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An Unbiased View To D Issue Of Lagos Been Called "A No Man's Land" by Nobody: 3:14pm On Oct 16, 2015 |
The common saying ‘Lagos is a no man’s
land’ no doubt, caused an uproar in Lagos
few weeks back. It was fueled by the ‘hate’
speech of the Oba of Lagos while trying to
campaign for the Lagos state gubernatorial
candidate of the All Progressives Congress,
Akinwunmi Ambode, who finally emerged as
the governor-elect.
Azuka Onwuka
Azuka Onwuka, a brand consultant,
motivational speaker, author, social
commentator and CEO of August consulting in
Lagos has highlighted his views concerning
the term’Lagos is no man’s land’. In this
absolutely engaging opinion piece,
Azuka earmarks the doings and the undoings
of some Igbo people living in Lagos and the
Yorubas who believe every Igbo person living
in Lagos must be ‘thankful’ to be in Lagos.
Read the opinion piece below:
One statement that riles the Yoruba is that
Lagos is a no man’s land, which comes
mainly from the Igbo residents in the city. The
impression that statement gives them is that
Lagos is a land that nobody owns. They see it
as an attempt to take away what belongs to
them. According to Oxford Dictionaries, “no
man’s land” means “disputed ground between
the front lines or trenches of two opposing
armies” or “a piece of unowned land or
wasteland.”
But Lagos State is someone’s land. Without
going into the history of Lagos, one knows
that there are traditional institutions and rites
in Lagos that only the “sons of the soil” can
participate in. For example, Lagos
communities have traditional rulers called
baale or oba: only sons of the soil of the
respective communities can aspire to such
positions.
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However, that is not the end of the story.
Lagos is a unique state, especially given its
status as a former federal capital of Nigeria
cum seat of government for 77 years: January
1914 to November 1991. That status has
given it a different feel from all other cities in
Nigeria. It is not because it is by the sea:
Calabar and Port Harcourt are also by the sea,
but they are not like Lagos. Contrary to the
fallacy spread by some people, Calabar was
never the capital of Nigeria. Calabar once
served as the seat of government of the Niger
Coast Protectorate, Southern Protectorate and
Oil River Protectorate. Similarly, neither Lokoja
nor Zungeru was ever the capital of Nigeria.
They were respectively the capital of the
British protectorate of Northern Nigeria.
The boom that Abuja has experienced since
1991 when Gen. Ibrahim Babangida moved the
seat of government from Lagos is a pointer to
the effect the Federal Capital Territory status
can have on a city. But even Abuja cannot
compare with Lagos because it was purpose-
built to be an FCT, and therefore has no space
for industrial estates and markets in all nooks
and crannies of the city like Lagos.
However, even those who call Lagos no man’s
land don’t mean that Lagos does not
indigenously belong to anybody. When you
ask them what “no man’s land” means, you
realise that what they mean is that Lagos is
home to every Nigerian. It is a mini Nigeria. It
is a place where all Nigerians feel they have a
stake in because the funds of Nigeria helped in
developing it, and its status as an FCT
attracted more attention from Nigerians and
foreigners than other states. Consequently, it
is the most developed part of the nation.
Even though Enugu, Ibadan and Kaduna were
the respective capitals of Eastern Region,
Western Region, and Northern Region from the
pre-Independence days until 1967, they
cannot compare to Lagos in any sphere.
No doubt, as a city that is situated by the sea
shore, Lagos has been developing from time
immemorial. However, when it was made the
capital of Nigeria, its development accelerated.
The boost was such that even after the seat of
government was relocated to Abuja, Lagos did
not feel the impact much because the biggest
companies and markets in Nigeria as well as
infrastructure like bridges and roads had
already been established, which had in turn
made the state the most densely populated in
the nation. These are not things you can
relocate with the seat of government.
And more importantly, Lagos has not been
known to be a place where religious or ethnic
crises occur. There can be crisis from street
urchins, or motor park touts, or street gangs,
but people are not usually attacked based on
their ethnicity or religion, except for the ill-
informed actions of the O’odua People’s
Congress against the Hausa community in
1999/2000.
Lagos State is in the South-West, and the
South-West is the land of the Yoruba.
Therefore, Lagos is Yoruba land. But it goes
beyond that. Lagos derives its progress from
its metropolitan and cosmopolitan nature.
There are Nigerians who will tell you that
beside their home state, they can only live in
Abuja or Lagos, because of the FCT status,
past and present. They don’t want to be in a
place where they would feel like second-class
citizens or people who are ever conscious of
going against any local tradition.
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However, there are two sets of people that
don’t mean well for Lagos. One group is the
Yoruba who feel that the non-Yoruba in Lagos,
especially the Igbo, must owe the air they
breathe to the Yoruba: they must not raise
their head; they must not laugh loud; they
must not criticise any government policy in
Lagos; they must not vote for any candidate
of their choice; they must not contest
elections in Lagos. If they default on any of
these, they are threatened with expulsion or
violence.
The other group is the Igbo who tell the
Yoruba that the Igbo developed Lagos, and
that without the Igbo, Lagos would be a ghost
town, and Lagosians would die of hunger. That
is a silly statement to make. Although only a
lover of falsehood would say that the Igbo
have not contributed handsomely to the
development of Lagos, yet Lagos has been
developing at its own pace from time
immemorial. If the Igbo did not settle in Lagos
or invest in it, it would have continued to
develop at its own pace. Lagos does not owe
its success to the Igbo or any one ethnic
group.
The excuse these two dangerous groups
always give is that the other group started the
ethnic baiting. But that is a lie. An ethnic
supremacist is an ethnic supremacist. The
same goes for an ethnic intolerant person or
a bigot. Such people don’t need any
provocation to unleash the venom in them.
They only pray for an opportunity to present
itself. Phrases like “you people” dot their
speeches. Whenever a person speaks, they
usually don’t attack the person’s speech: they
swiftly malign the person’s ethnic group. It
does not matter to them that the person does
not speak on behalf of any ethnic group.
Sometimes, they will be quick to tell you that
they don’t hate the ethnic group they are
bashing but “are simply speaking the truth.”
They may even remind you that they have
friends from that ethnic group or have family
members who are married to people from that
ethnic group.
These dangerous elements must not be
allowed to destroy the peace and harmony in
Lagos. There is a difference between “citizen”
and “indigene”. Every Nigerian is a citizen in
every part of Nigeria. But not every Nigerian is
an indigene of wherever he or she resides.
Every Nigerian can vote and be voted
anywhere in Nigeria. That is what
distinguishes a Nigerian from a Ghanaian who
lives in Nigeria.
Nigerians feel happy any time they hear that a
person with Nigerian ancestry has won a
political position in Europe or North America,
but some ethnic haters feel angry whenever
they hear that a Nigerian has won an election
in his or her state of residence. Their narrow
argument is: “Can you allow that to happen in
your state?” But comparing a state like Lagos
– a former FCT — with another Nigerian state
is baseless. Lagos can only somewhat be
compared with Abuja, the FCT. If you want to
compare states, compare Oyo with Enugu,
Ogun with Anambra, Ekiti with Ebonyi, etc.
Secondly, when a people have a large
population in a community, it becomes easier
for them to win local elections there. That is
why the Yoruba win local elections in the
London Borough of Southwark, United
Kingdom, where Peckam is located. If a large
number of the Yoruba or Hausa or Ijaw settle
in Nnewi or Aba, they can win elections there.
It is only natural.
And when a “non-indigene” wins an election,
such should not be seen as a threat or an
affront. It is actually a blessing. Such cities
where settlers participate in governance are
always ahead in all developmental indices.
They attract people. They attract investors.
They continue to grow faster. That is why
Lagos is miles ahead of other states. That is
why Lagos is self-sustaining even though it
has no oil. Human resource is the greatest
resource on earth. Human beings gather
where the conditions are good, where they are
not continuously threatened or intimidated,
where they are free to operate within the laws
of the state and the nation.
Those who love Lagos and want its progress
must not allow those who are short-sighted to
disrupt the peac |
Re: An Unbiased View To D Issue Of Lagos Been Called "A No Man's Land" by Nobody: 3:16pm On Oct 16, 2015 |
source: naij.com BTW ...I no its old it was written during d elections ...buh I biliv it will do a lot of good in dousing d embers of tribalism been fanned here.. TRIBAL WARLORDS U WELCOME PLSS READ |
Re: An Unbiased View To D Issue Of Lagos Been Called "A No Man's Land" by mannobi(m): 3:32pm On Oct 16, 2015 |
All this stories are irrelevant all we know is Lagos belongs to the south West and the south Westerns are Yorubas. Any attempt to alter that either by chest beating or mouth wailing will invoke the Lagoon punishment. |
Re: An Unbiased View To D Issue Of Lagos Been Called "A No Man's Land" by Nobody: 6:46pm On Oct 16, 2015 |
So finally you don agree say lagos no get oil... All that left ear murmuring we been dey hear nah capital RUMOUR . |
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