"By 1872 Lagos was a cosmopolitan trading center with a population of over 60,000 people. Colonial Lagos developed into a busy, cosmopolitan port, with an architecture that blended Victorian and Brazilian styles.The Brazilian element was imparted by skilled builders and masons who had returned from Brazil The black elite was composed of English-speaking "Saros" from Sierra Leone and other emancipated slaves who had been repatriated from Brazil and Cuba.
By 1872 the population of the colony was over 60,000, of whom less than 100 were of European origin.
The Portuguese explorer Ruy de Sequeira who visited the area in 1472, named the area around the city Lago de Curamo; the present name is Portuguese for "lakes" but before then, it was known as EKO.
In 1876 imports were valued at £476,813 and exports at £619,260. Telephone links with Britain were established by 1886, and electric street lighting in 1898.
In August 1896, Charles Joseph George and G.W. Neville, both merchants and both unofficial members of the Legislative Council, presented a petition urging construction of the railway terminus on Lagos Island rather than at Ido, and also asking for the railway to be extended to Abeokuta. Lagos history is rich in Yoruba tradition, trade and commerce, infrastructural development and cosmopolitanism." -EXTRACTED
With the little facts above, I would like to educate some illiterates making stupid assumption from blind sentiments that they developed Lagos.
Lagosians had telephone presence in 1886, Itu and Calabar got connected to Telephone in 1923, while between 1946 and 1952, a three-channel line carrier system was commissioned between Lagos and Ibadan and was later extended to Osogbo, Kaduna, Kano, Benin, and Enugu.
Communication technology is a major signifier of civilizations and if Lagosians were already making telephone calls more than 70 years before Igbo citizens, where then did you get the warped idea that you came to develop Lagos?
By 1856 Cable and Wireless Company of the UK had commissioned a submarine cable link between Lagos and London and in 1851 a post office was established in Lagos; all these before the emergence of Nigeria as an amalgamated country. If I may ask again, where did the stupid idea that Igbo developed Lagos come from? Or that Lagos was developed with Nigeria's money when Lagos was not even part of Nigeria until 1914.
I always feel embarrassed anytime I read and hear even so-called educated people from the East making these stupid assertions.
The first Yoruba lawyer Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams was called to the English Bar in 1879 whilst the first Igbo lawyer, Sir Louis Mbanefo, was called to the English bar in 1937.
Again the first Yoruba medical practitioner, Dr. Nathaniel King, graduated in 1875 from the University of Edinburgh whilst the first Igbo medical practitioner, Dr. Akannu Ibiam, graduated from another Scottish University in 1935. Again I ask, where did the ignorant hypothesis of the backward Yoruba race who needed development by the superior Igbo race come from?
For the sake of our generation and posterity, we need to teach factual history and not just cook up some cock and bull ego-centric concoctions as facts. The attitude of recycling long tales steeped in empty arrogance should be discarded before you miseducate your kids with fictions.
Awolowo will continue to be the Yoruba hero not because of blind followership but because he gave his people the system of free education, free healthcare and he introduced Television to the Yoruba; making Yorubaland the first region to have a TV station in Africa, all done with revenues from Cocoa. It is crass ignorance and naked buffonery to claim Lagos was built with Nigeria's money. In addition, where did the foolish idea that the Igbo brought civilization to Lagos and Yoruba-land come from?
The aim of this post is not to deride any tribe but to correct the dangerous misinformation trending among some Igbo youths and common in their narratives that Lagos is a no-man's land and that their fathers built and developed Lagos.
Ancestors of Igbo people came to Yoruba-land like all other settlers and we appreciate their contributions. But the stupid claim that Igbo built and developed Lagos is a gross display of stupidity because Lagos was already developed before Igbo ancestors came here from their villages and towns.
The first storey building in Nigeria was built in Marina, Badagry in 1845, long before some of hinterland people gave up the idea of conical mud houses with thatched roofs which some boastfully called 'ancient mansions.' How can you now claim your grand-sires developed Lagos? Please if you are one of those spreading the fiction, I expect you to desist from self-delusion and collective amnesia forthwith.
The first Igbo alphabet-character set and Igbo primer (Isoama-Ibo) was published by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (a Yoruba man from Osogun) in 1857. How can you now claim superiority over the Yoruba race and even carelessly affirm that your forebears should be thanked for bringing enlightenment to Yoruba Land?
While I do not see all these achievements as a sign of Yoruba superiority over the Igbo or any other tribe, for I do not believe in racial superiority; I will not also tolerate any attempt by bigots who stoke ethnic hatred through incitement and arrogant claims of superiority over others.
The fact that Lagos is owned by the Yoruba cannot be controverted and this is so, notwithstanding the Bini connections with Lagos. The history of the Edo themselves is intrinsically interwoven with the cradle of the Yoruba in Ile Ife. The Olofin, the progenitor of the Awori people in Lagos, also migrated from Ile-Ife.
The perception of everyone in Lagos was lack of differentiation between the indigenes and the non-indigenes. The children of non-indigenes were given the privilege of registering for primary school education along with the indigenes using the surnames of the indigenes living in the same agboole (compound).
There was no social or religious barrier and non-indigenes were given the opportunity to hold political positions. Many of our sisters and aunties got married to non-indigenes without any cause for concern. (Lagos) indigenes were liberal to a fault. The sense of belonging accorded the non-indigenes was unprecedented in the social history of Nigeria, and the differences between social groups, inconsequential. There were informal adoptions of children of indigent non-indigenes by wealthy indigenes and legitimising certain acquired social status by prescription, consequently resulting in the social emancipation of palace aides and servants.
The history of Lagos is not formed without an account of the interface with the Bini, it is not correct to say that Lagos belongs to the Bini. The phrase ‘belongs to’ is antithetical to the actual relationship between the indigenous people of Lagos and the Bini warriors sometime in the 18th Century. From historical account, as summarised by the evidence before the court in Onisiwo v. Attorney General and Amodu Tijani v, the Secretary for Southern Nigeria, the original settlers of Lagos were the Awori, the descendants of Olofin. Olofin had settled around the Iddo area around the 16th century as the first settler. He was later joined there by one Ogunfunminire, a Yoruba prince from Ile-Ife, who had his base in Isheri about 20km from Iddo. From Iddo, they began to establish settlements all over the nearby island of Eko and the mainland of Ebute Metta. Subsequently, Olofin parcelled out the island and part of the adjoining mainland among some 16 subordinate chiefs known as the ‘white-cap chiefs’ in recognition of their dominion over portions parcelled out to them.
The contact with the Bini, which is of great significance to the throne of the Oba of Lagos today, occurred in the 18th Century with the conquest of the Iddo – the first settlement of the Olofin, by the Bini warriors and the appointment of a regent known as the Eleko by the then Oba of Benin as the ruler of the island. The first and successive Elekos became the Oba of Lagos, acknowledging the suzerainty and sovereignty of the Oba of Benin and paying tribute to him until sometime in 1850 when payment of tribute was stopped and the Oba of Lagos asserted his independence.
A more detailed historical account of the Awori’s interface with the Bini is contained in the work of an eminent Lagosian, Chief Musliu Anibaba, titled ‘The Lagosian of the 20th Century’. In the book, the learned author refers to the regent of the Oba of Benin after the Iddo conquest as ‘Ashipa’ who died before he was installed as Oba. He claims that his son, Ado, was subsequently crowned formally as the Oba of Lagos with all the paraphernalia of that office; that Oba Ado established a meeting place on a pepper farm said to belong to Chief Aromire – a white-cap chief, which he donated to the Oba. The meeting place, according to the author, later became the Oba’s palace in Lagos, now known as the Iga Idunganran. Idunganran, according to the author, was formed from Idun (farm) and Iganran (pepper). Oba Ado, according to him, was succeeded by two sons, Oba Gabaro and Oba Akinsemoyin, and a daughter, Erelu Kuti – all of Bini royalty. It is worthy of note that all the Obas who reigned in Lagos, including the late Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, were all descendants of Erelu Kuti of the Bini royalty. Thus, it is therefore established from the historical accounts that I have just given, that while the royalty in Lagos has Edo (the Bini) origin, the white-cap chiefs of Lagos, who are landowners (or landlords of the royal houses of Lagos) are the descendants of Olofin of Awori origin.
If by ‘owning Lagos’ people meant owning the parcels of land forming the territory of Lagos, the answer is yes, Awori owned the Lagos. Again, as I said, since the late 18th Century when the Oba of Lagos stopped paying tribute to the Oba of Benin, the independence of Oba of Lagos from any external control or influence came to an end. However, I should quickly add that the proprietary interests of the Awori have been streamlined and converted to rights of occupancy (popularly known as deemed grants) sequel to the enactment of the Land Use Act in 1978. There is an understanding between the royalty in Lagos and the landowners regarding existing arrangements and there is no argument as to the status. Credence is given to the view that the Awori ‘own land’ in Lagos by the popular protests of the white-cap chiefs following the Treaty of Cession in 1861 under which Oba Dosunmu (the descendant of Ado through Erelu Kuti) purportedly ceded land in Lagos to the British Crown on the grounds that he, Dosunmu, could not have given away what did not belong to him or to the throne, which fact was endorsed by subsequent judicial interpretations of the effect of the Treaty of Cession.
The Bini and the Awori are not the same, although they regard themselves, metaphorically, as kinsmen due to antecedents of history. History has it that between the mid-15th Century and the 18th Century, the Awori landowners, the Bini royalty and their retinues, who initially settled at Iddo, extended their activities to Isale Eko on the Lagos Island. This socialisation process culminated in the proliferation of the use of Edo names or their combination with Awori names adopted as street names, as we know them today. Such names include Idunmoyinbo, Iduntafa, Idunmota, Enu-Owa, Agodokome, etc.
A good account of this is contained in the well-researched work of Chief Musliu Anibaba titled: ‘A Lagosian of the 20th Century’ and my response to your question would be premised on this monumental work. Apart from the early settlement of the Awori and the old Bini dynasty, consequent upon the conquest by the Edo as earlier pointed out, there exist other settlements from where the true indigenes of Lagos can be located. The boost in trading activities with the white men by the mid-19th Century saw the area known as Ehingbeti merging with neighbouring areas such as Ereko, Alakoro and its environs to form the Olowogbowo district of the Lagos Island. The arrival of the freed slaves from Sierra Leone with their acquired skills and enormous wealth contributed to trading activities in and the consequent economic development of Lagos. The Brazilian Quarters of the Popo Agudas, which emerged in the mid-19th Century, was another settlement for the freed slaves of Yoruba origin arriving from Brazil.
These free slaves occupied the area from Tinubu Square to Bamgbose, Campus and Lafiaji and with their imported wealth and skills, they changed the architectural edifice of Popo Aguda and contributed to the economic prosperity of Lagos. The affluent sons and daughters of Isale Eko found a new location in the Oko Faji district of Lagos comprising Agarawu, Aroloya, Isalegangan up to the Okepopo area of Lagos, while the returnees with Oba Kosoko from exile in Epe found another settlement in an area called Epetedo area of Lagos. It is said that apart from the royal families and the ‘landowners’, a true indigene of Lagos should be able to trace his ancestral root to any of the settlements mentioned. To anybody who is in doubt regarding who an indigene of Lagos is, these various settlements offer a useful guide.
It is important to know who the original owners of Lagos are, to obviate the wobbled thinking that Lagos belongs to no one. The account I have given would show not only that the indigenes of Lagos are ascertainable, but is also a pointer to the fact that these indigenes reserve the right to be in the forefront of political, social and economic activities within their domain.
This has been as a result of distorted oral traditional history and, until recently, the dearth of materials on the history of Lagos, conflicting versions of the history of Lagos and deliberate falsification of the facts of history to suit selfish ends. For people, who are mindful of the importance of history in the overall development of the local community, the state or country, there are sources of information in existing works by writers and authentic colonial papers in the archives. For example, I am aware of existing literature on the history of Lagos written by eminent Lagosians such as Chief Musliu Anibaba (Bada of Lagos), Alhaji Lateef Olufemi Okunnu (SAN), and Mr. Olasupo Shasore (SAN), to mention a few. People should purge themselves of abysmal ignorance and create time to read existing literature. Existing literature and authentic colonial papers unequivocally point to the fact that Lagos is not a no-man’s land and that it belongs to certain people who have been identified.
It is sad that in spite of the liberal attitudes of indigenes and the kind gestures of their forebears to non-indigenes, (Lagos) indigenes have since become second-class citizens in their own state. From Ogun State to Borno State, Lagos is the only state in Nigeria where indigenes are not relevant in governance. It is the only state where, in spite of their sound educational background and wealth of experience as professionals, indigenes are marginalised in political appointments and stepped down in the civil service. Appointments are replete with violations of the relevant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the Federal Character Commission Act. Elective positions have become the permanent preserve of non-indigenes who have become permanent political power brokers surreptitiously using the cutting edge of party politics to sideline indigenes and select non-indigenes for election into various political positions. It (Lagos) is the only state where the speaker of the State House of Assembly, the governor of the state and the chief judge are all non-indigenes.
Lagos is the only state where a non-indigene would serve as a legislator from Lagos in the House of Representatives while at the same time joining the governorship race in his true state of origin. Most important of all, it is the only state where a monarch has turned against his subjects and subjected them to odium, contempt and ridicule. What a shame! While I condemn in absolute terms, the atounrinwa (foreigner) syndrome embraced by the governor of Ogun State in excluding non-indigenes from governance, and fervently believe that non-indigenes are our brothers and sisters with whom we have worked together for decades for the progress of our dear state, I cannot but complain about the oppressive attitude of the government of the day and some uncomplimentary remarks of certain non-indigenes about the indigenes and their state.
From many Source
In 1876 imports were valued at £476,813 and exports at £619,260. Telephone links with Britain were established by 1886, and electric street lighting in 1898.
In August 1896, Charles Joseph George and G.W. Neville, both merchants and both unofficial members of the Legislative Council, presented a petition urging construction of the railway terminus on Lagos Island rather than at Ido, and also asking for the railway to be extended to Abeokuta. Lagos history is rich in Yoruba tradition, trade and commerce, infrastructural development and cosmopolitanism." -EXTRACTED
With the little facts above, I would like to educate some illiterates making stupid assumption from blind sentiments that they developed Lagos.
Lagosians had telephone presence in 1886, Itu and Calabar got connected to Telephone in 1923, while between 1946 and 1952, a three-channel line carrier system was commissioned between Lagos and Ibadan and was later extended to Osogbo, Kaduna, Kano, Benin, and Enugu.
Communication technology is a major signifier of civilizations and if Lagosians were already making telephone calls more than 70 years before Igbo citizens, where then did you get the warped idea that you came to develop Lagos?
By 1856 Cable and Wireless Company of the UK had commissioned a submarine cable link between Lagos and London and in 1851 a post office was established in Lagos; all these before the emergence of Nigeria as an amalgamated country. If I may ask again, where did the stupid idea that Igbo developed Lagos come from? Or that Lagos was developed with Nigeria's money when Lagos was not even part of Nigeria until 1914.
I always feel embarrassed anytime I read and hear even so-called educated people from the East making these stupid assertions.
The first Yoruba lawyer Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams was called to the English Bar in 1879 whilst the first Igbo lawyer, Sir Louis Mbanefo, was called to the English bar in 1937.
Again the first Yoruba medical practitioner, Dr. Nathaniel King, graduated in 1875 from the University of Edinburgh whilst the first Igbo medical practitioner, Dr. Akannu Ibiam, graduated from another Scottish University in 1935. Again I ask, where did the ignorant hypothesis of the backward Yoruba race who needed development by the superior Igbo race come from?
For the sake of our generation and posterity, we need to teach factual history and not just cook up some cock and bull ego-centric concoctions as facts. The attitude of recycling long tales steeped in empty arrogance should be discarded before you miseducate your kids with fictions.
Awolowo will continue to be the Yoruba hero not because of blind followership but because he gave his people the system of free education, free healthcare and he introduced Television to the Yoruba; making Yorubaland the first region to have a TV station in Africa, all done with revenues from Cocoa. It is crass ignorance and naked buffonery to claim Lagos was built with Nigeria's money. In addition, where did the foolish idea that the Igbo brought civilization to Lagos and Yoruba-land come from?
The aim of this post is not to deride any tribe but to correct the dangerous misinformation trending among some Igbo youths and common in their narratives that Lagos is a no-man's land and that their fathers built and developed Lagos.
Ancestors of Igbo people came to Yoruba-land like all other settlers and we appreciate their contributions. But the stupid claim that Igbo built and developed Lagos is a gross display of stupidity because Lagos was already developed before Igbo ancestors came here from their villages and towns.
The first storey building in Nigeria was built in Marina, Badagry in 1845, long before some of hinterland people gave up the idea of conical mud houses with thatched roofs which some boastfully called 'ancient mansions.' How can you now claim your grand-sires developed Lagos? Please if you are one of those spreading the fiction, I expect you to desist from self-delusion and collective amnesia forthwith.
The first Igbo alphabet-character set and Igbo primer (Isoama-Ibo) was published by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (a Yoruba man from Osogun) in 1857. How can you now claim superiority over the Yoruba race and even carelessly affirm that your forebears should be thanked for bringing enlightenment to Yoruba Land?
While I do not see all these achievements as a sign of Yoruba superiority over the Igbo or any other tribe, for I do not believe in racial superiority; I will not also tolerate any attempt by bigots who stoke ethnic hatred through incitement and arrogant claims of superiority over others.
The fact that Lagos is owned by the Yoruba cannot be controverted and this is so, notwithstanding the Bini connections with Lagos. The history of the Edo themselves is intrinsically interwoven with the cradle of the Yoruba in Ile Ife. The Olofin, the progenitor of the Awori people in Lagos, also migrated from Ile-Ife.
The perception of everyone in Lagos was lack of differentiation between the indigenes and the non-indigenes. The children of non-indigenes were given the privilege of registering for primary school education along with the indigenes using the surnames of the indigenes living in the same agboole (compound).
There was no social or religious barrier and non-indigenes were given the opportunity to hold political positions. Many of our sisters and aunties got married to non-indigenes without any cause for concern. (Lagos) indigenes were liberal to a fault. The sense of belonging accorded the non-indigenes was unprecedented in the social history of Nigeria, and the differences between social groups, inconsequential. There were informal adoptions of children of indigent non-indigenes by wealthy indigenes and legitimising certain acquired social status by prescription, consequently resulting in the social emancipation of palace aides and servants.
The history of Lagos is not formed without an account of the interface with the Bini, it is not correct to say that Lagos belongs to the Bini. The phrase ‘belongs to’ is antithetical to the actual relationship between the indigenous people of Lagos and the Bini warriors sometime in the 18th Century. From historical account, as summarised by the evidence before the court in Onisiwo v. Attorney General and Amodu Tijani v, the Secretary for Southern Nigeria, the original settlers of Lagos were the Awori, the descendants of Olofin. Olofin had settled around the Iddo area around the 16th century as the first settler. He was later joined there by one Ogunfunminire, a Yoruba prince from Ile-Ife, who had his base in Isheri about 20km from Iddo. From Iddo, they began to establish settlements all over the nearby island of Eko and the mainland of Ebute Metta. Subsequently, Olofin parcelled out the island and part of the adjoining mainland among some 16 subordinate chiefs known as the ‘white-cap chiefs’ in recognition of their dominion over portions parcelled out to them.
The contact with the Bini, which is of great significance to the throne of the Oba of Lagos today, occurred in the 18th Century with the conquest of the Iddo – the first settlement of the Olofin, by the Bini warriors and the appointment of a regent known as the Eleko by the then Oba of Benin as the ruler of the island. The first and successive Elekos became the Oba of Lagos, acknowledging the suzerainty and sovereignty of the Oba of Benin and paying tribute to him until sometime in 1850 when payment of tribute was stopped and the Oba of Lagos asserted his independence.
A more detailed historical account of the Awori’s interface with the Bini is contained in the work of an eminent Lagosian, Chief Musliu Anibaba, titled ‘The Lagosian of the 20th Century’. In the book, the learned author refers to the regent of the Oba of Benin after the Iddo conquest as ‘Ashipa’ who died before he was installed as Oba. He claims that his son, Ado, was subsequently crowned formally as the Oba of Lagos with all the paraphernalia of that office; that Oba Ado established a meeting place on a pepper farm said to belong to Chief Aromire – a white-cap chief, which he donated to the Oba. The meeting place, according to the author, later became the Oba’s palace in Lagos, now known as the Iga Idunganran. Idunganran, according to the author, was formed from Idun (farm) and Iganran (pepper). Oba Ado, according to him, was succeeded by two sons, Oba Gabaro and Oba Akinsemoyin, and a daughter, Erelu Kuti – all of Bini royalty. It is worthy of note that all the Obas who reigned in Lagos, including the late Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, were all descendants of Erelu Kuti of the Bini royalty. Thus, it is therefore established from the historical accounts that I have just given, that while the royalty in Lagos has Edo (the Bini) origin, the white-cap chiefs of Lagos, who are landowners (or landlords of the royal houses of Lagos) are the descendants of Olofin of Awori origin.
If by ‘owning Lagos’ people meant owning the parcels of land forming the territory of Lagos, the answer is yes, Awori owned the Lagos. Again, as I said, since the late 18th Century when the Oba of Lagos stopped paying tribute to the Oba of Benin, the independence of Oba of Lagos from any external control or influence came to an end. However, I should quickly add that the proprietary interests of the Awori have been streamlined and converted to rights of occupancy (popularly known as deemed grants) sequel to the enactment of the Land Use Act in 1978. There is an understanding between the royalty in Lagos and the landowners regarding existing arrangements and there is no argument as to the status. Credence is given to the view that the Awori ‘own land’ in Lagos by the popular protests of the white-cap chiefs following the Treaty of Cession in 1861 under which Oba Dosunmu (the descendant of Ado through Erelu Kuti) purportedly ceded land in Lagos to the British Crown on the grounds that he, Dosunmu, could not have given away what did not belong to him or to the throne, which fact was endorsed by subsequent judicial interpretations of the effect of the Treaty of Cession.
The Bini and the Awori are not the same, although they regard themselves, metaphorically, as kinsmen due to antecedents of history. History has it that between the mid-15th Century and the 18th Century, the Awori landowners, the Bini royalty and their retinues, who initially settled at Iddo, extended their activities to Isale Eko on the Lagos Island. This socialisation process culminated in the proliferation of the use of Edo names or their combination with Awori names adopted as street names, as we know them today. Such names include Idunmoyinbo, Iduntafa, Idunmota, Enu-Owa, Agodokome, etc.
A good account of this is contained in the well-researched work of Chief Musliu Anibaba titled: ‘A Lagosian of the 20th Century’ and my response to your question would be premised on this monumental work. Apart from the early settlement of the Awori and the old Bini dynasty, consequent upon the conquest by the Edo as earlier pointed out, there exist other settlements from where the true indigenes of Lagos can be located. The boost in trading activities with the white men by the mid-19th Century saw the area known as Ehingbeti merging with neighbouring areas such as Ereko, Alakoro and its environs to form the Olowogbowo district of the Lagos Island. The arrival of the freed slaves from Sierra Leone with their acquired skills and enormous wealth contributed to trading activities in and the consequent economic development of Lagos. The Brazilian Quarters of the Popo Agudas, which emerged in the mid-19th Century, was another settlement for the freed slaves of Yoruba origin arriving from Brazil.
These free slaves occupied the area from Tinubu Square to Bamgbose, Campus and Lafiaji and with their imported wealth and skills, they changed the architectural edifice of Popo Aguda and contributed to the economic prosperity of Lagos. The affluent sons and daughters of Isale Eko found a new location in the Oko Faji district of Lagos comprising Agarawu, Aroloya, Isalegangan up to the Okepopo area of Lagos, while the returnees with Oba Kosoko from exile in Epe found another settlement in an area called Epetedo area of Lagos. It is said that apart from the royal families and the ‘landowners’, a true indigene of Lagos should be able to trace his ancestral root to any of the settlements mentioned. To anybody who is in doubt regarding who an indigene of Lagos is, these various settlements offer a useful guide.
It is important to know who the original owners of Lagos are, to obviate the wobbled thinking that Lagos belongs to no one. The account I have given would show not only that the indigenes of Lagos are ascertainable, but is also a pointer to the fact that these indigenes reserve the right to be in the forefront of political, social and economic activities within their domain.
This has been as a result of distorted oral traditional history and, until recently, the dearth of materials on the history of Lagos, conflicting versions of the history of Lagos and deliberate falsification of the facts of history to suit selfish ends. For people, who are mindful of the importance of history in the overall development of the local community, the state or country, there are sources of information in existing works by writers and authentic colonial papers in the archives. For example, I am aware of existing literature on the history of Lagos written by eminent Lagosians such as Chief Musliu Anibaba (Bada of Lagos), Alhaji Lateef Olufemi Okunnu (SAN), and Mr. Olasupo Shasore (SAN), to mention a few. People should purge themselves of abysmal ignorance and create time to read existing literature. Existing literature and authentic colonial papers unequivocally point to the fact that Lagos is not a no-man’s land and that it belongs to certain people who have been identified.
It is sad that in spite of the liberal attitudes of indigenes and the kind gestures of their forebears to non-indigenes, (Lagos) indigenes have since become second-class citizens in their own state. From Ogun State to Borno State, Lagos is the only state in Nigeria where indigenes are not relevant in governance. It is the only state where, in spite of their sound educational background and wealth of experience as professionals, indigenes are marginalised in political appointments and stepped down in the civil service. Appointments are replete with violations of the relevant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the Federal Character Commission Act. Elective positions have become the permanent preserve of non-indigenes who have become permanent political power brokers surreptitiously using the cutting edge of party politics to sideline indigenes and select non-indigenes for election into various political positions. It (Lagos) is the only state where the speaker of the State House of Assembly, the governor of the state and the chief judge are all non-indigenes.
Lagos is the only state where a non-indigene would serve as a legislator from Lagos in the House of Representatives while at the same time joining the governorship race in his true state of origin. Most important of all, it is the only state where a monarch has turned against his subjects and subjected them to odium, contempt and ridicule. What a shame! While I condemn in absolute terms, the atounrinwa (foreigner) syndrome embraced by the governor of Ogun State in excluding non-indigenes from governance, and fervently believe that non-indigenes are our brothers and sisters with whom we have worked together for decades for the progress of our dear state, I cannot but complain about the oppressive attitude of the government of the day and some uncomplimentary remarks of certain non-indigenes about the indigenes and their state.
From many Source
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