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There has been a
lot of righteous rage in town over the recent not-too-complimentary BBC
documentary series on Lagos. This is in sharp contrast to the
assortment of appraisals in the print media which have been
paradoxically favourable and, in a few cases quite reverential! Why
would the BBC series, deliberately titled “Welcome to Lagos”, cause so
much divergence in its evaluation by Nigerians since the first part,
which featured life on the Ojota dump-site, was broadcast worldwide on
April 15, 2010?

The answer, simply
put, is that while some critics believe that in the spirit of
international media freedom all is fair game, others (and there is
division in this camp) believe that the BBC is not the proper judge to
assess what face/s of Lagos that are representative of the city’s march
towards mega-city status. The ongoing debate is certainly instructive
on how we see ourselves through other people’s eyes.

Double speak

For me, the problem
I have with most of the comments on the series – and I admit up-front
that I have not watched any of the three documentaries – is wthe
element of double-speak in most of the commentary. Bayo Olupohunda,
writing about ‘BBC’s Worrisome Images’ in the Sunday Guardian of April
25, mentions that the documentary focuses “on the humanity,
resourcefulness and compassion of the people who live and work in some
of the roughest parts of town”; going further to tell the reader that,
“their tales build a compelling portrait of a city brimming with
entrepreneurial flair, resilience, tough-mindedness and hope.” Gosh! I
am sure Will Anderson, producer of the series, will gladly give an arm
and a leg to match or put a more stunning human-angle spin than what
Olupohunda has given him for free! Olupohunda’s take, confirms that it
was a mind like his, who as minder/fixer for the BBC crew, did the
splendid job of discovering these ‘right’ locations in Lagos that
justify the intentions of the BBC producer to show the universal
struggle and faith in survival against all odds.

Elementary diplomacy

He further informs
that the federal government through Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the
UK, Dalhatu Tafida, “in a strongly worded letter to BBC2 called the
documentary sinister”, adding that “slums and ghettos were a global
phenomenon and, even in London it is not uncommon to see people (not
Nigerians) scavenge dustbins in search of food and other valuables.”
Well reasoned, I thought; until I read Ako Amadi’s bizarre attempt to
teach Tafida elementary diplomacy; by writing the obvious in his NEXT
newspaper column that the British Government does not control the BBC.
Surely, our High Commissioner has every right to register his
discontent even when we don’t seem to have the diplomatic balls to tell
both the British High Commissioner and the American Ambassador to stop
meddling in so many aspects of our lives and telling our institutions
how to run Nigeria.

The Guardian’s
editorial fizzled into a tame admission that the BBC is one of the
world’s most respected media organisations and is independent of the
British government. It would seem that our Nigerian commentators are
avoiding the reality that we are now in an era of cultural cynicism
occasioned by deliberately contrived attempts to muddle the age-old
complaint about the unfairness and unevenness of the North-South
information flow. There are Catch-22 situations as well as racial and
social considerations involved.

The West is still
primarily interested in ‘exotic’ images of Africa in particular.
Achebe’s anger against Conrad in the theatre of words is necessary in
today’s theatre of images. The more ‘exotic’ and outrageous the images
of Africa are, the more they are accepted as brilliant visual
investigations; and this is what drives the present generation of
Western documentary filmmakers in their bid to make ‘a name’.

‘Expensive Shit’

How many people now
remember footages of a row of people defecating, in broad daylight,
into the lagoon along the Lagos Marina. This was part of a French
documentary film on Fela. Well, Fela had made a hit album, Expensive
Shit. Then there was a huge mural of life in Lagos by Ghariokwu Lemi at
the old Alliance Francaise, graphically showing the Lagos go-slow as
well as people shitting into the lagoon. Years later, Fela’s son Seun
has a number ‘Don’t Give Me That Shit’ on his CD. So, do we hang the
French filmmaker?

Now, who are the
co-conspirators in our midst; the minders/fixers who will go out of
their way to scout for the weirdest and ‘baddest’ locations and scenes
to please these foreign filmmakers? For a start, union regulations make
it virtually impossible for a Nigerian film crew to shoot in, say,
London and Paris. If it were possible, will there be English or French
minders/fixers who will willingly take Nigerian film crews to the most
distasteful underbellies of these ‘great’ beautiful cities?

From experience, I
know that when the Nigerian social/business/political elite as well as
the so-called lower classes encounter an ‘oyibo’ journalist or film
crew, they immediately, without much prompting, start suffering from
the diarrhoea of the mouth! What about our feared ‘area boys’; will
they dare attack, seize the equipment and demand money from a ‘white’
film crew in their slum neighbourhoods? Maybe that is why Anderson,
tongue-in-cheek, was surprised by the siren-blowing armed guards that
escorted his crew on arrival from the airport to their hotel.

How come we no
longer have Nigerian-made documentary programmes on our numerous TV
stations? Our TV journalists are only interested in celebrity
politicians and socialites. Will they go to the slums to document the
lives and voices of people there? They will claim that, to protect
their jobs, they dare not air any scenes and voices that are contrary
to the wonderful development programmes of our dear governors and
governments nationwide.

The boisterous talk in town is about ‘revenge images.’ We must go to
England and shoot their slums and show them on our TV stations! Bayo
Olupohunda accompanied his ‘Mega City: Challenging the Stereotypes’
article in the Sunday Guardian of May 2, 2010, with photographs of
slums in Lisbon, India and Ajegunle – to make the point that slums
exist in the West and Asia as well. But then, deliberate desolate
images from Africa serve another purpose; that of a reminder to
residents of the West to make them understand the utter desperation of
Africans; why the African elite will steal national money to buy
mansions in the West and why millions of Africans will do anything to
escape to the paradise they have visually created in the West.