naptu2: [size=14pt]Lagos HOMS: 2,624 Houses Ready For Allocation[/size] by melojames: 1:04pm On Apr 17



https://www.nairaland.com/1260588/lagos-homs-2624-houses-ready

naptu2:

eio2013: Olodo! Is it built by you or your fathers? Do you have the means to build a room & parlour.
You should thank Lord Lugard for making Lagos Nigeria Capital & Gowon 4 using all our resources to develop Lagos attracting investment and people. Lagos is developed on Federal govt platform. Development in Lagos is mainly done by non yorubas and foreigners for your information.
Lagos would have been among the poorest state in Nigeria if not for the fact that it was the Nation's capital for more than 50yrs. See what is happening to ABJ.
It's a lovely structures anyways.

jakaiso:

Cant totatlly agree with you. Even without being the capital-Lagos couldn have modestly deveopled-at least far ahead of many States:
1) Its bordered by an ocean and could have had a sea port-.
2) Its the entry point from Ghana/Togo/benin and would have had customs.
3) It would have been under the development program of Awolowo/AG from 1955 to 1963
4) It was the main point of entry for the arrival of British ships in the 19th century.
5) Its where the Brazilian freed slaves came.They built many solid infrasture even before Lagos was made the capital ( in those days Calabar was the capital)-before ANY nigerian city had modern or european style buildings -

Lago

naptu2: LAGOS IN THE 1800s

During the 1850s there was a large influx into Lagos of educated Africans, who had earlier been sold as slaves, from Sierra Leone, Brazil and Cuba. Their return profoundly affected the history of Lagos. The Sierra Leonians were known as Akus or Saros, the Brazilians and Cubans as Agudas. The Agudas were mainly Catholics, skilled artisans and craftmen who had purchased their freedom and returned home to their “country” of origin. The Akus or Saros were slaves (or descendants of slaves) rescued by the British naval squadron that patrolled the high seas on the look-out for slavers. The Saro émigrés were mainly missionaries (Protestants), teachers, clerks, or traders. All of the returned émigrés had their homes in one of the hinterland kingdoms – Ijebu, Egba, Ekiti, Oyo-Ibadan, Nupe. Most were probably shipped from Lagos, but none seemed to have been Lagosians.

The composition of populations in Lagos in the 1880s was as follows: Brazilians 3,220, Sierra Leonians 1,533 and Europeans 111, out of a population of 37,458. of all the population 30 ½ per cent (11,049) were engaged in commerce as merchants, traders, agents, clerks and shopmen, 5,173 were tradesmen, mechanics, manufacturers and artisans; 1,414 were farmers and agricultural labourers. In 1871 only 9 2/3 per cent of the population were in commerce, 5 per cent in agriculture. In 1881 the percentage of agricultural workers dropped to 3 ¾ while that of commercial workers jumped to 30 ½. Lagos was therefore predominantly a commercial city. Most of the population was animist in 1868, 14,797 as opposed to 8,422 Muslims and 3,970 Christians.

In the 1880s there were four distinct groups in Lagos – the Europeans, the educated Africans (Saros), the Brazilians and the indigenes. The town was physically divided into four quarters corresponding to these groups. The Europeans lived on the Marina, the Saros mainly west of the Europeans in an area called Olowogbowo, the Brazilians behind the Europeans – their quarter was known as Portuguese Town or Popo Aguda or Popo Maro – and the indigenes on the rest of the island – behind all three.

The Saros were culturally closer to the Europeans than to either of the other two groups. The top social class of Lagos of the 1880s was dominated by the Europeans – merchants, missionaries, civil servants. The Saros tried to gain admission into this class. The criteria for membership were education and wealth. In this sense, the educated elite, both black and white, could be considered as members of the same social group. They lived like Victorian gentlemen, entertainment consisting of numerous ‘conversaziones’, ‘soirees’, ‘levees’, ‘at homes’, ‘tea fights’ and concerts of the works of Bach, Beethoven, Handel and so on. The press had music critics; one irate critic lamented that concerts had fallen to the level of music-hall entertainment. Christmas was a season of Victorian festivities. As one newspaper editor enthused “Balls are announced and concerts and athletic sports, dinners, with the accessories of plump turkeys, minced pies, plum puddings and Christmas trees. Fineries of all sorts and conditions. All the elite seemed to lack was snow. Their dressing and eating habits were predictably Victorian. Most of them were profuse in their loyalty to the queen. In 1881 the Lagos Times prayed for the success of British arms in Ashanti. It declared: “we are so jealous of the Power of British arms that we would not have it suffer the slightest reverse.” The Imperial Federation League found enthusiastic support in Lagos. Several prominent Saros, J.A.O Payne, J.J Thomas and S.J. George came to Britain for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1887 at their own expense.

Life styles among the indigenes continued as before. They ate the normal Yoruba dishes of maize, cassava, yams and Yoruba sauces. They dressed in the same large flowing cloak, called Agbada, and baggy trousers. The Saro educated elite wore the lates London fashions – stiff collars and heavy woolen suits. The traditional elite continued to dress as they had always done but had developed new drinking habits. An observer described Dosunmu as “a good tempered, easy going man, much given to pomp …(he) possessed a hundred wives and innumerable suits of apparel. Visitors are always regaled with Champagne whenever they go to see him and I have heard he kept a most luxurious table.” Whitford wrote that when he met Dosunmu, the Oba was “attired in a clean loose white rob; red silk velvet slippers encase his large feet and gold, silver and brass rings profusely adorn his thumbs, fingers and wrists.”

The press exhibited a deep preoccupation with what it regarded as the essentials of society. The editor of the Eagle and Lagos Critic, Mr E.O Macaulay, writing in 1883, described the society of a place as that class of its community which comprised its ruling body, which absorbed by its influence all other ‘societies’ (he found four in Lagos – the Muslims, the Brazilians, the indigenous and the English, which of course, included the Saros) into its unit and imposed its rules of conduct on the other ‘societies’. To despise the society of the ruling class, Macaulay said, was to commit social suicide. He held that Sir John Glover, governor of the colony, 1866 – 72, understood this and therefore had given Lagos ‘society’ some directions. Glover collected at Government House the most prominent, intelligent and promising of the inhabitants of Lagos whom he created into a society, i.e. “a union in one general interest, social sympathy, companionship”. This society had “name and influence above any other, men and women aspired to become members of it and its doors were open to all who proved themselves (worthy)”. After Glover’s departure, this society was left by successive governors to go ‘moribund’. In 1883, Macaulay continued, it “was almost at death’s doors. With the cord of society thus broken, the various groups considered themselves to be of common social level; a new social egalitarianism developed, each group evolving its own code of rules. The divisions increased fear and suspicion and forced each group to seek strength in unity: it was this that brought tribal sentiments and the formation of tribal associations. Suspicions increased; jealousy, ill-will and rancour followed, judgment perverted and man ceased to be estimated by his intrinsic worth”. Every entertainment that was directed from Government House was seen as “an amelioration of the sad condition of society” in the 1880s. in 1884 the press called for the governor to resume his position as “Social Head” of Lagos.

The governors themselves testified to the high level of civilised society in Lagos. Governor Young in 1885 said Lagos was his first contact with civilisation since he left England. The administrators of Lagos found it impossible to keep up the high level of social entertainment Lagos demanded. And requests for increase in table allowances and salaries were frequent. Griffith described Lagos as “the Queen of West African settlements”. He went on: “ no single settlement on the West coast can compare with Lagos in public expenditure, in imports, and exports, in population or in activity, enterprise, and wealth of her mercantile community…Her merchants are unbounded in their hospitality. They entertain liberally and place the choicest and most expensive services on their tables. Even the natives will offer champagne to visitors…they keep open house and everywhere a cordial welcome awaits a stranger.” Griffith asked for horses and a carriage because both the white and black merchants had them. The Colonial Office, in one of those priceless minutes, thought mules and a carriage would suit the deputy governor best.


"Modern and Traditional Elites in the Politics of Lagos" by Patrick Dele Cole, King's College Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1975 at p 45 - 47.

naptu2: Oniru's Palace

The Oniru is an Idejo (land owning chief) who owned Iru Land (Victoria Island, Maroko and part of Lekki)

okpara ugo: ***
better houses like this full owerri and enugu

Chinom: Why all the hoopla about who built or owns these houses ?. Let it be clear to all that LAGOS is bigger than any tribe in Nigeria. Be it Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo or SS people. Yoruba's can only claim Lagos Geographically. That's where it ends.
LAGOS and ABUJA are special cases in Nigeria. It's wishful thinking for any tribe to claim them.
Nigerians will tell you who owns Lagos when and if you are dumb enough to enforce those claims. Lagos is both National and international.
Quit kidding yourselves.

I love those houses and i'm happy for those who can afford them. However, there's a lot of corrupt money buried in those manshions.

olas2u:

The estate you referred to in you write up was Shonibare estate,its also an upper class neighborhood in ikeja

jakaiso:

He's a bit right Bros. Lagos was the capital i.e. the city of Lagos (Lagos Island, Ikoyi, Victoria Island)-not Lagos State as a whole. The state of Lagos was only created in 1967. Before 1967-Ikeja,Epe, Ikorodu, Maryland ( I think Yaba area as well were all parts of the Western Region).Before 1967-Nigeria had Northern region, East, West (mid west in 1963) and Lagos. And by Lagos it was Lagos Lagos. Ikeja and co were never Lagos-just like Mowe, Abeokuta, ijebu ode were never and are not Lagos.

hablus019: Lagos to minland

olas2u: Egbin a place in lagos as an estate which 24hrs in Nigeria

Paentera:

Western Region stopped at present day Maryland, so places like Ikeja were part of WR. Yaba was part of Lagos just like Ebute Meta, Palmgrove and the likes

Paentera: Western Region stopped at present day Maryland, so places like Ikeja were part of WR. Yaba was part of Lagos just like Ebute Meta, Palmgrove and the likes

naptu2:

The boundary was at Jibowu.

Godogwu:

This is true, the credit system actually helps alot of folks in the more developed countries nonetheless there are always two sides to a story. frankly I don't believe you own any house, car, furniture etc the credit system helped you get till you're done paying for it. Funny enough thats why theres a greater hype when someone buys a 2013 Honda accord in Nigeria than in any country that has this system in place. This is because Nigerians pay hard cash for whatever they own with very few exceptions. I won't say thats the best way to go but its certainly working for us. I can't imagine paying for a house I claim to own for 15years or paying for a car for 36 months.

Finally, most Nigerians in that 25-35 don't necessarily want a house of theres, they'd rather live in a very exclusive apartment. Most of them look towards building houses when they start considering marriage or after marriage and expecting children. Theres a whole lot to discuss on this as there are so many factors that come into play but I'm sure you probably got my point. Then again I totally agree with you that the credit system helps but there are just two sides to it; its not all that perfect.

esoorita: The reason why there is almost zero corruption in the developed countries of the world is largely due to the availability of credits. Our values and aspirations in the developing countries of the world is at odds with what should be the the real values of any decent society. The mindset of an average Nigerian towards credit is quite strange to those of us living in the developed countries because I can't just understand why anyone would think he or she should save up to buy or build a house or a car and other things that cost a lot of money. In the western world, credit is very essential to keep the economy buoyant so much so that all the governments are heavily indebted in form of issuing bonds to investors at a very good rate. The only difference in the developed countries is that the credits obtained by them will not be subjected to looting by the ruling elites but deployed towards the development of services and infrastructures.In the developed countries, you are entitled to credit as long as you have a paid job and you are credit worthy i.e. you have a good credit score. Banks are not stupid to loan out money to you if you have a dodgy credit history. I can understand that easy access to bank loan may not be practical in a place like Nigeria due to many factors like dishonesty because when you look at the way everything works here, trust and integrity is very vital.
Since you don't know me and we are not likely to meet forever,I would like use myself as an example of the positive effect of credit.In year 2000, I took out a mortgage of £142,500 on a 3 bedroom house of £150,000 as I have to pay a deposit of 5% which is £7,500.The mortgage is for 20 years and we are now in 2013 which means that by God's grace I have seven years to pay off my debt (mortgage).If I'd been saving for the past 13 years towards buying the house cash, I'm sure that I couldn't have saved half of the amount that I've made in repayments towards my mortgage and then even if I've succeeded in saving what I've paid towards the mortgage, the value of my house has gone up to around £260,000 if I'm to buy it today so whatever amount of money I've been saving for the past 13 years will have no meaning as far as the current price of the house is concerned.
I'm always gobsmacked when I see properties for sale on properties websites for outrageous prices in a country where home loan/mortgage is non existent but then it's not rocket science to know that most of the people acquiring these houses are people that have access directly or remotely to the country's treasury with the least concern for the majority of Nigerians who are struggling to survive and living in squalor.Some people in Nigeria makes reference to people living in projects in the U.S and Council estates in the U.K but you can't compare the people living in these places with the poor people in Nigeria where the government have no concern whatsoever for them.At least the governments in the developed countries made some provisions for the less fortunate, there's hardly a council or project flat that the occupants don't have all the luxuries of life like plasma television,gas/electric cooker, microwave,fridge/freezer,desktop/laptop computers, smartphones and land line telephone, heater etc. I believe that people in the developing countries are not created by God to suffer it's their leaders and their stooges that are making life difficult for them.
Most of the debt amassed by the western countries was used to develop their infrastructures and payment of unemployment benefits, upgrading and building new hospitals and schools with state of the art facilities,good roads and rail networks etc.You will agree with me that with all the above commitments by any government,there's no room for embezzling public funds.
The ruling elites in Nigeria have totally destroyed the educational and healthcare system.Their solution to redress it is to send their kids to school abroad and to hell with the kids of the ordinary Nigerians.They hop on the next flight to the developed countries when they or any member of their family needs medical attention. For the life of me I can't imagine the British prime minister travelling to France,Spain,Germany or the USA for medical treatment because his government has put in place a healthcare system that he trusts impeccably.
All the preamble above brings me back to the genesis of the crass arguments on this thread as to who owns Lagos.I was born in Lagos a long while ago so to speak but this bickering about the ownership of properties in Lagos by both the Ibos and Yorubas makes me laugh at the both tribes.If I'm an Hausa I will be very pleased with the attitudes of the two tribes towards each other because they'd always be busy leaving substance and chasing shadows. To the best of my knowledge, I cannot go to any house in Lekki,Ikoyi,V.I,or indeed Mushin or Iju and asked to be given free accommodation in the house because the house belong to a man from my tribe whom is not my blood relation.So what is my business if the man from my tribe owns so many properties of which I'm not a beneficiary? This is what the lack of education and intelligence do to people.They cannot reason properly,their minds and brains are always malfunctioning,they're in perpetual servitude and their leaders love it and they want them to remain under their bondage forever.
I'm extremely sure that all the blokes that owns the choice properties in Lagos,Abuja,Port-harcourt,Nsukka,Owweri,Kano,
Kaduna,Jos etc with their ill-gotten wealth will not be stupid enough to come on this forum to claim their ownership, rather it's the ignoramuses on Nairaland that will do it for them.