Dele Momodu
28 November 2008
column
Lagos — Let me confess that I was a late comer to Lagos. I came to live in Lagos at the age of 28. Before then, I must have visited Lagos fewer than ten times all my life. Lagos for those of us who grew up in the rural setting was like London, Paris and New York, all rolled into one.
Every visit was a rare treat. Lagos was so special that children from other parts of Yorubaland who were born there were named Tokunbo. Tokunbo was a name that was exclusively reserved for those children born overseas by been-to parents. But living in the good old Lagos was as good as living abroad. Lagos was so distant in those days. Most sojourners had to prepare for days before embarking on the adventure of such a trip. Some people even offered sacrifices to the gods to protect them on their journey to a place likened to the white man's land. It was never an easy task.
There were trains to Lagos, all the way from the Northern end of Nigeria. But they moved at snail speed. And they seemed to stop, too frequently, from one terminus to the other. There were no luxury buses as such. From Ile-Ife, we used to climb some wooden trucks, known as tanioroko, or at the very best some pick-up vans converted into face-me-I-face-you seats. The journey usually started at dawn. We had to be at the motor park, which was then known as the motor garage, as early as 5a.m. A journey to Lagos required such elaborate planning.
The drivers must have escaped from the pit of hell. They sped like people who had appointments with death. Some would have rinsed their mouths with the local gin, called ogogoro or akpeteshi before taking off like a supersonic jet. If you dared to complain, you were lectured by the driver to no end. He would regale his captives with tales of how he's been driving for 20 years, and nothing has ever scratched his body. I think it was Chinua Achebe who wrote that the white man would marvel to see what the Nigerian driver has done with his invention. I wonder till these days why a Nigerian has not won the Formula One championship. Believe me please, those drivers displayed an uncommon genius. They combined their driving prowess with mechanical knowledge. They could crawl under the vehicle to fix any problem. They were masters of trial by error.
There was no Lagos-Ibadan Expressway then, as our most important motorway is called till this day. Most vehicles had to pass through Ikorodu, made famous by Justice Michael Odesanya, S.O Gbadamosi, Adeniran Ogunsanya and T.O.S Benson. Travellers had a smell of Lagos as soon as they arrived Majidun. They were welcomed by ladies selling eja shawa (a variety of roasted fish), prawns and lobsters, captured from the sea. We bought the sugary bread there. The bread was usually oven-fresh. You could never return to your village without chartering some for the people back home. How would they know you have been overseas in Nigeria?
The essence of my preamble is that Lagos was that important. We must pay eternal tribute to the government of General Yakubu Gowon for building Lagos to enviable heights. Most of the structures in Lagos, surviving in various stages of dilapidation till this day were built under his tenure. The flyovers looked heavenly and one felt giddy as the vehicles spiraled, snake-like, around them. The roads were new and neat. The National Theatre was supposed to be our own Royal Albert Hall. All modern facilities were provided. Festac Town was built and every rich man's dream was to live inside that paradise. The airport had been upgraded.
Night life in Lagos was comparable to that of any cosmopolitan city in the world. Lagos never winked. Fela was king at the Kalakuta Republic. Sunny Ade was king at the Ariya Nite Club. Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey was king at the Miliki Spot. Dr Victor Olaiya was king at Stadium Hotel. Lagos was where the action was. Every man in the village wanted to come to Lagos, except me. Lagos was too fast and too dangerous for me. I thought Lagosians were abnormal. I was satisfied with the peace, and tranquility, of rural existence. But you could never find a good job in the smaller towns. I had been a village teacher and dreamt of doing my NCE exam (does it still exist?), marrying a Grade II teacher and living happily thereafter. But it was not meant to be. There were never enough jobs anywhere and many of us were forced to travel to Lagos. Most of us had no business going to Lagos. That is the tragedy of Lagos till this day.
The deterioration of Lagos must have started under the Obasanjo regime. That was when tyranny reigned supreme. The use of brute force was the order of the day. Fela's Kalakuta Republic was razed down. Fela's aged mum, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti was literally flung out of the window, and she broke many bones. She never recovered from that trauma. Other critics suffered more. They were kept on the crocodile island of Ita-Oko. More attention was paid to dissidents than to the infrastructure. It was as if successive federal governments sought the destruction of Lagos with a vengeance and as matter of state policy. Before our very eyes, Lagos began the slide into chaos, and eventual collapse.
The scars are there for everyone to see. If one can excuse the military regimes, what does one make of the civilians? In eight years, the pseudo-democratic government of Olusegun Obasanjo completed the total annihilation of Lagos. The most important roads leading in out of Lagos were studiously ignored and forgotten. The shame of it was that Lagos paraded some powerful and influential citizens in that government. Two ministers of works, Femi Anibaba and Adeseye Ogunlewe, not in any particular order, and both from Lagos, were on parade. Yet Lagos did not witness a single development. Not one federal road was tarred, resurfaced or rehabilitated. Not one new road was constructed. What beats me hollow was the fact that the old Lagos-Abeokuta road, which passed through Obasanjo Farms, was never touched. Today, that road has become a curse to the unfortunate communities that litter that part of Ogun State. The roads from Lagos through Ore to Benin City remain death traps. And there is no immediate hope in sight. The roads linking Lagos through Ibadan to Ilorin have virtually collapsed. The roads linking Isolo Expressway through Mile 2 to Agbara and Seme leading to Cotonou are stupidly disgraceful.
Inside Lagos itself, the Federal Government has sold all the monuments it once owned. The ones not sold have been left to rot away. The battle for supremacy continues to rage between the Federal Government and Lagos State government while the impoverished citizens wallow in undeserved misery. Lagos has been pocketed by a few powerful guys, without qualms. There are disputes over everything in Lagos. The Federal Government is clinging on to what the state government would have easily and better handled such as the sea and airports. Lagos is being laid to waste at the altar of ego and greed.
There are many issues pending between both governments. The avuncular grip of the Federal might over the states can never augur well for a true federation. The Federal Government should resist the temptation of making Lagos hemorrhage away at the pleasure of a few power hungry people. Lagos must rank among the three most important cities in Africa. The other two being Cairo and Johannesburg. With the cooperation of the Federal Government and the rugged determination of the Raji Fashola administration, Lagos can still catch up with and surpass those cities.
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