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 Dr. Namdi 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 .
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