Welcome to Lagos

A lot of people who watched this program displayed anger, towards the fact that the BBC zeroed upon what seemed to be the worst of Nigeria. They saw the film as being “offensive, degrading, dehumanizing, patronizing and insulting”. A lot of people were seriously angry that, why show a garbage heap and the slums, when the federal government has spent a huge amount on rebranding and Lagos state government has been spending billions of Naira on improving the very infrastructure that the film has been pointing out . Some people would say that the film brands Nigeria something it is not, but others would say that it brings out the best in Nigerians. However, I am personally surprised that in the program that it is said that slums constitute about 3/4ths of Lagos. Although I have visited, slept in Lagos often, I did not know that. However, it might seem to depend to a large extend on the film producer’s definition of what a slum is. Another thing that makes a lot of people angry or mad is the title "WELCOME TO LAGOS". When we say "Welcome to", one would think that it would show Lagos in an attractive positive light. Maybe the title should have been "HOW POOR LAGOSIANS MANAGE" and this might have given people a bit of a warning on what was to be shown.

I felt relieved from what seemed to be a release from the usual the negative stereotyping of Nigerians as being corrupt, incompetent, lazy, devious, aggressive and cunning. But in this program it seemed Nigerians were seen as being adaptive, hardworking and resourceful. Nigeria was seen as a country where nothing is wasted and everything is seen as an opportunity. People in Lagos were adapting to the urban life of the future. Lagos is considered to be the most rapid growing city in the world. There are said to be about 16 million people living in Lagos and from what is obvious this number is rapidly increasing (about 600,000 annually). However, there are negative parts in the program i.e. the main focus is a rubbish dump, and the adaptive, resourcefulness of the individuals may be due to the fact that they have no choice. 

 

In a country where there is limited social security and if you do not have a job, the state usually is not under any obligation to give you job's seeker's allowance while you are looking for another job. The people have no choice but to scavenge, adapt, beg, hustle, or steal if not they would die.

We followed the story of 28 year old Eric Obuh (Vocal Slender) who works as a "scavenger" at Olusosun Rubbish Dump, Eric also lives during the week at the Dump. Slender is a Singer/Musician who wants to become a Major Recording Artist. As we saw “nothing is wasted and everything is an opportunity”. We saw people who were living in a dump and doing like one of the worst jobs on planet, but full of hope and optimism, full of life and energy. We saw Joseph Orji (a scrapped metal dealer) who had brought up as a slave child because his mother had left his father after an argument, making plans for a better life. Joseph considers himself to be a sort of stock broker and I believe him, he sells various metals and the price is dependent on the price of the dollar. Joseph smiled throughout and the only time when we saw him not smiling was when he was telling us about his depressing childhood and what seemed as rejection by his mother. As Nigerians we know that almost everything in the cow has it's uses, but seeing it been articulated in the film made me see it in a different light. We saw Mohammed Adua 30, a cattle broker (at the Oluwanisola cattle market and slaughter yard) who arrived from Northern Nigeria as a herdsman with only one language now speaks 5 languages and brokers hundreds of thousands Naira deals involving cattle. 

 
  
Gabriel a graduate of an agricultural college, who saw a gap in the market, started processing blood from the cows. About 30 barrels of blood per week to make blood meal for poultry. Although everybody interviewed gave an indication that they were happy in their jobs and saw hope of a better future.

The program called “WELCOME TO LAGOS” is part of a series, and it’s my feeling that this episode seems better as to what the producers have planned next (From the trailers). But I really felt sorry for Slender, it might be naive of him and maybe the full extent of the documentary was not explained to him. As we could saw the pains that he went through to hide the fact that he worked in a rubbish dump, he washed, brought new clothes, manicure his nails, etc . He said "They don’t know I work in the dump, even my friends don’t know that I’m a scavenger. They believe I just do music and I just want to keep it that way. So I’m well regarded when talking with my friends. I’m working hard, so hard to become somebody in the future. So I know, sooner or later God will put a smile on my face and my soul will become joy”. I am thinking is that he was paid for the services rendered and they also set him up on the web. The irony of it is that although he did not want people to know he is a "scavenger", but it is via that by program he has become popular. Popularity whether good or bad has not every done a musician bad but good, leading to increase interest and later increase record sales. Downloads of from his album "Send them come", has increase and his record "Owo Yapa" seems to be number one. I know that he will become "Somebody in future" and "God will put a smile on his face" but whether his "soul will be joy" is up to him.

Although a lot of us from African descent remember colonialism and usually the first stage is filled with similar "good intentions". Stopping slavery, exploration, trading, missionaries with religion, etc then the second stage comes with the signing of treaties’, then the introduction of government. In the end we find that we are serving the interest of our colonial masters. Maybe some of the negativity towards this film may be considered along this route. But the film has a lot of positive aspects and maybe the producers and directors wanted to show that there are positive things in the worst places.