SIR: The article titled: ‘Who owns Lagos’ by Sam Omatseye last Monday 13th April, 2015 is one of the most illuminating and candid opinion ever propounded by a Nigerian intellectual. “Who owns Lagos’ is a reaction to the barrage of complaints and condemnation of the position of Lagos as espoused by their Oba, few days to the last general elections. With a huge dose of ignorance and perverted moral, these people have called the Oba of Lagos all sorts of names and some have promised brimstone at Iga Idunganran.
What are the facts? By action, by inference, by body language, some of our friends who are not indigenes of Lagos now pretend to be co-owners of that geographical space. It is true, some have settled down there in their droves for one or two generations; many are landlords of completed and vast areas of undeveloped property; some have intermarried and speak the ‘Lagos language’ fluently. But do all these attributes connote originality or cultural affinity or ancestral homeland?
We are unnecessarily refusing to accept the realities of the geo-cultural and ethnic diversities that make up the Nigerian nation. That Lagos ‘belongs’ to Lagosians is not a new claim. I first started work in Lagos in 1952 as a Railway Clerk. We were a couple of friends who had just passed out at Christ’s School Ado-Ekiti and took up jobs as Railway Clerks. In our tenement, we were the only strangers tagged ‘Ara Oke,’ that is, people from rural Nigeria. At that time, this was an appropriate term since returnees from Freetown, Brazil and from the Caribbean Islands inhabited most of the Lagos lsland. Many of these people were of Egba extraction whose forefathers were taken forcibly into slavery to work in the plantations of the West Indies.
Civilization and the acceptance of some educated into the public service, starting from the Lagos City Council to national corporate bodies like Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Customs, Railways, etc, necessitated the enlargement of the concept of ‘Lagosian’.
Coming back to the Oba of Lagos’ alleged pronouncement, has the Oba not have right to go back memory lane by digging into the norms, beliefs and opportunities of the past? The Oba probably spoke at a wrong time. He could have saved his breath till after the last general elections during which the configuration of votes cast could be identified. Speaking in typical Yoruba parable, the Oba would not wish any body including ‘strangers’ to go perish in the lagoon. If he said anything at all, it was figurative and could be excused for being hyperbolic.
I am sure some Nigerians would remember, as does Sam Omatseye, the incidence in the Western Region particularly in the early 50’s in Ibadan, when it was alleged that Dr. Azikiwe, an untainted nationalist was denied his majority and hence his premiership position in the Western Region then encompassing the present Lagos State up to Delta State. He quickly went to Enugu and easily got what he wanted from ‘his people’. In the process, he and his people made the indigenes of what is now Cross-River and Rivers States, pay their dues. They were denied certain benefits, which were reserved for others in the then Eastern Region. This was why it was easy for Awolowo to cultivate successfully the elites of the COR areas notably Calabar, Rivers and Ogoja Provinces.
Similarly in the Northern Region where the Hausa/Fulani exercised power, it was easy for Awolowo and his co-travelers in the South to cultivate the people of what is now the Middle Belt who were at that time in a situation of day and night with their rulers.
That Nigeria had survived as a nation can be called modern day miracle. After all, contrary to the position of some people, Lugard was not a romantic but a prophet as his prophesies have resulted in the Nigerian federation staying together. Remember Awolowo’s struggle in the early 50’s during the ‘Gedegbe l’Ekowa’ days. The Nigerian Youth Movement and the struggle for supremacy between Oba Adele and Oba Oyekan;’ one, representing ‘Lagos belongs to the West’ and the other, ‘Gedegbe l’Ekowa’.
Lessons from the above are obvious. The first is that Nigeria is a collection of nationalities who in most part, have different cultural backgrounds. Several attempts have been made to synchronize and harmonize the Nigerian national state. That was why the Itsekiris, aided by Awolowo, refused to accept the little of their Oba to be changed from Olu of Warri to Olu of Itsekir. So also, nobody can reasonably call Obi of Onitsha as Obi of Igbos as no other Nigerian tribe can lay claim to Onisha. And this is why many states had been created with respect to ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
As we struggle to maintain Nigeria’s hegemony, let us try to accommodate each other. Unlike other political space in our continent – Sudan, DR Congo, Angola, etc. we have no option than to continue to tolerate each other and forge ahead as a nation. But in so doing, we must understand, accept and respect each other’s sensitivities. If Lord Lugard was a gambler in forcing together different nationalities with different ethos and culture, let us accept that gamble and stick together.
We would therefore continue to be accorded the leadership of our continent that has been given to us on a platter of gold, so to say. The fact that some members of the opposition whose constituents are mainly non-Lagosians were elected to both the National and State Assemblies from Lagos is a healthy development. But let this positive development flow across the Niger, to the South/Eastern heartland, notably Onitsha, Enugu, Owerri, etc. Meanwhile let us accept the realities and sensitivities of today.
- Deji Fasuan MON, JP,
Ekiti State.