(Your Views Bwana Young)

One of my Naijja colleagues was absoulete livid when this was aired sometime back bout Lagos. She says it was a misrepresntation of what lagos is/was about, i can see where she was coming from however i feel she was not seeing the larger picture or what the documentary was trying to achieve.

Can i have your thoughts Mr Young!!

www.bbc.co.uk/.../Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_1/

PS: If this does not work google "Welcome To Lagos"

@Ric dees, took me some google to find http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8llgvgHxHE

@young well said... Title of the episode denotes ulterior motive or cheap promotion for that matter. I was surprised only after Hurricane Katrina was I introduced to despondency in New Orleans - never knew it existed before.

So the series would have been much more informative if it had better balance - a view of slums all over the world from Mumbai to Lagos to their origin in Victorian Britain.

@Ric dees

It was the largest slum until this year when census figures let the cat out of the bag. That Kibera has only 170,000 inhabitants. Not the one million people the media has hyped for decades.

http://www.nation.co.ke/...-/13ga38xz/-/index.html

Read this on the net: the population in kibera is 1.345 million people. this is the right answer belive me its right yeah enjoy your studies. =p


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/...in_kibera#ixzz18AEi1G3W

Young is a nigerian, better belive him or shut up.

What I can say is that Lagos deserves what the documentary highlights because Lagos is truly a mess!!!

But Abuja, now that is a well planned city. I hate Nairobi, but would not mind living huko Abuja - at least when I visited, everything was new and good.

For Kenya will soon find ourselves with a lagos in the name of Nairobi. A few nice places like vic island of lagos - kina runda, karens of nai, but everything else utter crap!

So @Young, I hope u guys keep Abuja clean and stick with the plan - and revise it as need arise - and fly that flag really high! The only oddity I noted was having the HQ of ports at Abuja - shaped like a ship...not cool.

Thanks @Kadonye - I didn't think anyone would notice my absence...am flattered.

Just to mention, while in Abuja, I missed a flight back to Lagos twice - both times, my seat would be paid for by someone already in the plane - kulipia tikiti ya ndege kama matatu - amazing stuff out there in Naijaland. I ended up taking a bus back to Lagos - met 2 beatiful ladies kwa hiyo bus - of whom I remember one named Delight - nikirudi huko nitamtafuta....

THE EXPERIENCE OF ROCK ROSE A POPULATION TANZANIAN CREATIVE ARTIST IN LAGOS. CULLED FROM cITIZENS NEWSPAPER.




It was glitz and glamour as the glitterati of Africa converged to crown the cream in the music industry at the Eko Expo Hotel in Lagos for the MTV Africa Music Awards.

To be precise all the best in the game including actress Genevieve Nnaji were there.
In the crowd, I could see former Nigerian soccer maestros Jay Jay Okocha and Daniel Amokachi.
They were all there to rub shoulders with the cream as they waited for history to unfold.

From when our flight touched down at the Mohammed Murtala International Airport, which seems to be suffering from some neglect, my heart pumped with anticipation of the Airtel sponsored event.

Naija models dressed in Airtel colours were there to receive us as we boarded the waiting special vans which later drove us in a police escorted convoy to the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel.
The organisers had made sure everything is in tip-top condition and as the natives saying goes, ‘there is nothing that is as hard to beat as the Lagos traffic.’

The whole city was adorned in either Christmas or Mama colours with giant billboards proclaiming, ‘Mamas is here’.
We were soon being brought up to speed with the culture in Lagos, which,of course, included dealing with the Naira, adding the letter ‘O’ to some words, and getting accustomed to being referred as ‘Oga.’
I must say, I was keen to know why the event went to Nigeria for the second time skipping Tanzania.

The venue
The venue of the event is Eko Expo Hotels in the Victoria Island of Lagos and I can’t help but mumble Eee! Eeee! By the way in Nigeria whether in Yoruba or Ibo, it doesn’t matter how many times you say Eeee!
The hall, which originally belonged to the Lagos state government, was one of the partners in the event, is a state-of-art-facility with a sitting capacity of 10,000.
The hall was clearly set up to handle such events with a VVIP area, which is bullet-proof overlooking the two stages.
Now, I know why Tanzania was not an option. So I choose to give MTV and Aairtel top dogs, Kevin Twissa and Alex Okosi a break.
Our Diamond Jubilee Hall is such a far cry in comparison to this structure, and I am reliably informed that such structures are many in Naija, which makes me coil my tail like a beaten dog.

The performances
On arrival VIP guests were treated to different tribes of cocktails plus a picture opportunity on the red carpet.
This is where those with a sharp and tasty dress sense either got it or missed it completely. But believe you me; it was a spectacle to behold as every fashion house in Lagos was represented.
The women some went for the paisley getups, the hugging minis was dominant and some chose to go grand on the evening gowns.

As for the men it was the usual, an Agbada here, a formal suit there and some just kept it casual with the jeans and there after it was drinks galore.
The opening performance was an explosive affair by Hip Hop heavyweight Rick Ross, and closed with an unforgettable rendition of “Win” featuring T . There were also an array of electrifying collaborations between artistes from different parts of the continent, mixing up music genres, language and cultures in an unprecedented extravaganza of African talent.

Among the collaborations were Nigeria’s 2Face, who hooked up with South African rock outfit The Parlotones.
Nigeria’s Banky W’s ‘Lagos Party’ brought together South Africa’s Big Nuz, Angola’s Cabo Snoop and Paul G and DRC’s Barbara Kanam rocking the house with the first ever truly pan-African version of the hit track.
Our man, Diamond, was overshadowed when he came on stage to perform with Kenyan outfit P-Unit.
Now this, I think wasn’t justice to the budding Bongo Flava artiste because this was his moment of glory, a perfect timing to sell ‘Mbagala’ to the rest of Africa.

However, even as the performances and the show stopping antics of the evening’s hostess American rapper, Eve, were great, power fluctuations was a problem that the organisers had to contend with at certain points affecting the lighting and the sound system. And we thought only Tanesco, gives us such rare treats! Clearly, power outages are an African specialty!

The presentations
These awards always serve as a learning platform for those that are either yet to win or organise and event of that magnitude.
Kudos should go to the props on how they quickly cleared the stage after every performance since very artiste had a preferred set of equipment.
The quickness with which the artiste acted to come to stage was something that showed great organisation, however, the old pet peeve of lack of a speech was there to haunt them as most didn’t have quality lines to give the audience.

The after party
They say that there ‘aint no Party like one thrown in Lagos’ and this event billed up to expectations. The after party was exclusive and only took in VVIPs, so you had to be the who-is-who to even peep inside.
Chuck D of Public Enemy in the other corner having a chat with Ruff Ryders’ first lady, Eve and even our own Cloud FM ‘s boss Joseph Kusaga, MTV country representative Christine Mosha and Kevin Twissa were all in attendance.
The venue, which was just opposite the Eko Expo Hotel was another celebrity affair as we danced and drunk until the wee hours.

To confess very few party animals slept a wink that night, because those who were not invited ended up in other Night Clubs like the Auto Lounge in Lagos’ upmarket Victoria Islands.
As we look forward to next year’s event, and I boarded the flight back to Dar es Salaam, I was still puzzled as to why P-Square decided to give the event a blank sheet. Of course, I learnt about their God-like image much later

THIS IS LAGOS - WOLE SHOYINKA REACTS

A BBC documentary series set in slum areas of Lagos has been branded "condescending" and "colonialist" by Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate and one of Nigeria's most famous living writers.

Speaking to the Guardian, Professor Soyinka said that Welcome to Lagos, the BBC2 observational documentary which follows various people in poor areas of the city, was "the most tendentious and lopsided programme" he had ever seen.

The series of three programmes, which concludes tomorrow, follows groups of people living in three impoverished areas: a rubbish dump, the Lagos lagoon and the city's beach area. The narration from the black British actor David Harewood overtly praises their resourceful resilience.

Welcome to Lagos has been well received by most UK critics and featured in the In praise of... slot on the Guardian's leader page.

Soyinka, a world respected writer and activist who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986, said the programme displayed "the worst aspects of colonialist and patronising" attitudes to Africa.

The 75-year-old, who splits his time between the US and his home outside Lagos, added: "There was no sense of Lagos as what it is – a modern African state. What we had was jaundiced and extremely patronising. It was saying 'Oh, look at these people who can make a living from the pit of degradation'.

"There was this colonialist idea of the noble savage which motivated the programme. It was patronising and condescending. It surprised me because it came from the BBC which is supposed to have some sort of reputation. It was not worthy of the BBC."

His remarks were echoed by the government of Lagos, one of 36 states in Nigeria's federation. Opeyemi Bamidele, the city's commissioner for information and strategy, has submitted a formal complaint to the BBC calling on the corporation to commission an alternative series to "repair the damage we believe this series has caused to our image".

Soyinka's work includes Death and the King's Horseman, the celebrated 1976 play about colonialist attitudes, and King Baabu, a 2001 satire on African dictatorships.

He has been an outspoken critic of how his own country is run, most notably in 1967 when he was arrested for trying to broker peace during the Nigerian civil war. He has also been an implacable opponent of corruption, was sentenced to death by General Sani Abacha, the Nigerian dictator, in the early 1990s, and has spoken out against the regime of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

Of the BBC series, he said he "did not have any beef with any government" but was speaking as a concerned citizen. "I am talking about Lagos as a place where human beings live and work and which is a place I know intimately," Soyinka added. "It is a pulsing city – in many ways too pulsing for me, which is why I live a little way out of it. But it is such a rich city, and it is deeply frustrating to see it given such a negative and reductionist overview.

"What I saw I found very unjust and sensationalist. What I saw was not an honest reportage. The problem is the title – it programmes the mind of the viewer in advance and sets the overall context.

"One could do a similar programme about London in which you go to a poor council estate and speaking of poverty and knifings. Or you could follow a hobo selling iron on the streets of London. But you wouldn't call it Welcome to London because that would give the viewer the impression that that is all London is about."

Soyinka has close associations with the BBC. He has written many plays for the corporation and recently judged a BBC World Service playwriting competition and recorded a series for the international network about post-apartheid South African writing, to be broadcast in May and June.

He told the Guardian he will continue to work for the BBC and plans to write an essay about the series: "What I think the BBC needs to commission is a remedial series which takes a proper look at Lagos as it is today."

The BBC did not comment directly on Soyinka's comments but sought to defend the programme, which was made by KEO Films, an independent producer.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "Welcome to Lagos explores the impact of the massive rate of global urbanisation in one of the fastest growing mega-cities in the world. Its aim was to give a voice to those living at the sharp end of this ever-expanding population and highlight the resourcefulness, determination and creativity of those adapting to life in this most extreme of urban environments.

"The series has generated a broad range of comment, but it has been well received by both viewers and media commentators, many of whom have specifically highlighted the positive and unstereotypical portrayals within the film