BBC Documentary - 'Welcome to Lagos'
I am very dissapointed at the Action Congress and particularly at the Nigerian High commissioner to Britain on their respective positions to the above subject BBC documentary. Ths BBC documentary titled 'Welcome to Lagos' is very exciting to me and to most Nigerian residents in the UK (at least to the people I have spoken to). Actually, I got to know about it from an SMS message. Rather than condemn the action of the BBC, Nigerians should proud of the BBC for bringing to light the ills in the Nigerian society. Most Nigerian officials or public office holders forget where they are coming from. They pretend as though Nigeria has arrived in its desired place in the committee of nations. As far as I know, Nigeria has got worse in certain areas and is doing better in some areas. People like the High commissioiner find their way into the corridors of power by whatever means and then convince themselves that their main role in government is to protect its action by all means even when things are not going well. Actually, they know deep down in their heart that they are only protecting those who put them in positions that they don't deserve and most especially holding on to their job. Otherwise, why are they so concerned about the documentary?
We all know that everything about the documentary is correct, there was no attempt to skew the vidoe or audio. Now what is the high commissioner and the AC's concern? That the documentary did not show the other side of the story! Wait a minute, since when did we now have to write stories to cover the concerns of everyone. Clearly the BBC report was to bring to light the hidden stories of ordinary Nigerians whose life is been gradually destroyed by the Nigerian politicians. Imagine, living in a waste dump for the most part of your life and you would understand how these forgetten Nigerians feel.
I would like to up the argument a bit, does the Nigerian high commissioner regular watch the BBC, channel 4, and other news/documentary televisions? I personally doubt because if he does he would have found out that there are documentaries and stories showing all the sufferings of poor people in India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afganistan, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, etc. Actually the air programmes about the poor people living in council estates in the UK and therefore the Lagos documentary is not new to those of us who watch poor people suffer all over the globe. None of these countries raise so much dust, actually they take such documentaries as opportunities to improve things. By being defensive, clearly the Nigerian high commissioner is in denial. There is nowhere in the documentary where the BBC claims that Lagos is 100% slum.
Can the high commissioner tell me what effort he has personally put to sell the good works of the lagos govt.? As far as I know, he doesn't give a damn! Has he sponsored any programme to promote these effort or attempt to sell the other part of the story? No, certainly not. So, he sits down and eat and drink and hope that the BBC will promote Nigeria at a time when the world knows that Nigerians are suffering.
Clearly a sensible government will accept that things are not right , will make effort to improve and will showcase its good effort to world. In Nigeria, its the opposite, the country is being rebranding with nothing to show other than a slogan and millions of Niara into the pockets of a few.
Posterity will judge everyone by their actions. I thank the BBC an encourage them to focus on their interest area and to report what they consider to be in the wider interest of majority.
Just to know only yesterday, Jonathan Dimbleby of the BBC reported about the resilience and innovation of the african people including a piece of lagos. What does the high commissioner have to say about this, we will soon find out. But don't be too optimistic we will never hear a world!
