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Senator
Ogunlewe
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Lagos State
belongs as much to the ethnic Igbo as to the Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, Fulani, Efik,
Idoma, Urhobo, Itshekiri, Edo, and so on who live in it, pay tax, identify with
it, and settle in it. That compact was made the moment Nigeria became a single
nation, and a successor power to the old principalities who were subdued and
who ceded their sovereignty for the new commonwealth of Nigeria.
It was
pragmatic. The Igbo had the skill and the industry, and Lagos was the seat of
the Federal Government of Nigeria and its major port. The Igbo have lived in
Lagos since the 15th century when the Aro and other Igbo first settled in good
number in a place we now call “Oyingbo” in the era of Benin and the Portuguese
trade.
The arrival
of Azikiwe to Lagos in 1937 from Accra after his studies in the United States,
stimulated the political and cultural environment of Lagos as no other has
before or after him. Zik literally resurrected the wizard of Kirsten hall from
political death. Zik represented Lagos in the western house. The NCNC was the
power in Lagos, and not the Action Group. The Igbo were prominent in the
governance of Lagos in the Lagos City Hall.
The
institutional development of Lagos – the railways, the ports and ship yards;
the education and research facilities; the Banking and Commodities Exchange,
the development of towns like Yaba, Surulere, Ebutta-Metta, Festac Town,
Victoria Island, and now increasing the Ajah-Lekki axis, and of course, the
ghettoes along the Orile-Badagry axis, have profound Igbo imprimatur.
The
circulation of the image of Lagos is to date best reflected in the cosmopolitan
Igbo imagination of one of the greatest African writers of the 20th century,
Cyprian
Ekwensi, a thorough Lagosian if there was any. Igbo have built industries in
Lagos and have been drivers of commerce and exchange.
Interestingly,
I was born at plot number 8, Okoya Street, Idumagbo- Lagos, while the Ojukwu
families were residing at number one to three on the same street. I grew up to
know the father of Odumegwu Ojukwu. Chimbizie and Azuka grew up with us on the
same street. Even the Chibeze small parking space at the end of Okoya Street is
called Ojukwu.
I later
attended St. Patrick Primary School, Idumagbo, where I had very amiable
classmates of Igbo origin in the persons of Azubike Ezenwa and Damian, Ihekuna, both now professors and doctors of
today. They were brilliant, resourceful and friendly.
When we were
playing bamboo and Tene Felele at Orikoriko at Onola playing ground, the Igbo
participated actively. In the area of sports, school football and athletes,
Igbo were dominant at Kings College, St. Gregory school, St. Finbars, Akoka,
Igbobi College and Ahmadiyya College, Agege. Such boys, Njokwu, George Amu, Stephen Keshi, Henry
Nwosu, Patrick Noquapor, Peter Anieke
and Sammy Opone were dominant on
the field of football, while Asiodu, Empire Kanu were prominent on the field of
athletics.
Anytime we
went to watch football match at Onikan stadium, my darling team, Stationery
Stores and our adversary team I hated most was the E. C. N, where the centre
forward, Paul Hamilton, the National Team, Fabian the captain who bit the dust.
Our greatest captain was Duru, Oduah Onyenrekwa, Onyeador
Onyeali and Opel, the greatest outside right Nigeria ever had, Cyril
Azuluka. So, during my early life at
primary school, the Igbo were always there and delightful to watch, both in
athletes and on the football field.
When I
listened to radio at that time, both the commentary and drama series, the Igbo
were there for you. The likes of Chris Ndaguba, Ernest Okwonkwo, Ralph Okpara
‘Alawo Sekiseki the traveler’. The episode will end with – The script was
written by Ralph Okpara and edited by Yemi Lijadu.
Anytime I
visited where I was born today in Idumagbo at Lagos Island, the entire place is
covered by Igbo traders in their thousands. They were never troublesome but
decent and accommodating. They have virtually taken over all properties of the
indigenes. They succeeded in developing all our properties, married to most of
our children even from the royal families. There is no single house you will
visit without an Igbo man selling wares there.
So, who is
saying something else? Only the strangers in our midst will not notice
participation of economic development in our state by the Igbos. Most houses
and shops in Lagos Island have been purchased, developed and occupied by the
Igbos. The value of their investments in Lagos Island alone is in trillions of
naira.
Instead of
deporting the Igbos, whose contributions to the development of Lagos state are
immensurable, you must keep on praising and encouraging them to keep on
developing Lagos State.
•Senator
Ogunlewe, former minister for Works and Housing, wrote from Lagos.
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