Video: Watch Channel 4’s feature on Nigerian Repats + Tell Us Your View on “From Lagos to London”

Tonight, Channel 4, a TV station in the UK aired its latest documentary featuring Nigeria’s super rich. Titled ‘Lagos to London‘, the station turns the spotlight on Nigerians who go to Britain to spend lavishly.

In January,Toke Makinwa was working on the project as well where she brought scoop to that.
In the past Channel 4 has shown documentaries Nigeria focused documentaries. Check out this one on Nigerian Repats as outlined by Inigo Gilmore.

The champagne is flowing at the bustling Fahrenheit rooftop bar with its sweeping views of Victoria Island’s skyline. With glasses clinking young Nigerians returnees from the diaspora jostle to tell of their tales of the opportunities they’ve unearthed since coming home. They call them the repatriates – or more simply the “repats”.

Among the guests at Fahrenheit, a hub for diaspora returnees started by a London-trained Nigerian lawyer and designer, was Kemdy McEarnest who had only moved to Lagos just seven months earlier. He talked exuberantly about how Nigeria was on the up and the range of opportunities he had developed for his own PR business since coming to the country. He said if Nigerians can return in large numbers then the country could really “grow”.

Sitting alongside him was Aisha Shaba. I had earlier met Aisha when I had visited the set of “On the Couch”, a talk show on the Nigerian Spice TV fashion channel. Aisha grew up in Hammersmith in west London and told me it had been a steep learning curve in the hustle and bustle of Nigeria since coming back four years ago after graduating from university.

One of those who has come back and is now at the forefront of trying to change perceptions is Baba Jallah Epega who runs a major communications and events company. He left at the age of 6 and grew up in the UK, but returned to Nigeria two years ago. He moved to Lagos with his wife Helen Isibor-Epega, a highly accomplished composer and musician who performs under the name The Venus Bushfires.

With music thumping out behind us and swirling strobe lights flashing across a mass of guests busting their moves, I came across a TV presenter who had just come back from living in New York and other Nigerians returning from across Europe. Near the red carpet, where TV hosts jostled to interview the celebrity guests including musicians, artists and fashion designers, I met Michael Ugwu, the General Manager of Sony Music West Africa.