Read Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's piece about Lagos in The Guardian... says Nigerians defending their country's image is "one thing that unites us"

Nigeria's anger at the BBC's Welcome to Lagos film
- by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Once again, the Lion of Africa is upset. This time, with the BBC. From Nobel Laureate to hoi polloi, Nigerians have, over the past many days, roared a range of emotions in reaction to the BBC documentary,Welcome to Lagos, which showed a side of our beloved city that some of us have never seen – real, live Lagosians subsisting on refuse dumps.

"There was this colonialist idea of the noble savage which motivated the programme," Wole Soyinka said about the documentary. "It was patronising and condescending." Dalhatu Tafida, Nigeria's high commissioner to the UK, described the documentary as, "a calculated attempt to bring Nigeria and its hardworking people to international odium and scorn". Facebook pages and blogs have also been ablaze. "They are giving us a bad image," many Nigerians fume. Meanwhile, the Lagos state government 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". Continue reading