Category: Travels on Saturday

THE old secretariat along the Inner Marina, Lagos Island, was used by all the colonial governor-generals of Nigeria and was the seat of government in 1960 when the nation got her independence. But it is rather funny that except one is told, there is nothing in the secretariat that points to this. Okorie Uguru writes on the state of the building and calls on the relevant authorities to focus on such heritage, even as the nation marks her centenary celebration.

Nigeria is marking her centenary anniversary this year. From plans unfolded by the Federal Government, the country is rolling out the drums in celebration. While billions have been raised to celebrate the centenary anniversary, some of the landmark buildings where the history of the country was shaped are in a terrible condition. One of these buildings, the old secretariat where the colonial administrators governed the country up till independence, is not properly being taken care of and may soon be lost permanently if urgent attention is not given to it.

The building was said to be been used by Lord Lugard while directing the affairs of the Nigerian colony. It was completed in 1895. It is 119 years old. On a recent visit to the old secretariat on Marina, it is easy for one to think everything was okay with the building. The U-shaped building look well kept and tidy with a fading white paint that is turning pink. However, a close inspection of the property from the back of the building shows a building that is rotting away and in urgent need of repairs. There is a twin domes pitching on top of the building painted in green with a lightening arrestor on top of the domes. One of the lightening arrestor is bent.

So, why has such an importance legacy of Nigeria’s history been left to be rotting away? The usual refrain was money. Environmentalist Desmond Makekodunmi of the Legacy Foundation talked about how his foundation’s efforts to rehabilitate the building as they have done with some old properties had been fruitless as the government is not ready to march their words with action. He spoke on the old secretariat: “ Legacy with the inspiration and direction of its founder, Professor John Godwin (MBE), several years back, had approached the National Commission of Museums and Monument (NCMM) about partnering with them to restore the First Secretariat in the Marina where Lord Lugard had had his office and up till today, his desk is still there. It is a grand building; we did an assessment on it and saw that the building is still very solid. We saw that there was some deterioration. Right now, the occupants are staff of a branch of the Ministry of Justice. So, the museum directorship said they were interested, that they were keen, that we should work with them. We also approached the Goethe Institute. The institute was very keen. They said they would love to partner with some other agencies in Nigeria and possibly even have their headquarters there. The institute was very keen at that time. There was quite a lot of impetus, we had meetings and everybody was expressing keenness, but unfortunately as we speak, nothing has come out of that apart from Goethe Institute now being able to use what was the old printing press for different functions. Nothing has come out of that. we are getting quite concerned in Legacy now. This is iactually a very significant building. Whether we agree with it or not, no country will be happy to know that there was an occupation in its history, but it is a fact and a reality of history. Till today, you can go to Britain and see ancient Roman relics which are kept in perfect condition. Nobody in Britain was happy that in those days Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire, but it is a fact of their history and the names of the people that came there are part of their history. The name of the colonialists that came here are also part of our history. Lord Lugard, whether we like it or not, was the one who actually called our name Nigeria. So, this is where he was running his administrative headquarters from and right up until independence, Nigeria’s administrative headquarters was run from that building. At independence, it now changed and we have our different building. So, it is part of our history and it deserves to be preserved. Not only because of that, if you look at that from environmental perspective, it is a low energy consumption building because of the way it was designed. Those days they did not have air conditioner, so they design their buildings in the tropics in such a way as to deal with the heat So, you have very sloppy roof, very wide verandah, a lot of windows, the building is angled in the right way to catch the breeze, and so many things. These days we are now beginning to thing green more and more, people have started looking at that type of architecture again. This is an architecture that blends in. very well with our environment and doesn’t require air conditioner all over the place to keep it cool. So, for various reasons that building deserves to be protected, that building should be protected and right now it is not being protected. As I said there is an occupant there which is a branch of the ministry of Justice, unfortunately they are just doing a little bit of cosmetic work on the building and not nearly enough.”

Asked if proper maintenance that would protect the integrity of the building is being carried out by the current occupiers, Majekodunmi said: “It is just the basic patching the roof if it is leaking, replacing a rotten floor board, it is not really preserving the integrity of the building. If you look at it right now, if you look at the top towers, two round green domes, one of the them has weather vein on it, and that weather vein is leaning more and more and there is going to be a certain angle that the weather vein would lean and if there was a big storm, it could just come crashing down and collapse and cause a lot of damage. It is a very sad testimony for all of us.”

However, speaking on the current state of the building, the director general of the national Commision for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Mallam Yusuf Abdallah Usman said even though Nigerian is currently marking its centenary, there was no budgetary provision made for the celebration. He said restoring and maintaining old buildings such as the Olaiya House, the old secretariat and the such places is something requires a concerted efforts by all the tiers of the government and also the host communities. He said the old secretariat has not been completely neglected both that his parastatal was carrying out the maintenance of the structure based on the fund available.

Abdallah said for other old buildings such the Olaiya House, NCMM was seeking a collaboration with the state, the council area, the host community, the family and corporate wall to restore them. He said arrangements have all been completed and that NCMM in collaboration with the Lagos State government would agree on a date for the launching of the rehabilitation work on the place and others.”

While the it might be difficult for the NCMM to commit all or a huge its budgetary allocation in one place seeing that its monuments scattered all over the country, it is also very important that by virtue of the significant role that the building played in the history of Nigeria, it should not be lost to posterity hence the need for it to be restored.

Many hope that a little of the money being raised by the Centenary celebration committee would be channeled towards restoring the old secretariat. Also, a national monument such as the old secretariat has no business being used as an office complex but ought to preserved as a part of the nation’s heritage where colonial artifacts and other relics of colonial rule ought to be kept opened to visitors, foreign and locals, to visit for educational purpose.