After 8years of OBJ Democrazy, this foto story of life in Nigeria:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_roadside_chef/html/8.stm

yeah well very cheap BBC Propaganda. I will like them to tell me that there is no poverty in London. There are some people that don't have anything in London. please spare me.

The woman is better than a lot of people that wear tie in London. She is not begging for 5pounds to eat.

Ah this Guy may win Photo Journalist of the years now, and he will be "internationally Acclaimed" Every picture tells a story in the mind of the viewer.

I know BBC.

WELL they are Part of the MI5 and they are intelligence listening post in africa.

yes, the picture mirrors the nigerian situation cos i live in area where women like that are common place. but things are changing, at least there are places like lekki nd VI

the funny thing is that the poor keeps getting poorer while the rich r getting richer

It is the picture of many of us in Nigeria, but as we all know, we also have our middle and upper class folks. The Western media tends to place lots of emphasis on the lowest class of our society and use that to depict the lot of most Nigerians.

That said, one way to curb poverty in our country is by empowering women. When that lady's husband passed on, she should have inherited his belongings, not her husband's family. Now she is left with almost nothing and has to fetch for herself and children without any support.

If I could reach the woman, I swear, I would wire her some money. Anyway, E go betta 

so what, if dats d tru pics of niger, big deal every place has its good side and bad side

Yes my dear,
                  It is a sorry nation where the rich folks are getting richer every minutes and the poor ones are getting poorer and still the government cares not.
But anyways I so much love the akara pic.

l

babasin:

After 8years of OBJ Democrazy, this foto story of life in Nigeria:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_roadside_chef/html/8.stm

what is wrong with that picture? That is typical niaja food and I don't see anything wrong with that. I will chop akara within the next 20mins of posting this. So let BBC go to hell. It is the way we live here.

edygirl:


But anyways I so much love the akara pic.

Na only d pic u like. Am going out to buy it now. When I come back I will tell you how sweet it is.

Can u see how juicee that akara is. very spicey. I love it. How I wish I can get that type when i go out now. I will garnish is with pepper.

Just see how fresh this man is. a charming smile welcoming the akara.

I don't see any thing wrong with that picture, it is a true representation of Nigeria.  true we have Lekki and Abuja and upper class residence that want potrayed in that picture.  Kudos to the lady for working hard to raise her children and not prostituting, that picture tells allot some females still have moral and dignity.  We sure are hard working and are not looking for a quick get rich stereotype that has been casted on us by the Yahoo boys or 419 boys.

@Saintchux,
Hahaha, so did you buy the akara? I miss a lot of things. I can't wait to go home.

I really find it hard to understand us. For the anti-west camp anything from the west has a negative agenda.

The picture shows clearly the extremely low standard of living in Nigeria, water, electricity, housing etc. The woman has to buy a jerican of water to bath her kids can you beat that.

Yes we have the poor everywhere but the question is what percentage of the population live in abject poverty, i.e live below $1 a day, and what is the GNP per capita of the nations. Bacslider you say there are people begging in London those folks are junkies that have spent their Giro (social benefit) stupidly on drugs and need more money to fund their habit. The govt you are talking about attempts to provide accomodation to the low income (council flats), health and has goals to meet in terms of the income of its citizens and hence standard of living.

I repeat again the question is what percentage of the population live below the poverty line, what is the standard of living of the average Nigerian.  

The picture is pathetic and we should all weep that despite the abundant human resources we have we can not think and design a prosperous system that assures a minimum standard of living to its citizens, you are all here thinking upside down.

Thank God for a sight of change (pls dont turn this into an OBJ arguement it is not) the few technocrats have tried to institute some changes we just hope there will be a bit of continuity to translate to meaningful development.

We should all be ashamed and weeping instead of attacking the BBC reporter. sss _hiss

edygirl:

@Saintchux,
Hahaha, so did you buy the akara? I miss a lot of things. I can't wait to go home.

@edygirl,
I just finish eating it. At the junction near my office, they fry it and people from all walk of life to buy it. People come with cars to buy. Let us stop condemning what people enjoy here because it appeared in BBC. If BBC commended it our people will be happy that it appeared in BBC.

more ,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6552953.stm

voices

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_nigeria_election_voices/html/8.stm

True talk, BBC Well done!!

I don't blame them for whatever they say or talk about Nigeria. While we are waiting for the election result, some people are now hooked to BBC and CNN to hear the result.

Is Nigeria government that should be blamed. They should devote more time to develop Nigeria.

what is wrong in the picture? i bet you want to see pictures of MacDonalds in nigeria or overstuffed children or obese men and women who has stuffed more than is necessary? At least she makes 2,300 per day, how many so called graduates make that in their bank jobs?

I guess if pictures of nigerians in their sleek cars and modernised houses are shown, people will not blame that on OBJ's government.

abi O!!!!!!!

Hm, I applaud the defense we all are quick to put up for our dear country Nigeria. I am equally proud of the patriotism expressed even in the face of overwhelming condescension hauled at us.

But do we blame the BBC or any satellite stations for these documentaries and revelations? Propaganda or not, it is a good thing that these conditions some lower classes of Nigerians are subjected to is x-rayed. If not, how do we identify with the fast declining regard for human lives that our Government has been so cavalier in policies about in Nigeria?

Agreed that these harsh conditions obtains in Europe too but it's rather gross here in Nigeria. We are a rich polity for Pete's sake. Where do we come off being insensitive to the lower cadre of the society while some fat oafs go riding off into the sunset just cause of a headache?

It sickens me. A country Nigeria, third largest exporter of Crude with abundance of resources that ought to be put to judicious use for the benefit of the populace is crawling and teetering on the verge of near comatose just because we have Neanderthals in power with the knack for stashing their pockets and neglecting the people who bestowed them with the mandate to lead.

Empowerment! How? When virtually all the women are psychologically battered. Our women's emancipation should be a priority which must be followed through with bills passed into law which specifies that Women have as equal rights as Men so that these women can have a voice in the scheme of things.

Mo wi re abi mo wi re?

There is dignity in labor, so BBC should leave us alone. In as much as I sympathize with the woman's plight with her inlaws and I posted a short story about widowhood in Nigeria (https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-28531.0.html), BBC should also film pictures of the homeless in Britain, the homeless in America, the dayworkers in America and quit painting Nigeria black.

Yeah, lifestyle for the underclass has fallen abysmally, but for us, we can make a difference. Sometimes, I think Nigerians are their worst enemy. On another Nigerian webboard, I suggested to the members that maybe they should be a charity fund raised for one student who had scored distinction in all his classes and was named West Africa's best high school student, or so. One guy countered that any funds should be set aside for the less privileged, like the the disabled, and not for a student who aced his papers in the exams.

We can post pictures of destitute Londoners on our own websites too. Let us do what we can with what we have

hooplarr:

Mo wi re abi mo wi re?

O wiire jare. Pele omo kaaro oojiire.

Seun:

We can post pictures of destitute Londoners on our own websites too. Let us do what we can with what we have

I'm with u all d way.    


Chei ds akara too make sense O!!
Una wan spoil my fast. .

saintchux:

@edygirl,
I just finish eating it. At the junction near my office, they fry it and people from all walk of life to buy it. People come with cars to buy. Let us stop condemning what people enjoy here because it appeared in BBC. If BBC commended it our people will be happy that it appeared in BBC.

In your opinion the issue is about "akara" and yam. Such intelligence.

alabiyemmy:

what is wrong in the picture? i bet you want to see pictures of MacDonalds in nigeria or overstuffed children or obese men and women who has stuffed more than is necessary? At least she makes 2,300 per day, how many so called graduates make that in their bank jobs?

I guess if pictures of nigerians in their sleek cars and modernised houses are shown, people will not blame that on OBJ's government.

Again you guys just fail to see the issue, do you think its about what she is selling, every day i get to understand more about ourselves and see why we are where we are. Its not about food its about income, the living conditions, housing, water, electricity.

The woman lives on a tight budget N1,800 and on a very good day N2,300, and you think thats profit. She has to buy fire wood, buy water, cook in extremely difficult conditions (everyday) and still has to buy the materials needed to prepare the food, and you say thats good, i pray you live in that condition and earn as she does since you think its better than what the graduate earns.

She is 50 years old, walks 1 and a half hours to buy her supplies. She cooks in extreme conditions, she lives in a 2 room hut and eat "leftovers" with her kids after the days sale. She states that things have gotten worse and actually wants a better life.

Somebody raised a point earlier on empowering widows but none of you recognised that very crucial point, alas its all about Yam and Akara, go and buy more this evening you hear.

Ndipe:

There is dignity in labor, so BBC should leave us alone. In as much as I sympathize with the woman's plight with her inlaws and I posted a short story about widowhood in Nigeria (https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-28531.0.html), BBC should also film pictures of the homeless in Britain, the homeless in America, the dayworkers in America and quit painting Nigeria black.

Yeah, lifestyle for the underclass has fallen abysmally, but for us, we can make a difference. Sometimes, I think Nigerians are their worst enemy. On another Nigerian webboard, I suggested to the members that maybe they should be a charity fund raised for one student who had scored distinction in all his classes and was named West Africa's best high school student, or so. One guy countered that any funds should be set aside for the less privileged, like the the disabled, and not for a student who aced his papers in the exams.

Did you hear them attack what she is doing? There no other society that recognises diginity of labour than the west, nobody looks down on you based on what you do. On the contrary thats our own shortcoming and the BBC actually complemented her, its the conditions of living that is being exposed. Cant you see the pictures.

And who told you the BBC doesnt show documentaries on the ills in their society, you think Nigeria is the most important subject to them, do you know the coverage of the BBC. Please on an objective note those living in the UK should please comment on the level of criticism the media puts on their own government and system.

You guys can go ahead and place whatever pictures you want to, truth be told in reality (not potentials) we are an extremely poor country with a large proportion of the population living in harsh human conditions. What propotion of the population live in Lekki, how many people live in Ajegunle?? and you want them to show pictures of Lekki??

The point is not that the BBC is not be biased but that we should be able to differentiate issues. The standard of living needs to improve, with such responses from Nigerians then theres no need for development.

i really do not know the purpose of this thread. the woman in the picture does not in anyway represent the less privelaged people in nigeria.
she looks healthy, she could fend for herself and her extended family.
guilty conscience is the key here otherwise we will accept the woman is ok as she is a director/owner of her own company.
the children are worth been proud of and what else?

@Buluti, in a perfect world, that woman would be living a luxurious life at her age, instead of relying on subsitence labor for survival. However, in today's society, there exist different social segments/classes, even in America. At least, she is better than the hordes of homeless people in America and Britain, or the jobless, not sure on how to pay their bills, or where their next meal would come from. Life is not about bemoaning your losses, it is about counting your blessings everyday. Without so, bitterness would gradually descend on you and rob you of the inability to appreciate life. I have seen homeless people in America, regarded as the richest country in the world. And to be frank, that woman's life is better than theirs.

So, BBC, if their aim was to make a mockery of Nigeria, has failed woefully. Tell me, why is it hard to present a positive picture of Africa? Nobody should tell me that bad news sells, because the report about America, presented by foreign journalists to Africa, in some cases are positive. Our people rely on those images, hence the quest to move to America for greener pastures.

Ndipe:

@Buluti, in a perfect world, that woman would be living a luxurious life at her age, instead of relying on subsitence labor for survival. However, in today's society, there exist different social segments/classes, even in America. At least, she is better than the hordes of homeless people in America and Britain, or the jobless, not sure on how to pay their bills, or where their next meal would come from. Life is not about bemoaning your losses, it is about counting your blessings everyday. Without so, bitterness would gradually descend on you and rob you of the inability to appreciate life. I have seen homeless people in America, regarded as the richest country in the world. And to be frank, that woman's life is better than theirs.

So, BBC, if their aim was to make a mockery of Nigeria, has failed woefully. Tell me, why is it hard to present a positive picture of Africa? Nobody should tell me that bad news sells, because the report about America, presented by foreign journalists to Africa, in some cases are positive. Our people rely on those images, hence the quest to move to America for greener pastures.

@ Ndipe i agree with you that there are social segments we have the low, middle and high class in the society or definately. In addition i agree we should appreciate life but i disagree that we should remain under developed living in conditions that are inhuman, i disagree that the desire to be better or call conditions bad is not being appreciative and loosing the essence of life, i don't agree at all. 

Maybe you don't understand me so let me try and be clear, i appreciate our unique culture and traditional society (its beautiful in my opinion), i appreciate the fact that there would always be the homeless amongst us (even the bible states that), My issue is what percentage of the population is homeless, what is the standard of living of the low income class.

Please are we living in denial i wont speak of the US but in the UK wats the % of the population, theres social benefit to the unemployed that can sustain them at a decent level, the coucil flats meet a minimum standard of living. Thats to the jobless and homeless. This woman is not she is self employed. So being in the low income class should she be living at that level. The Uk govt has a target to reduce the number of families living below £16,000 per annum by about  10%, because that what constitutes the low income, with 16k a year do u know the standard of livin in the UK. Am not comparing societies am comparing living standards. You say she is livin better thn people in America and UK by what do you make that comparision?? Please don't comapre her with the junkies and society misfits because shes not, shes a hard working woman living in the low income class.

Again i say if you think that life style is good, i wish it for you. If its okay then you should have no problems with it.

Please lets face issues we need to develop, we are extremely poor and under developed, China is demolishing the rural areas and building mega cities every where if they were ok u think the development would come, we need to move beyond this subsistence living.

Again i advise you all to look at issues form the west objectively, i agree that the picture of Africa being portrayed is distorted but what are the options we Africa are giving to them, tomorrow if they show violent elections we would cry what are we seeing, in my opinion showing lekki does not capture the true standard of living of the average Nigeria (as the home videos do) that is movie anyway this is documentary and real life.

The middile class is growing in Nigeria thanks to the banking and telecoms industry, that needs to be expanded. The low income class deserve a right to a decent life, the day should come when the labourer, driver, factory workers, i dare say junior civil servants can afford a "human" life, this conditions are inhuman.

Well, if the standard of living in Naija is to be compared with those of yankee and jand, countries of the Western hemisphere, tagged as "Advanced countries", I'd write that it is an unfair comparison. However, lets be fair by comparing our standard of living with other African countries like Burkina Faso, Somalia, or non African countries like Iraq. With that, the saying, "Counting your blessings" would certainly prevail, even in the minds of pessimist of Nigerians. By the way, I am not an advocate of mediocrity.

@Bulutti, would you approve the decimation of your village, for the development of infrastructures? I wouldn't, no matter what. I am sure that our villages can co-exist peacefully with developments in the city, without any intrusion.

@Ndipe i have read your response you are not an advocate of mediocrity but still feel we should compare ourselves with Somalia, Burkina Faso & the likes (u even ommitted Ghana). You stated that making the comparison is an unfair comparision i thought you would attempt to compare with Malaysia, Singapore (asian tigers) since it can be shown that in the 60's we were at the same level of development but alas you choose the failed states as comparison.

Do the people of the west deserve a better living condition because they are "Advanced" or the warped arguement that they are 1 million years old. How come in a space of 20-30 years the asians have achieved economic growth and improved standard of living that is now compareable to the so called Advanced countries.

What do you mean pessimist of Nigeria ?? or "Count your Blessings", If it is sitting down and comparing myself to failure (Somalia, Burkina Faso) and deceiving myself that am still better off than some people then i wont be party to such.

Whether i will approve of my village being turned into a mega-city. What have i been singing since, if the development plans which should consider all broader issues including the preservation of certain historical sights, the environment and certain other criteria state that my village should be demolished and give way to a mega-city, please gladfully so be it, i will support it with all my might and even contribute in drafting the policies. What is the economic value of the huts or has it made the people better. You seem to forget the cities today where once villages.

Let me attempt to address the warped reasoning and unintelligent arguement that "we cannot compare ourselves to the developed countries because it took them 5 trillion years to get there".

Agreed the today "advanced" countries have gone through different stages of development, pertinent to note is the agricultural age and industrial revolution which took them about a century to achieve. They have learnt from thier mistakes corrected it and improved on it. The unintellignet arguement is that we are just 40 years and can not compare ourselves to such societies, that it should take us a long time to get to where they are. When i ask the proponents of that school how long?? They cant state a time frame.

My response usually to them starts from asking what is the essence of education. What was the stage of education at the time in those countries. E.g they were just discovering management techniques (Henri fayol, taylor & all) which was suggesting that there is one best way of carrying out a task or discovering that factory work could be designed in stages leading to mass production. Economist were just discovering after the great depression that perhaps Adam's Smith laissez faire idea of living the economy alone was not the way forward and other schools emerged. Engineering was advancing on every front and the computer age came.

In summary it was a discovery stage for them. My thinking is that the west has done the hard work. The body of knowledge now exist so i dont need to go through the discovery stage, all i need to do is translate the knowledge, i just need to play catch-up, million of Nigerians and Africans are round the world studying all the courses from Engineering to fianance to the applied arts, this has been going on since the 40's but whilst the Asians were translating theirs to development for all, we were busy building personal empires that refuse to pay appropriate wages to labour hence labour was not encouraged to put its best. Before the advent of the banking industry and telecomms, Oil was the only industry paying a living wage and it was becos it was run by the so called advanced countries. They had learnt that you need to pay and motivate labour to earn profit. At least a generation in banking learnt and today the results can be seen.

What am i saying?? Please we dont need a century to play catch-up, its just catch-up we are not discovering any new frontier, Asia has done it in less than 3 decades. In the 60's the predictions was that Africa would perform better than Asia in terms of development due to the presence of abundant natural resources but alas results have shown different figures to the prediction. Why is it so??

If in 2007 we need to "toast" educated folks why their villages should give way for development and get resistance from the educated one i really find it hard to see where the jobs will come from, whether the govt or privat firms will open companies that will do nothing. Its this expansion/construction that would bring the jobs all forms of engineering, finance to fund the projects and all sorts. The economy will expand new industries will emerge as each area discover what they can produce with comparative advantage (as Tinapa is showing for example).

Or some still feel the issue is about "Yam and Akara" and cant see beyond the bias of the west, to force us to improve ourselves and see where on earth the west will get such pictures. Why dont they show such pictures of Singapore. Please lets stop this mental laziness.

saintchux (m)
Lagos, Nigeria
Posts: 258

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  Re: Is This True Picture Of Life In Nigeria?
« #6 on: April 13, 2007, 08:50 PM » 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
l


Quote from: babasin on April 12, 2007, 12:49 PM
After 8years of OBJ Democrazy, this foto story of life in Nigeria:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_roadside_chef/html/8.stm


what is wrong with that picture? That is typical niaja food and I don't see anything wrong with that. I will chop akara within the next 20mins of posting this. So let BBC go to hell. It is the way we live here. 



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I don't believe in defeat, I think victory, I get victory


saintchux (m)
Lagos, Nigeria
Posts: 258

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  Re: Is This True Picture Of Life In Nigeria?
« #7 on: April 13, 2007, 08:52 PM » 

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Quote from: edygirl on April 13, 2007, 08:48 PM

But anyways I so much love the akara pic.


Na only d pic u like. Am going out to buy it now. When I come back I will tell you how sweet it is.

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saintchux (m)
Lagos, Nigeria
Posts: 258

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  Re: Is This True Picture Of Life In Nigeria?
« #8 on: April 13, 2007, 08:56 PM » 

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Can u see how juicee that akara is. very spicey. I love it. How I wish I can get that type when i go out now. I will garnish is with pepper.

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akara.jpg (77.87 KB, 416x300 )

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saintchux (m)
Lagos, Nigeria
Posts: 258



  Re: Is This True Picture Of Life In Nigeria?
« #9 on: April 13, 2007, 09:00 PM » 

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Just see how fresh this man is. a charming smile welcoming the akara.


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7.jpg (14.06 KB, 416x300 )


Tell BBC to go to hell and show poverty on the streets of London. I saw a man today on the streets of glasgow, i tell you Nigerians wont just go past this man without helping him. I love your responses  saintchux (m), infact I wish i can eat that akara now. Come and see them smelling of cigas and hemps and they talk of pollution in Africa and nigeria.
You wont believe this embarassing question from a chineese Phd student i met in october last year; she asked me where i am from and proudly said nigeria and you wont believe the next thing she said, how terrible is the pollution in nigeria because she has heard so much? i wanted to say, "ko ni d** fun eni ti o so gbogbo isokuso ti o gbo nipa ilu baba mi" but i told her maybe the news was about europe not nigeria.(translation: sorry-i wanted to tell that he no go b***** for the person wey spoil our image like that).
please if you re in europe and you can help send pictures of poverty in europe, please do it now.

Bolarge:


O wiire jare. Pele omo kaaro oojiire.

I'm with u all d way.    


Chei ds akara too make sense O!!
Una wan spoil my fast. .                

buluti:

@ Ndipe i agree with you that there are social segments we have the low, middle and high class in the society or definately. In addition i agree we should appreciate life but i disagree that we should remain under developed living in conditions that are inhuman, i disagree that the desire to be better or call conditions bad is not being appreciative and loosing the essence of life, i don't agree at all. 

Maybe you don't understand me so let me try and be clear, i appreciate our unique culture and traditional society (its beautiful in my opinion), i appreciate the fact that there would always be the homeless amongst us (even the bible states that), My issue is what percentage of the population is homeless, what is the standard of living of the low income class.

Please are we living in denial i wont speak of the US but in the UK wats the % of the population, theres social benefit to the unemployed that can sustain them at a decent level, the coucil flats meet a minimum standard of living. Thats to the jobless and homeless. This woman is not she is self employed. So being in the low income class should she be living at that level. The Uk govt has a target to reduce the number of families living below £16,000 per annum by about  10%, because that what constitutes the low income, with 16k a year do u know the standard of livin in the UK. Am not comparing societies am comparing living standards. You say she is livin better thn people in America and UK by what do you make that comparision?? Please don't comapre her with the junkies and society misfits because shes not, shes a hard working woman living in the low income class.

Again i say if you think that life style is good, i wish it for you. If its okay then you should have no problems with it.

Please lets face issues we need to develop, we are extremely poor and under developed, China is demolishing the rural areas and building mega cities every where if they were ok u think the development would come, we need to move beyond this subsistence living.

Again i advise you all to look at issues form the west objectively, i agree that the picture of Africa being portrayed is distorted but what are the options we Africa are giving to them, tomorrow if they show violent elections we would cry what are we seeing, in my opinion showing lekki does not capture the true standard of living of the average Nigeria (as the home videos do) that is movie anyway this is documentary and real life.

The middile class is growing in Nigeria thanks to the banking and telecoms industry, that needs to be expanded. The low income class deserve a right to a decent life, the day should come when the labourer, driver, factory workers, i dare say junior civil servants can afford a "human" life, this conditions are inhuman.

but why is it that it is only Africa that needs restructuring? we know what we need and we don't need any western advicer or spokeperson to tell us.
You know what a small white boy told me the other day? He asked me where i learnt how to speak English!!! My Ghanian friend was asked if she lives in mud houses or grass back home in Ghana, you know her reply? she said on TREES.
Let us know when those who made us so want to help blow out dirt from our eyes with pepper in their mouth. Do you know what has always taken the headlines of G8 meetings-Africa and what have they done nothing. Commonwealth here and there, they only tell us we are commonwealth when they need our votes in U.K and afterwards when they meet us on the street, they ask us if we are refugees  or asylum seekers. Do you understand?