Lagos la Vida Loca

fantastic Mariana
Very good pod

Just watched this on sky183 today Jan6th, 2009....Nice job done but could have been nicer had you portrayed not only the BAD and the UGLY, Where hav u put the GOOD,
The package could have portrayed how the wealthy whether with stolen money or inherited wealth live glamorously in the same city we have these slums.
There are areas more beautiful than London in Lagos, my dear.
You simply succeeded in portraying Lagos as a MegaSLUM and not a MegaCITY.
Thanx for showing us wat we re used to seeing of the developing world anyway.
Next time you do the PART 2 of your clip, KINDLY expose how some few live in opulence at the expense of these poor masses. Thx

This is a crazy place. I've been to the slums in Chicago and Denver and New York and they are paradise compared to this city. The sanitation is a disaster. There is no structure, law enforcement, and no real jobs it seems like. Its absolute caos. I would love to go to this place just to truely apprieicate the structure of a completly unstructured city. Whats worse is that that city represents an economic oppurtunity and better housing for almost all of the people there. Thats something thats more mind opening then they craziness of the city. For even though it was crazy most of those people are living better lives in that city (on floating houses surronded by garabage) then they ever would have out in the country.

Lagos is an amazing mixture of poor/rich, tribal groups, and religions. It has outgrown the available infrastructure and will do so for many years. As a white man living here for 3 years I have developed a great deal of respect for the determination of the people to succeed. Schools here are private so parents must scrape and save to allow their children an opportunity for an education. It breaks my heart to see the small children brother/sister, in green and yellow uniforms, holding hands to catch a ride to school. Then realizing that even with an education the job opportunities are limited. The majority of Nigerians are god fearing, warm, intelligent, family oriented people. This is sometimes forgotten in the bad press focused on the minority of bad eggs.

wow what an amazing place.so many different characters and trates.

The saying goes "ignorance is bliss" people are not exposed the good that those occurs in Nigeria, i understand your frustration such stupid questions and remarks ; as well as this, I am not making any comparisions with Nigeria to any other develop countries .In relation to the corrupt leaders , yes it is evident that they do hamper Nigeria's development - there is no one singular reason for Nigeria's current disposition.

Emu3 the reason she is held back is corrupt leaders - that much is clear. But "cousin" Nigeria is simply 47 years old. I don't expect Nigeria to be the same as other developed country who have over 200 years of experience under their belts.

I'm sick of the bad press. I thought Current was supposed to be a different kind of media. The bad press is everywhere... Nigerians are either seen as scam artists, or dirty people. Someone made a comment on this page referring to Lagos as a "Megaslum". More people seeing and hearing things like this about Lagos is the reason why people in America still ask me utterly naive questions like if we live in huts or houses...

Nigeria is the cousin everyone has, the person who always had the potential to be great but for some reason is held back.

NIGERIA IS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY, AND LAGOS IS A DEVELOPING CITY! GET WITH IT!

Ashna, I'm glad you said you went there to see the slums, so that is exactly what you saw. But I lived in Lagos all my life. Saying that one short sequence of clips of the nasty neighborhoods is an accurate representation of the entire city is wrong.
It would be the same as me taking out a camera filming at Inglewood or Stony Island in Southside Chicago and call that an accurate representation of the entire city of Chicago.

This "pod" does not "capture Lagos" best.

I was born and raised in Lagos, and I have a serious issue with the way you portrayed it. You claim you went to see Lagos, but you only went to the areas that would prove your point. Your coverage of my beloved, albeit tough and crazy city, is absolutely biased. You didn't see Lagos, you only saw the outskirts of Lagos.

I don't know how you can say that you saw Lagos when I know for a fact that you stuck to only a handful of neighborhoods, and the crappy ones at that. Of course the outskirts are going to look like that... we are a developing country, and we are changing. It's a gradual process. We are cleaning up our place, we are making changes... go back and see Lagos and this time don't just ask some travel guide to show you the nastiest neighborhoods... also take a look at the places that are improving.

People say that "Rome was not built in a day" well Nigeria, and Lagos in particular, is going to take a bit of work. But we are Lagosians and we are up to the task... we can survive anything. Please, if you return to my city, look for intelligent people to guide you through it, and speak to a wider range of people. Take your time to do the research. Go see Tafawa Balewa Square or Broad Street or the Aguda area... they tell a different story of Lagos.

Also go see the University of Lagos and speak to the students there... you want to know Lagos, the young people who are studying and struggling to make something of themselves are the people to ask because we are the ones who want to make it different... we are the ones who want to make it the best city.

I just hope people will open their eyes and realise lagos=nigeria is a time bomb ticking ...

beautiful video, congratulation Marianne,
the discovery of this form of vigilance was a illumination
thanks

Marian van Zeller is an incredible journalist as this last clip shows. In my opinion, she certainly wasn't pushing any kind of propaganda or trying to make Nigeria look bad. She's a journalist and journalists follow problems to expose them.

If she were making a clip about San Francisco, she probably would have shown dark dirty things about it but this clip happens to be about Lagos. She's not targeting anybody.

The story was about the expansion of the city and how the majority of that expansion is taking place in slum areas. It wasn't about the rich beautiful areas of the city that some of you referenced. And that's the reason why those areas weren't in the clip.

this is an interesting look at the effects of rural migration to cities for work and opportunities. I just watched another pod about Nigeria's human rights violations...
http://current.com/items/77595831_sentenced_to_stoning
strange indeed...

I know the comment wasn't meant to be mean, but the idea that civilization should be defined by Western standards is a bit outdated, no?

What a great pod. It stops the idea that Africa is just one giant "third-world country" but that there is civilization there that can function on its own.

Awesome work. Yes Lagos has a number of great neighbourhoods as well so fair comment, although the number of people living there is pretty small in comparison!
It's one of the most vibrant cities I've every seen and you can not judge it through western eyes...it has it's own set of rules!
Did anyone notice that everyone in the pod seemed to be happy and smiling?? Something you don't see much of in any western city these days...maybe that's a different way to cast your judgement on this amazing place that bares testament to humankind's amazing willingness to survive despite the odds. GB, South Africa

does anyone know the first song that comes out? It's really caught my attention as well as the things happening in Lagos.After watching it,it made me want to help them out.... great video!

this was fascinating. i loved it.

pretty impressed with the podcast... I am an American that went to high school in Nigeria. "The Area Boys" part was so true. Good thing she made it out ok... lol

Thank you olusheye, Meniru, omoowa and others. Mariana, the money you paid the man to film - you looked at the camera and called it a "bribe". I pay more than that in bribes...I mean tolls to drive through central London and to get a television license (yes we need a license to watch TV in the UK, equiv: $250/yr!) Lagos is how the US and the UK would be if the government didn't steal wealth from other countries in order to grow and sustain itself.
For another view on Nigeria/US please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf7MifF8-lE

I watched this program today Dec 27th which I believe is a rerun. I mostly disagree with this woman's potrayal of Lagos as a dumping ground showing only the most ragged and harlem of Lagos but not showing the good area. Why not go to Ikeja, Lekki, Osborne, etc.This is no good jornalism at all. I live in America and I see what goes on here but still appreciate it. Are you saying there is no dump or trash places in America? Maybe you have not been to California, New orleans and New York lately. What about the homeless people. Did you see as many homeless people as in America in Nigeria? No. It's like an african jornalist coming to America and showing california ghetto, New orleans and New york halem and stuff. Stop potraying africa badly because thesame thing happens here too.

next time you guys at current tv san fracisco california should extend your coverage of lagos to the good parts of the city. places like lekki, victoria island, ikoyi and ajoa estate were deliberately left out for your propanganda purpose. if you go to san francsico california area of hunters point, bayshore, tenderloin and some parts of bernal heights no one would believe it is not a third world country. no san fransican would leave marina, pacific heights, noe valley, castro, sir francis woods, west portal, north beach out while showcasing their city. please al gore tv, be fair in your coverage of other cities. it does not pay to be unnecessarily biased just to put out an agenda. this nothing good out of africa mentality must stop. where in the world do we have the most homeless population if not in san francisco, california and all the world sees is the golden gate bridge, coit tower, cable cars etc. it is called fairness, period! while this contributor is not disputing that the areas exist but that should not be the only eye through which lagos is seen. lets please keep it real!

While I thank the person that brought this piece to my attention, I beleive that we now have opportunity to respond to this type of negative publicity in like manner.

1. To produce a positive video to counterbalance this negative ones.
2. To go the home city of the producer and show what obtains in our experience of the place.

Is it not surprising that Baba Olode [vigilante + old man], Gateman [young man], cloth seller [young giril] spoke English with no ccent and we could all understand them?

No drugs, no guns, a mask at the dumps?

She moved freely even in the dumps without the fear of harrassment. Will that be possible in the dark places of her city for a black man without fear of the red heads?

that's my city right there! yzr.

I looked up this site because of the oil story you covered only to find this one. I love them both. You seem to have a very good guide through the city because u seem to leave nothing out. I must say "BRAVO". Job well done. I was born and bred in that city and I miss the place.

Fantastic! Never even knew about this place. Some peoples comments are troubling though. I can understand that this place is growing so much that it's infrastructure can not keep up... but... The citizens of Lagos from the slums to the "rich" neighborhood seem to have a vision of what Lagos will become. This alone is very inspiring as people understand their situation and take it upon themselves to provide and arrange for this vision of Lagos which they have. Some people might see chaos, dirtiness, and an unregulated populace... but simple fact is that for a city of 10 million people with limited resources such as Lagos, this is actually quite an impressive feat.

I hope the best for the people of Lagos and hope that through further development and investment in their own communities years down the line those "slums" will become actual neighborhood with representative local governmental councils that will keep working towards improvement of infrastructure and other needed services within their community.

To the person who wrote that they need to stop "breeding." These people might be impoverished by our standards but by no means is their life worse than it probably was before... If it were then they would most definetly would not be coming to Lagos for a chance to advance and better their lives. Maybe you should stop breeding... One less of you (ignorance, doubt)... One more of them (optimism, hope)... Power to the people.

As a Nigerian watching this pod, I saw instead a very honest depiction of the life in a city growing much faster than it can provide for its inhabitants.
The problem is not the breeding. It is the misappropriation of funds made available by the government for public facilities and social infrastructure. These people are managing to survive despite all the odds stacked against them.
I am tickled by those of you that feel terrified by the sights or spooked by the JUJU. The United States has its own images of alarm and filth as well. No country is perfect, some just have better systems than others or better ways of deluding themselves that they are perfect and functional.

TY for covering this. Its been years since Ive 1rst stepped off the airplane there. Its crazy for sure, and ANYTHING goes, not at all what this American girl is used to. Thank God I had my Nigerian husband as my guide. I can tell you truthfully, you will appreciate the USA a bit more. As messed up as the Gov't is there, I would still look fwd to visiting that country again.

This mega city deserves a democrative sweeping change and the only way that can happen is if these Nigerians unite under a common goal and organize leadership. No one holds responsibility there, it's as if anarchism is in effect without the coining of the term. This is a stiflingly sad situation. Instead of Iraq,maybe people should look at Lagos, NIgeria.

i feel so dirty now, i have to go shower and wash the ju ju off.

God help us. Despite the upbeat music I find the whole story terrifying. Somebody please stop the breeding. It is disturbing to see that many impoverished people with no infrastructure to even create a "city". That isn't a megacity, it's a megaslum. I'm sure I'll catch all kinds or heat for saying this...but...

http://current.com/items/86424621_lagos_la_vida_loca