Lagos — Since its inception the University of Ibadan Zoological Garden has been celebrated as the country's most famous and most important zoo. However, Adeyeye Joseph, after a visit to the zoo, writes that Nigeria's premier zoo is losing both its shine and luster.

In African lore several myths are woven around the lion. The lion is the king of the jungle, strong, feared, fearless and forever feasting on the choicest of animals. But at Nigeria's most famous but gradually dying zoo, the University of Ibadan Zoological Garden, the lion, though a major attraction, is anything but imperial. He is a scrawny, pitiable creature that, in the word of a 'sympathiser', has almost been tamed by hunger.

"Our lions are not well fed,"a worker at the Zoo admitted haltingly, after much persuasion. "Ordinarily the lions can feed on half a cow at a sitting. In their natural habitat they can feed once and then sleep for nineteen hours,"he said. This afternoon, the lions of UI had just finished their once-in-two-days meal: six little goats. The UI lions are a pride of four; a male, a female and two offspring. The enclosure in which they live takes up a corner of the zoo and it is the size of a mini football field. This enclosure is bounded by tall strips of tough wire mesh that keeps both the lions and would be intruders at bay. This enclosure has trees (most of them dry and leafless as at the time of this visit) and it is so structured that the lions could roam, climb trees and bathe in the sun. "The father feeds on two goats, the mother feeds on another two, the first issue feeds on one while the last issue feeds on half a goat. They kill the goat for the last issue even though it can feed itself," the Zoo hand said. Technically, the Zoo is a department under the University's Department of Zoology and it is ran by a Director who is also a staff of the University. It is the director and a complement of veterinary doctors, zoologists, other animal experts, administrative officers, Zoo staff, casual workers and students on industrial attachment that run the zoo. At the UI Zoo fear is an overriding emotion, but this fear is not for the lions or any of the animals. It is the type common in bureaucratic environment; the fear that one may lose one's job if he talks to journalists. "My Oga must not see me talking to you and you cannot use my name," a worker said. The workers are afraid that they may lose their jobs if they talk too much, yet the love they have for the animals could not make them look the other way while these creatures suffer. "The goats giving to the animals are too small," a worker said to me, his voice, barely above a whisper. We are sitting beside a beautifully feathered parrot that watched while the worker vent his frustration. Oludele Aina, a motivational speaker who graduated from the University of Ibadan in the early nineties is as angry as any of the concerned workers at the UI Zoo. He remembered the Zoo as a place of pride. He went back to Ibadan for his honeymoon in 2003 and as soon as he and his wife hit the town one of the first places they visited in the ancient city was the zoo. It was on that visit that he first observed that all was not well with the Zoo. Earlier this month, Aina paid another visit to the Zoo, this time in the company of his nephews and nieces. "We just wanted a place where we could while away the time and show the children Gorillas and Baboons. Immediately we entered the zoo we saw a monkey feeding on its own faeces and that was highly unsettling, highly nauseating. Virtually all the cages that had food in them had cooked beans. It was beans they gave to the tortoise, the monkeys and I think the Gorillas.

"We saw notices saying, "Don't feed the animals". But we fed some of them. We fed the hyenas with wafers. You should have seen the way they struggle among themselves for the wafers and these were canivores. Yet they fed on wafers," he said. The visit, Aina said, left him and other members of his ten-man party highly disturbed. "I schooled in UI and I was unhappy because the UI Zoo is supposed to be one of the few recreation or tourist centers in Ibadan. One would have thought that a place like that would be well looked after,"he said. Founded in 1948, University of Ibadan prides itself as Nigeria's first university. But that unique position has not exempted it from any of the problems that have since become the lot of the Nigerian University system: deteriorating infrastructure, incessant crises and a stifling bureaucracy. The Zoo looks like one of the hardest hit sections of the university. Its buildings are old, its staff (particularly the lower level staff) grumbles and some of the cages that served as home for its country-wide famous animals are empty.

"A lot of animals have died and more cages are empty presently than they were in 1991. The animals are in worse shape compared to the animals I saw in 1991. There was no significant improvement, if there was any change at all it was a change for the worse, deterioration. The entrance was more or less the same except for the paint coating,"Aina said. Some Zoo staffers, however, disagreed with Aina when asked about the empty cages. "No. No. Our animals are not dying," a Zoo hand clad in blue Khaki trousers with matching tops said. "We just keep transferring them from one cage to another," he said as we passed two empty enclosures that used to be homes to a Crane and a dwarf crocodile.

Lamboy Chukwuemeka is a teacher at Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He was in Ibadan for a workshop on continuing education and having heard so much about the Zoo he decided to pay a visit in the company of some friends. His visit to the Zoo, he said, made him aware of the fact that the Zoo, which he called, "an important national heritage" is almost dying. I came because I heard that the UI Zoo is the best in the country and had decided to see important places in Ibadan," Chukwuemeka said. Chukwuemeka said his visit had been worthwhile even though his expectations were not met. He implored those in charge of the Zoo and the government to save the Zoo.

"For the sake of the learning of our children and their enlightenment this place should be preserved. Outside, these animals are being killed and they are almost getting extinct. Most of our forests are depleted. But if this is maintained our children would learn from what they see here." Chukwuemeka, a middle aged man buttressed his appeal with a personal story.

"As old as I am this is my first time of seeing the bush dog called Nkita Ohia in Igbo. It is a subject of stories and proverbs but I have never seen it before," he said.

Despite the sorry pass visitors claim the zoo and its animals have fallen into they nevertheless say that the Ibadan Zoo is a fascinating place. "The motherly instincts of some animals are even sharper than those of men," a Zoo hand who showed me around said as we stood by a cage of monkeys. His voice was almost drowned by the noise and revelry of a group of school children that was on a group tour. They were screaming and playing with delight. "Look at that monkey as soon as it notices that you are staring at her baby for too long she would take it away." And that was exactly what the monkey did. One group of animals that seem to live a fuller life than all the other animals in the Zoo are the monkeys. They look well fed. The Zoo hand said they are fed twice a day. A tired and lonely looking gorilla is another special attraction at the Zoo. Her enclosure is close to an almond tree but a small fence, an electric ring and a small pond keep the Gorilla in captive and ensure that it stays within its borders. The Gorilla kept looking at the almond tree with longing until a lady walked up to the cage with a handful of almonds. She made catcalls at the Gorilla and began throwing the almond fruits in its direction. The Gorilla grabbed an almond and settled down to feast on it

In its hey days the Zoo's major attractions out of the tens of animals it procured from all parts of the world were an elephant, a python and a gorilla. But they are all gone and the zoo is yet to get a replacement. "The elephant and the Gorilla died a long time ago but I can't say this is what killed them," my guide said. As we walked round the Zoo my guide ran a commentary on the various animals. "That's the wild dog or bush dog, we feed them once every two days. That's our horse, it's big and that's the baby horse, which is two months old." We walked to the lion enclosure. The lions sat, lazily, basking in the sun. "Lions are regal creatures they don't struggle for food. They feed four times a week. One lion is a month old. Another is thirteen years old, that is the female called Aisha while the male is called Bumpa. The female is from Kano while the male is from Kenya. There are ten hyenas when you give them food they fight. We give them goats, which we kill before giving them.

"That's a wild pig or Red River Hog, it is still small but when they grow big they can kill human beings. They move in groups and they are very mean. When they see a man they go for his kneecaps. Even if you climb a tree they can even bring it down." He points at a bird, whose body is a rainbow of beautifully blended colours.

"That's the Common Peafowl. It is not from here (Nigeria) it's from India and Sri Lanka that is why people in that part of the world dress colourfully. That's the Crown Crane bird. It is found in Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi.

"Our crocodiles? They eat flies. We give them dead fish and meat and when we kill goats we give them the intestines." Guiding visitors round the zoo and providing them with bits of information about its animals are the ways workers here augment their incomes. "We don't charge people money. What we do is that we go up to them as soon as they come in and when they are leaving whatever they give to us we take," a worker said. Being the ones who deal directly with visitors these workers are also, often at the receiving end of their complaints. Most of the visitors, I learnt, usually complain about the animals' fare and the lack of varieties. Aina remembered seeing many of the visitors complaining to the Zoo workers about the food given to the animals. "The sentiments I have shared with you were general. People were saying, "These animals are not being properly fed, look at the way they are. We had to call the attention of the attendants and other people also came around to ask these questions, why are you not feeding these animals well. The guy said they feed them thrice but I moved on. I knew he would try to defend the authorities," he said.

Getting information from officials of the Zoo proved to be a difficult and futile task. As the photographer and I walked towards the office of the Director of the Zoo we passed the 'graveyard' of the animals, which gave the zoo its fame and renown. The graveyard is a small room where the embalmed remains of dead animals are kept. The office of the Director is only a few metres away from the 'graveyard'. The director's lair starts from a neat, well-appointed anteroom that serves as the office of the director's secretary. The door to the director's office was half-open and I caught glimpses of a matronly looking woman. "Yes. I am sorry the Director cannot attend to you now she's very busy."

"Madam please am from Lagos and we would have to return today," I said, loudly hoping that the director would hear my voice.

"I am sorry she's too busy."

"Okay how about a questionnaire " The secretary went inside and returned later, "In fact Madam is going out now " as she spoke Madam walked out and ignored me and the elderly photographer. Few minutes later she walked in again briskly, barely mumbling a reply to our greetings. After much persuasion the secretary went in and came back to tell us that Madam would not attend to us. I then requested for her email so I could send my questions to her. She gave me an email address. (The email address, according to Yahoo when I later sent an email, does not exist.)

When visitors take the officials to task about the run down state of the zoo these officials often claim that funding is the biggest headache that the Zoo contends with. "It is because of funding not that people do not visit but the money used to take care of the animals is much. Lions feed on goats and hyenas feed on goats (and goats are expensive)," a worker said. But the goats I saw being fed to the lions were small and sometimes scrawny. Another worker complained that inadequate funding does not only affect animals it also takes a toll on workers.

"The staff members are not well paid. Most of them complain a lot and that is one thing killing the zoo. If they are not well paid they can't take care of the animals very well."

At the entrance to the zoo, a notice soliciting for donations is pasted on the wall while visitors to the Zoo are requested to pay N100 each as gate fee. Those with cameras are requested to pay an additional N50 else their cameras are confiscated.

Being a popular resort for dwellers and visitors to Ibadan, the Zoo, according to a source makes not less than N30,000 daily. On festive periods the zoo is said to make much more. "We make good money particularly during the festive period. On a particular day we made N187,000 and on another N81,000. We are still very popular so we make a lot of money," a worker said." Unfortunately, the refusal of the Director to answer any sort of question prevented one from finding out if the daily proceeds, which at N30,000 comes to an estimated one million Naira per month is ever enough to take care of the animals.

Some of the visitor are, however, canvassing that the zoo should be more proactive in its search for funds if only to ensure that an important national heritage does not die. "The zoo to the best of my knowledge is under trhe department of Zoology. I think the department should take the Zoo more seriously than it is doing presently. If need be funds should be raised. So that the animals would be adequately taken care of. If the university authorities consider it so much of a burden they should consider inviting people that ought to be interested in buying the zoo or taking over its management," Aina said.

Chukwuemeka wants the zoo to be properly funded. "I would say the zoo is not being properly funded. It is very obvious that the animals are grossly underfed and the only reason you could give is that there are no allocations or provisions are not made or if there are it is grossly inadequate. From what I can see here some of the animals are going extinct. We've seen the preserved bodies of some of these animals elsewhere but this is the first time I am seeing a peacock alive. It was said that these animals are not being well fed that is why they are dying."

If the UI Zoo gets rescued from its slide its biggest beneficiary is certain to be its biggest attraction; its lions. And then maybe the king of the jungle would reign like a king again.