen programs depicting JoBourg as the most dangerous place on earth, even programmes are done on places like the US.


Let them go and focus on jailing Ibori first before they start shouting without course. I will be sipping tea and watching the part 2 tonight.

otawa:

Before emotions run high.

what is the 'motive(s)' of BBC for this documentary?

answer to that, will guide the response.

You can ask BBC but I guess they fooled Nigerian leaders.

I bet you BBC wouldn't have carried out this documentary without the permission of the Gov't, especially Lagos State Governor would have you this as a cheap publicity. After all the gov't provided them with heavy security and retounie of armed guards to enable them carry out their filming without being kidnapped. So typical of Professional Journalist, they refuse to broadcast what the government want. Why, because they know gov't always lies.

skfa1:

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.

In response to the highligted. They wouldn't care. Don't you watch BritCops, Crimewatch, British Crime season on the crime channels, Road Wars, Street Crime etc on TV? And don't you read The Sun and The Daily Star, tabloids that glorify Chavs and WAGS? Again I repeat, they would not care because most times they expose themselves. Perhaps some Nigerians could pick up a few tips instead of crying foul when their a$$es are expsoed by the foreign press.

Sagamite:

His point, which I completely agree with by the way, is that it is easy to find a minority in any country and it is wrong to portray that minority as a represention of the whole place.

Not everyone living in Makoko, Ajegunle or other slums work in refuse dumps. One can easily come here go to a homeless shelter and film a documentary claiming that the poor of UK are suffering and any ignorant that has not been to London would think that is the case. Most western ignorants would think, from the programme that the average poor man and majority of poor people in Lagos scavenge for a living.

You can not compare the resources available to the UK to that of Nigeria. The UK's health budget ALONE is $160Bn, Nigeria's OVERALL budget is about $32Bn. Cambridge (one university) annual budget is £1.1Bn, Nigeria's entire education budget is about 0.8Bn.

So people being homeless and eating from a bin in the UK is almost at parity as 1000 Nigerians working in hazardous conditions in a dump.

Believe me when I say this. If you picked up a camcorder and filmed the drug pushers in Hackney, the Nigerians who have turned Peckham into Small Lagos or the Gays in Soho and labelled in ‘Welcome to London’, the British public or government wouldn’t give so much as a toss. In fact the BBC would probably buy the footage of you and laud as the best new thing in hardcore journalism. And if the BBC didn’t do it then Channel 4, Channel, ITV or Sky One would be fighting tooth and hammer for the footage.

Didn’t you ever catch The Evening Standard’s week long focus on poverty in the Capital? Or how about when CNN showed pictures of Britons in British towns and cities falling out of pubs stone drunk with some vomiting on the streets and crawling on all fours home? Did the Prime Minister of Britain or the British public go on the defensive when those stories were printed or shown around the world? No, because they are aware that is just a subset of British culture and further more the British government has more important fish to fry than to worry about how they are being portrayed in the foreign media. Sometimes when one goes on the defensive as the Nigerians have done it just makes it more obvious that they are ashamed and have more to hide within their society.

otawa:

Before emotions run high.

what is the 'motive(s)' of BBC for this documentary?

answer to that, will guide the response.

IMO, just the typical oyinbo media stuff: Looking for a sensational stories of people different to them or in different living conditions from them that will interest a high number of audiences.

It is not really malicious, it is innocuous and profit/glory driven. How many people in UK would want to see a programme of how Germans live similar lives to them? Or even SA/Nigerian people living the same lives as theirs. They want to see the extra-ordinary!!! Be it poverty (something like Africa is the prototype) or extreme riches (something like Dubai/Hollywood is the prototype).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/153988.stm

An old article in which the BBC depicts the US as the United States of Murder. So what is all this nonsense about BBC having an agenda agianst Africa? The BBC world service has dedictaed channels for news from Africa. The BBC even helped your country confirm that your president was alive. If not for that clip on the BBC hausa service only God knows what would have happened. The BBC is an independednt establishment and can broadcast what ever it likes as long as it is true information. It is not in the business of image laundering. CNN must have received millions of dollars for the Heart of Africa campaing it ran on behalf of the Nigeria government.

EloSela:

Believe me when I say this. If you picked up a camcorder and filmed the drug pushers in Hackney, the Nigerians who have turned Peckham into Small Lagos or the Gays in Soho and labelled in ‘Welcome to London’, the British public or government wouldn’t give so much as a toss. In fact the BBC would probably buy the footage of you and laud as the best new thing in hardcore journalism. And if the BBC didn’t do it then Channel 4, Channel, ITV or Sky One would be fighting tooth and hammer for the footage.

Didn’t you ever catch The Evening Standard’s week long focus on poverty in the Capital? Or how about when CNN showed pictures of Britons in British towns and cities falling out of pubs stone drunk with some vomiting on the streets or crawling home? Did the Prime Minister of Britain or the British public go on the defensive when those stories were printed? No, because they are aware that is just a subset of British culture and further more the British government has more important fish to fry than to worry about how they are being portrayed in the foreign media. Sometimes when one goes on the defensive as the Nigerians have done it just makes it more obvious that they are ashamed and have more to hide within their society.

I never said or purported that they would care.

funkybaby:

@elo sela

Am not denying the fact that the slum problem exists in nigeria. We both know Naija is faced with so many problems so there's no need arguing over that.

My major grouse with the documentary is the title 'welcome to Lagos'. For an individual that has never been to Naija, such title/report leaves a very bad impression about the cournty.

BBC should have been a little balanced with the documentary. Naija is bad but not as bad as they make it look

Well the BBC documentary also showed Ajegunle, the Cattle Market and third mainland bridge which the narrator referred to as an ‘Miracle to engineering’. Not just the dump. Were the parts they showed not part of the ‘real’ Lagos?

And again didn’t you hear the narrator’s opening introduction? I will reiterate, “This is certainly not the best part of Lagos  …  .,”

pappilo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/153988.stm

An old article in which the BBC depicts the US as the United States of Murder. So what is all this nonsense about BBC having an agenda agianst Africa? The BBC world service has dedictaed channels for news from Africa. The BBC even helped your country confirm that your president was alive. If not for that clip on the BBC hausa service only God knows what would have happened. The BBC is an independednt establishment and can broadcast what ever it likes as long as it is true information. It is not in the business of image laundering. CNN must have received millions of dollars for the Heart of Africa campaing it ran on behalf of the Nigeria government.

CNN,PBS,FOX etc all happen to create documentaries such as this about America, and most every country out there. There hav been numerous movies depicting poverty and corruption in countries like America, Cuba, China, North Korea, South Africa, you name it(don't remember seeing one on Canada . . . strange). Only recently, my Satellite company added a Documentary Channel to the Channel Lineup which I recommend, and this to me is signs that there is a huge audience for documentaries like the one shown on the BBC and these companies are out to get as much of that market as they can.

In this particular case, the stories do not seem made up, and they are actually uplifting stories by the way. But once again, our government has chosen to go after the media for reporting what is, rather than tackling the real problems as it ought to.

pappilo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/153988.stm

An old article in which the BBC depicts the US as the United States of Murder. So what is all this nonsense about BBC having an agenda agianst Africa? The BBC world service has dedictaed channels for news from Africa. The BBC even helped your country confirm that your president was alive. If not for that clip on the BBC hausa service only God knows what would have happened. The BBC is an independednt establishment and can broadcast what ever it likes as long as it is true information. It is not in the business of image laundering. CNN must have received millions of dollars for the Heart of Africa campaing it ran on behalf of the Nigeria government.

I assume this is directed at me, I don't get the crystallized composite of your argument, basically, the argument is too all over the place for me to respond in a structured and succinct manner. You might need to summarise your points.

Kobojunkie:

CNN,PBS,FOX all happen to create documentaries such as these about America, and most every country out there. There hav been numerous movies depicting poverty and corruption in countries like America, Cuba, China, North Korea, South Africa, you name it(don't remember seeing one on Canada . . . strange). Only recently, my Satellite company added a Documentary Channel to the Channel Lineup which I recommend, and this to me is signs that there is a huge audience for documentaries like the one shown on the BBC and these companies are out to get as much of that market as they can.

Dumbo, that is investigative journalism, not a programme that can indirect imply that is the average standard if it is not.

see answer ooo!!!

ROFLMAO!!!

Why do the Truth hurt Nigerians?

nevermind,

Sagamite:

There are 16m or more people living in Lagos, less than 80K live in Makoko, less than 50K like in Badia, overall, not up to a third live in slums.

About half live in our squaky, dingy 2-bed, 3-bed flats in Onipanu, Isolo, Gbagada, Shomolu, Agege, Festac etc.

I personally do not say BBC should not show the squalor, for that title, they would have done better showing a fair representation. If you want to show squalor only, perfectly fine, but clearly highlight that is your aim.

Your point is irrelevant because it doesn’t matter how many more people live in other parts of Lagos. There was a disclaimer at the start of the program which many Nigerians confidently refused to hear…again
“This certainly is NOT the best part of the city buy thousands live here”
If the BBC obviously made a choice to go to the slums and to leave out the other areas and then they were entitled to that choice. The BBC don’t have a duty Nigerian public, they only have a duty to provide drama, entertainment and fact based information to the TV licence payer.

I think 'Welcome to Lagos' was an apt title for the documentary and I thank the BBC for giving people like Eric and Joseph a voice to air to their perceptions of the city that they live and breath in.

@ kobojunkie

I saw one about Canada just before the winter Olympics that refered to Calgary as the homless capital of the world. I cant remeber which channel it was but if definitely wasnt NTA!

EloSela:


Your point is irrelevant because it doesn’t matter how many more people live in other parts of Lagos. There was a disclaimer at the start of the program which many Nigerians confidently refused to hear…again
“This certainly is NOT the best part of the city buy thousands live here”
If the BBC obviously made a choice to go to the slums and to leave out the other areas and then they were entitled to that choice. The BBC don’t have a duty Nigerian public, they only have a duty to provide drama, entertainment and fact based information to the TV licence payer.

I think 'Welcome to Lagos' was an apt title for the documentary and I thank the BBC for giving people like Eric and Joseph a voice to air to their perceptions of the city that they live and breath in.

You go and do a survey on all those that watched it and see how many remember, saw or noticed the disclaimer.

Yes, BBC has no duty to Nigerians, neither do Iran has a duty to UK/USA not to develop nuclear power.

It is about moral resposibility. The title was not apt at all, and with sufficient diligence, should have been made appropriate. Don't defend rubbish!