Sagamite:

OK, take it from a News and current affairs buff here.

First of all, the BBC would not try that as they would be aware the title would offend the Conservatives.

Secondly, if they make such a mistake, they are likely to be fined for a misrepresentation that was offensive.

Thirdly, at least the Editor would be reprimanded or forced to resign as the damage is huge and powerful Tories would rally and pressure BBC.

Nigeria unfortunately does not have that kind of clout to complain like the Tories that is why the BBC can get away with it.

Again I doubt it.

If I were to go of my own accord to on the BBC's Question time claiming to be a Conservative would have radicalised views which I openly expressed on the program then the BBC could not be held responsible for my views.

The BBC have no party allegiance. Go to the 'Have your Say' page on the BBC website where there is again a disclaimer The views here are do not reflect the position of the BBC'. This is the same type of disclaimer they use on all their TV programs which which may be deemed controversial.

Welcome to Britain.

[flash=400,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/a-aKSNSeobQ&feature=related[/flash]

Sagamite:

OK, as the elections is coming up now, tell me what will happen IF the BBC showed a reality documentary programme that is titled "Introduction To 1.Cameron's New Conservatives" and then shows ONLY a small list of Conservative members (party card holders and campaigners) that have racist, anti-immigration views and that have been violent in their areas.

2. You think the Conservatives should and would keep quiet? You think the Editors and even the Director General of BBC would keep their jobs?

3. You think Ofcom would not clamp down on BBC?

What are your answers?

1.The BBC would be criticised which is nothing new. They were criticised heavily for broadcasting the views of the BNP for instance.

I don't follow politics much and so I am not familiar with the conservative political stance but I do doubt that they would give a toss because if there were nothing in their manifesto that states overt racism or is overly anti immigration, they would just counteract with a party political broadcast of their own. If the party felt that they did not support the views of the protesters they would simply denouce them and keep it moving. Don't you watch hard hitting programs like 'Panorama', 'Hard Talk', 'Question Time'?

2.The only way they could sue the BBC is if they (The BBC) got actors to pretend they were conservative supporters with radicalised views or if they had misrepresented facts and that would be a scenario for job losses.


3.OfCom would only get involved and investigate if they received enough complaints from the British public as their duty is to us and not the Government.

@Sagamite
Yes it is regulated but not in the same way the banks are or the way the gas companies set their tariffs. That is the point that I was trying to get across.

'Fairness'

It is subject to interpretation. I still say that as having nothing to do with 'moral responsibility'

Was there anything unfair about a documentary entitled to 'Welcome to Lagos' which showed people who had lived and worked in Lagos all their lives? I think not. If anyone agrees that it was then to me they are also saying that those human beings do not count.

tensor777:

Who is saying that the BBC can call a program or documentary anything they want? Actually the title of the documentary is totally misleading. grossly inaccurate.

The LASG should sue them for defamation as they have in this sense they have exhibited gross irresponsibility

I said that.

So why don't you make a complaint to OfCom about the inaccuracy of the title and 'defamation'?

@Sagamite

The banks in the UK are regulated by the FSA

Gas pricing is regulated by OfGem

The BBC is regulated by OfCom in some areas but for the most part it is an independent broadcaster competing with the likes of C4, C5, Sky One and ITV. If the BBC hadn't shown this program then believe one of the other broadcasters would have.

Ofcom

The BBC's licence fee and grant-in-aid funded television and radio services are subject to the regulation of the Office for Communications (Ofcom) in the following six areas:

   * Protecting the Under Eighteens
   * Harm and Offence
   * Crime
   * Religion
   * Fairness
   * Privacy.

In addition the BBC's Commercial Services, whether broadcasting to the UK, or from the UK to our international audiences, must comply with the whole of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.

The regulator can impose a variety of sanctions on the BBC for breaches of the relevant sections of its Broadcasting Code including:

   * broadcasting a correction or statement of finding
   * ordering that a programme is re-edited before re-broadcast
   * fines of up to £250,000 for serious or repeated breaches.

These guidelines reflect the relevant provisions of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code which is also set out in Section 18.

Nothing about 'moral responsibility.

Busy_body:


The dump closed 2 years ago, so title stating "welcome to Lagos" is not apt, at all. If the respectable "independent" newspaper could intepret the film wrongly(see kobojunkie's earlier post), what hope does others have?


And places of work often have bukas and restaurants available locally to cater to them, no big deal na.






God punish the peacemakers

Do you have evidence that the dump was closed two years ago?

And where are these people now? Does the BBC have to go back to Nigeria to bring us news of how these people are faring in Lagos now they have been removed from the place they make their livelihoods?

Sagamite:

If that is your disposition, then you do not believe in moral responsibility.

So to you, Iran should have the freedom to develop nuclear weapons.

Banks should lend/loan recklessly to people they know can not pay and at exhorbitant rates without govt restrictions.

Even Gas companies should be able to raise their tariffs during winter to maximise profits.

If that is your logic, I leave you with it but I can guarantee you will not want to leave in environments where there is no moral responsibility.

You are comparing a whole country, a government regulated bodies with a simple TV broadcaster? That is all the BBC are, a TV broadcaster which caters to the entertainment and information needs of its TV licence public.

This same broadcaster has aired views far more controversial than the way some Nigerians view the ‘Welcome to Lagos’ documentary. What about the Hutton enquiry where someone ended up committing suicide? The BBC did not apologise then and I doubt they will do so now.
Hence the reason I keep going on about the disclaimer. They made one and covered their backsides. If someone were to bring a case against the BBC for misrepresentation stating that they missed the first 10 mins of the program will not stand up in court. After all not everyone reads the small print of contracts but they still get their asses handed to them when they refused to do something they unwittingly signed up to do.

Anyway, at the end of the day I am sure Eric, Joseph and other were paid handsomely for their participation in the program. That fact alone should make a huge positive difference in their lives in Lagos which way more than Nigerian government or Nigerian media has ever done for them.

Ujujoan:

I think point is in their approach. If they were trying to show how people were wallowing in poverty while other lived in plenty, they would have showed pictures of other places, at least in comparism. The fact that they focused on the dump is clearly a calculated way of implying that the whole of Lagos was that way!

And like Sagamite said, the image of Nigeria depends on it. Their disclaimer isn't good enough!  
rotflmao      

Well you have already admitted that you didn’t watch the documentary so with all due respect you can’t really say what the program is about.

The doc focused on hard working, innovative, entrepreneurial men who were honest. It portrayed them as a example of hard working individuals in the city. Even Joseph said that if someone were to leave the city for abroad to work everyone would be able to tell that person came from Lagos. Now how many times have you seen the above positive verbs used to describe Nigerians in the West?

If the image of Nigeria depends on the BBC then Nigeria is in trouble.

Sagamite:

It is BBC's issue BECAUSE A MORE APT WAY OF SPECIFYING THAT MESSAGE WAS EASILY AVAILABLE TO THEM!

The title was inappropraite and there are several other titles that would have been more apt for the story and are more memorial-lasting disclaimers.

If one misses the first 10 mins but checks the title the says "Welcome to the life of Lagos' slum-dwellers", he would still get the message, but in the current form, he has missed the "disclaimer".

Moral responsibility!

The BBC can call any program they fund with their money what they want. Com’on now! They showed Lagosians living and working in Lagos it is not like they focused on all the cripples begging for money on skateboards or people openly defecating in the streets which we also know is part of the real Lagos.

Busy_body:


KOBOJUNKIE started it by calling them deaf, blind idiots, hence the reason i pulled her up on it earlier with my advise that it is too early to be smoking blunt


@ Elosela


What disclaimer

The dump got closed two years ago and even when it was still open no one lived there, they all just worked there haba


Not saying their ain't still places like that too in Nigeria, but don't call it "welcome to Lagos" Majority of foreigners already think only Lagos State is in Nigeria  

Well if the majority of foreigners think that Lagos is the only state in Nigeria shouldn’t that be an issue for the Nigerian government to rectify?

The BBC can call any program they make with their money what they want. If Eric or Joseph took me on a tour of Lagos they would probably show me the dump, Ajegunle, the cattle market and Third Mainland bridge so I could experience the giant traffic jams, all parts that they showed in the BBC documentary. Who am I to say that I didn't see the real Lagos?

Someone on another board said that the dump was still open in December 2009 and that people live and work on the site that is why there were restuarants and all sorts of small business thriving there catering to the 'thriving metropolis inside the megacity' (another disclaimer made by the narrator)
Abi did the BBC set up those businesses before they started filming?

Ujujoan:

Nobody is saying that the perspective is not real, but then expecting us to accept that as the true representation of the city is absurd!

And nobody expects you do that so what is the issue?

@Sagamite

I don't undertsand. If people who watched the program choose to ignore the disclaimer where they clearly stated that it was just one part of Lagos then it really is not the BBC's issue because as far as they are concerned they have not lied or misrepresented the truth.

Eric and Joseph’s Lagos may not be the same Lagos for those who live in VI or Lekki but their perceptive of the city is still real. Egotistical and pretentious Nigerians need to recognise and respect that instead of trying to tear them down. The Nigerian media always ignores types like Eric and Joseph and so I think it is wonderful that they were given this world stage to show their lives to the world.

Sagamite:

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 appropraite. Don't defend rubbish!

Why do I need to do a survey? The fact remains that the disclaimer was made.

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.

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  …  .,”

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.

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.

Eric aka Vocal Slender now has his own wiki page. At this rate this guy is going to be bigger than Tuface, lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Obuh

thameamead:


I want to help Gabriel, Joseph, his wifey and his two daughters financially so if anyone knows how I can get in contact with them, pls mail me or if anyone1 has their contact number.

Have you tried contacting the BBC?

Urhobo is my ethnicity. British is my nationality.

komekn:

Elosela,

I second that motion and i am buying 10 NO SHAKIN !!!

Good, pass on the message to friends and family. It is only 79p for a track, less than a can of coke.


Non British residents can watch part 1 of 'Welcome to Lagos' here.

http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/49745-bbc-2-thursday-9pm-15th-april-2010-watch-welcome-lagos.html#post445090

ayettymama:

has anyone noticed this show can take a bad turn??

what if the gov.t all of a sudden gets embarrased by the program and decides to chase all the scavengers from the dumpsters??

we all know they are very capable of doing it?? and its obvious the documentary is widely misinterpreted!

just a thot. . . . . . . .  . . .

[size=4pt]neways fashola is a good man thats prob not a worry[/size]

If the Nigerian government did that then they would be further exposed to the world with pressure groups like Amnesty International and possibly the UN getting involved.



There is a link here for non UK residents to watch part 1.

http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/49745-bbc-2-thursday-9pm-15th-april-2010-watch-welcome-lagos.html#post445090

Vocal Slender's music is now on Itunes. I love that song 'Owo yappa' and I have gotten my copy for just 79p.

Nigerians please go over to Itunes and support our Bro, Slender. Lets see if we can get him into the top 10. It would be really funny if Vocal Slender knocked Usher of of the UK no.1 spot, lol

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/vocal-slender/id362320852

Vocal Slender's music is now on Itunes. I love that song 'Owo yappa' and I have gotten my copy for just 79p.

Nigerians please go over to Itunes and support our Bro, Slender. Lets see if we can get him into the top 10. It would be really funny if Vocal Slender knocked Usher of of the no.1 spot, lol

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/vocal-slender/id362320852

@labiyemmy:

Naijababe

Noone is advocating that Ikoyi and VI be shown - the point is - showing a dump site and making it seem like the life in Lagos is a complete false hood, a dumpsite is not Lagos, can not be Lagos and it should be seen as what it is, a mere dump site - a mere dump site in America does not represent what America is.

The BBC program did not imply that the dumpsite represents ALL of Lagos and I doubt any one with common sense would see it that way either. Just like no one would see a dumpsite in NY, London or Paris and assume that it makes up the city neither would anyone think so about Lagos. If you are really worried about other people's thoughts on the program then take time to find out instead of assuming you know what they think.

ROSSIKE:

Thanks Sjeezy. The difference is that the western media devote virtually 100% of their coverage of poverty to African poverty. This coverage does not reflect the true situation with regard to global poverty. Take India for instance. Half her 1.5 billion population are stark illiterates. That's 750 million people - and they mostly live in poverty with malnourished kids in slums and desolate mud hut villages. The world's biggest slum is not in Africa or in Lagos. It is in Mumbai, India.


Why do we NEVER see such ''documentaries'' on Mumbai on CNN, BBC and other western stations?

At least 30 African countries boast a higher standard of living than India, Pakistan, Bangladesh.

20 have higher living standards than Brazil and China.

Why is this not reflected in the west's racist characterization of Africa as a land of unending blight and hopelessness?

It is right that we attack their propaganda, even when it comes in the form of a ''touching documentary''.

God knows how many billions have been lost  by Africans denied investment and tourism income due to the average non-African's  conception of what being in ''Africa''  entails, fuelled by a rabidly racist western media propaganda assault  against the continent.

Did you watch 'slumdog millionaire'? That was set in a real mumbai slum and they used real slum dwellers for the children. The film also cleaned up at the Oscars last year. I have always said that if an opportunity came for such a story to be set in Nigeria it would never happen. Some Nigerians are way  too stuck up and would rather the foreign film-makers go to Lekki and VI where the real essence of the story would be lost. The BBC couldn't even film a basic drama like 'Blood and Oil' in Nigeria.

And this is just another area where Nigeria fails miserably because of her people's arrogance and egos. I remember being in India and one of the tour guides proudly telling me about the biggest slum in India, Dharavi and mentioning that my trip to mumbai would be incomplete if I were to miss it.

I am sure that there are plenty of Oscar worthy stories ala Slumdog millionaire in Lagos but of course they will never be told because of the obvious.

@labiyemmy:

The question is this:

Is a mere dump site in Ojota a balanced representation of the whole of Lagos?

That was just one part of Lagos. Stayed tuned in the following weeks to see how the other parts are represented. They may even show Lekki and VI

@labiyemmy:

Something is wrond in somebody's head.

Talking about Lagos and all they can show is a dump site? A dump site exists every where in the world - including America- scavengers go there to pick re usable items for sale - big deal?

Is a dump site and people who work on it all that makes up Lagos?

whole communities live on that dump site. They don't just work there.

@4Play

Well if you go on twitter and Digital spy most of the white Brits who watched the program are praising the Nigerians because of the program showed them hard at work and pursuing their dreams. The Nigerians on twitter on the other hand are complaining because Lekki and VI weren't shown.

In my opinion there is no point in showing the rich Nigerians in Lekki and Vi when they are the minority as that does not represent Lagos.

It wasn't that bad was it?

Too often these types of people are ignored by the Nigerian media who only like to focus on the super rich or celebrities. I know Nigerians cringe when they see other poor Nigerians in Nigeria trying to eek out a living on western TV but that is their reality. Why should they be ignored?

I think it is good that the BBC focused on these types because not only do they make up the majority of Lagosians, they are also the most honest and hard working diligent people in the city. It doesn't matter how poor they are, we all should be proud of them. Unlike the Super rich who are most times crooks or people who have attained the wealth through dubious means or by mistreating others.