Lagos to London: The Super-Rich and Bulletproof Cars

There has been plenty of discussion in the diaspora this week regarding a documentary titled 'Lagos to London' which was aired by channel 4 just over a week ago. The documentary narrated a set of Nigerians who were extremely wealthy, and despite not being permanent residents in London were the third highest consumers in the capital after the Chinese and middle eastern Arabs.

I was elated that channel 4 was showing Britons that Nigerians were not all low-middle income earners. It was completely different from the 'Welcome To Lagos' documentary filmed by the BBC a few years ago which painted an all too narrow view of life in Lagos. Thus, it's no surprise that many of the British Nigerian pupils I teach in lower school were unaware that Nigerians with this much purchasing power even existed. 

I remember when I worked in John Lewis a few years ago, I saw a large number of Nigerians purchase goods valued at over £30,000 so I wasn't too sure about the Toke Makinwa feature. 

In the documentary, I found the comments of Florence Otedola also known as DJ Cuppy quite interesting. An excerpt from an interview with the daily mail reads;

'When she is working in Nigeria she needs to travel with a security team in a bullet proof car due to the risk of robbery and kidnapping.

She said, for this reason, she feels much happier in London, where she has recently moved into her own apartment. She said: 'London is bliss as I can walk down Brompton Road without a worry in the world. In Lagos I can't say "I am going out for two hours", I have to go with people, take security, my dad needs to know where I am. 'None of my other DJ friends need security, it is kind of his fault so he has to pay for it.'

Once I finished watching the documentary I had a mixture of thoughts. The first being Florence needs to be mindful of the things she highlights to the British public due to the incredibly tarnished image we already have. She recognised that 'Nigeria' had a problem with two types of crime in particular but I also feel as though she could have commented on how the problems had been or were being addressed.

If I use myself as an example I have travelled to Lagos quarterly for the last four years and have never made use of a bulletproof vehicle. Safety in Nigeria as a lone female traveller - although carrying an element of risk, I have never been a victim of crime. No one I know personally has been kidnapped, a few were mugged or had been burgled in the past. Although in contrast both of my parent's homes in the UK have also been burgled.  


Although I am not the daughter of a billionaire tycoon, does Cuppy actually need to travel in a bulletproof car? Or does her father make it a safety precaution as standard because he feels there is a significant risk due to the family wealth/social status in Nigerian society? 

The average person watching may interpret her comments as that as 'Wow is Lagos that bad that people must travel around in bullet proof cars' When in reality that is not the case.

I believe there was a time in Lagos when the incidence of burglaries was extremely high. Nigeria as a whole did not have a kidnapping problem. Criminal activity is often localised and the most common location for kidnappings in Nigeria is the Niger Delta States, but that does not mean it does not happen in Lagos state. Furthermore, there are a number of northern states and middle belt areas that would be considered medium-high risk in terms of crime and violence.

I am sure she meant no harm but I feel it's essential that we move forward as a nation and focus on the positive aspects that Nigeria has to offer in the global market, rather than exacerbate the negatives.