24th April 2024
By Adejumo David Adebayo
The Indigenous Yorùbá Population has always resisted calls for Lagos State to become a “Neutral State” administered by the Federal Government of Nigeria, mostly from people of Igbo origin and some allies in the South-South. The most recent call was made on popular social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, by One Dr. D. Udoh.
He wrote: “ Lagos State, by virtue of being a former capital of Nigeria and a commercial city that is cosmopolitan, should be granted a special status that achieves the following:
- Protect the interest & strategic investment of all Nigerians that is domiciled in that state.
- Decouple the state from ethno-religious politics & bigotry that could threaten the strategic position of the state as a melting pot for all Nigerians.
A future president who is completely detribalized and not emotionally biased towards the politics of the state through legislation should sponsor a bill before the National Assembly that seeks to achieve the following:
(a) Completely and formally adopt Lagos State as a commercial capital of Nigeria
(b) Vest the Powers in every elected President to appoint a Minister for Lagos who will preside over the affairs of Lagos State just like the President currently appoints a Minister for the FCT
(c) Some headquarters or departments of federal govt infrastructures and parastatals could be formally moved to Lagos
All these “Lagos Boys” crying under my mention….did I burst a major artery
All the major oil companies in Nigeria are headquarters outside its production areas…and this Govt is already introducing the decentralization of FG offices and headquarters to Lagos
The presidential house in Dodan Barracks & VP residence was already captured in budget for renovations to serve as alternate presidential residence
So why are you crying at a proposal to formally adopt Lagos as one of the nation’s capitals. Multiple capitals aren’t a new concept; some countries have it….
You’ll go under the comment sections & quoted tweets and you will see why my No. 2 point is justified.
- Decouple the state from ethno-religious politics & bigotry “
This ongoing, sinister campaign of columny by avaricious non-Yoruba groups—who consider Lagos State to be their shared wealth and, in reality, want Yorùbá excluded from its affairs—can be seen as a manifestation of hate towards Yorùbá, as well as a deadly kind of envy and desperation to seize what is not really theirs.
Even though Port-Harcout City, Kaduna City, Enugu City, and New Calabar were established and constructed by the British, similar requests and demands have not yet been made in relation to these cities.
Lagos was forcibly taken over by Great Britain in 1851 during the War of Conquest (Ahoyaya), but the colonists maintained recognition of Lagos’ native rulers, customs, culture, and laws.
When the British conquered Lagos City and made it a colony in the 19th century, it was already known as African Liverpool and engaged in trade and commerce with the Portuguese, English, and other nations starting in 1492 AD.
Thus, it was from Lagos that the colonisation of what would eventually become Nigeria began.
Although the likelihood of these critics’ bad wishes coming true is remote, it is nonetheless outrageous to make such a demand or call.
The following is a partial transcript of the late sage Obafemi Awolowo’s address given at the 1953 Lagos Conference: This is the same thing that was happening approximately seven decades prior to Nigeria’s independence:
” The comparative dazzling beauty of Lagos with its enlightened, civilized and independent – minded inhabitants is bound to excite the jealousy of people who have nothing to show in their territory to match the pre-eminence of Lagos.
A Group cannot exercise any authority or make any claims outside of its country of origin if its “Charity doesn’t begin at home.”
The infertile five South-East states that make up the geopolitical zone, whose landmass is the same as that of Òyó State, are like a little dot in a circle. They should be like Spain, especially since they have a large population—Igbo people are considered to be one of the three majority ethnic groups—five state governors, and federal allocations for each of their five states.
A people whose history in Lagos and the wider South-West dates back less than a century cannot rightfully claim to be the architects of any civilised state.
