Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Fire in the Delta

Set your VCRs, Sky Pluses, Tivos, etc to record Unreported World: Fire in the Delta, this Friday 10th on Channel 4 at 7.35pm. I've wanted to preview this for a while, but kept forgetting. Basically, Unreported World films what I'm sure even people in Nigeria haven't seen. Matthew McAllester, rides with the Niger Delta rebels, and sups bubbly with the governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili (pictured) - he of Panama hat fame. The Niger Delta is fast becoming one of Nigeria's many elephants in the room. Sure enough it is always in the news, but very few see it as an intractable problem set to continue for years. Most consider it to be just "those crazy people again". It's much worse than "those crazy people again", and more like "millions of those crazy people who will remain crazy, and by virtue of their craziness, disrupt Nigeria's oil supply, and destabilising an already decrepit single fuel economy that relies solely on oil".

Matthew McAllester, who was also in Turkey in the last series, wrote a piece about his trip in Sunday's Observer, while the Times, and Radio Times have it as recommended viewing. The Nigerian government wasn't too pleased with Channel 4 sniffing around the Niger Delta, and might have run out of patience with the channel. Don't expect C4 back in Nigeria anytime soon, which makes this a must-see.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

channel 4 loves nigeria. can i send you an email? i live in europe, but outside the UK, and i would like a copy of this doc. if it's ok by you?

i can explain it all by mail.

Nkem said...

ifejika at gmail dot com

Quest said...

"one of nigeria's many elephants in the room"

I swear you are getting worse by the minute. Call me naive, but this is why I think it so crucial that Duke wins PDP ticket, and then the election. Of all the candidates running, he is the one most likely to actually try to appease this particular elephant.

Nkem said...

Getting worse, how?

Jeremy said...

Hey Nkem. I hope you recorded it. I'll bag a copy next time I'm in Jand..