Deportation of Igbo’s from Lagos Notes (Part 1)

I came across this video from subscribing to a popular fiery Yoruba nationalist spreading his message of tribal nationalism similar to Nnamdi Kanu for Igbo people on social media.

Reviewing the video of former Governor Fashola giving his own version of what the narrative should be about after his gross tribal and unpatriotic act of deporting destitute Igbo’s to Onitsha reveals a level of annoying condescention and avoidance of historical facts from the tribal narrative.

To be clear, with no unambuity, while Lagos is indeginously Yoruba, it no longer belongs exclusively to Yoruba people, Lagos belongs to Nigerians.

Lagos was not built only by Yoruba people but through the collective sweat of all Nigerians most especially by the hated Igbo people.

Lagos was designated as the capital of Nigeria by colonial Britain after the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates as far back as 1914 because of its strategic location as a seaport and it remained Nigeria capital all the way to 1991 when the capital was moved to Abuja.

Lagos remained the capital when Nigeria gained independence not because it was subject to debate, but by default when colonial rule ended.

Since 1914 during colonial rule and after independence Lagos in 1969 and as requested even by the western region at constitutional conferences was to administer Lagos in Nigeria as a separate municipality.

This administration as a separate municipality in Nigeria and its status as capital of Nigeria from 1914 focused a magnitude of Nigeria’s resources on developing the infrastructure of Lagos to handle its administrative responsibilities.

It was run almost like a region by itself and all federal institutions, ministries, parastatals and quasi government agencies all opened offices in Lagos and all employees made up of Nigerians from all the regions were employed in Lagos. 

Due to this centralization, power naturally gravitated to Lagos including all the arms of government and the armed forces manpowered by all Nigerians.

Lagos also got the boost and priority as the capital to not only get its various ports built to handle shipments for import dependent Nigeria. All clearing and custom activities including licensing and permits were all concentrated in Lagos.

This over concentration of federal assets in Lagos, a land made up of interconnected islands led to over congestion as Nigerians migrated to Lagos in their millions in search of greener pastures as the Nigerian ideal was concentrated in Lagos.

This over concentration led to gridlock that necessitated the movement of the capital to the FCT in Abuja in 1991.

During this over concentration-of resources especially of its ports many infrastructural projects like the ports of the east where neglected and rendered uneconomical because the power of clearance rested in Lagos.

It is this over concentration of power in Lagos that forced as a matter of necessity for Igbo, a tribe made of itinerant traders to flock to Lagos to clear their goods. As typical with all emigrees the first goal is home ownership and acquisition and or building of properties to grow their business.

Many of these tribes became indigenous to Lagos with property right invariably making them native lagosians but non indigenous because the are not Yoruba.

In the video, the governor who was trying to calm down the euphoria after his deportation of destitute Igbo to their states then hypothesized about changing the narrative about unequal development every where else except Lagos making light of the historical background that made Lagos a beacon to Nigerians of all stripes, some of whom fall on hard times, and all the advantages altogether to make it vastly more developed than every other state in Nigeria today.

When the federal government moved to Abuja it appears it transferred ownership all its secretariats and  ministries to the Lagos state government either because of leasing rights or other extant reasons instead of selling these landed properties.

This arbitrary concession has allowed Lagos and Yoruba to inherit and inordinately benefit not only from infrastructural investments in Lagos but ownership of the infrastructure.

It is this failure to understand history and the legacy of Lagos that leads some lagosians and Yoruba to adopt a false belief that people are in Lagos because of Yoruba hospitality and Lagos was built by Yoruba only to suffer an invasion of parasites putting the state under siege.

It would account for why the oba of Lagos threatened to drown Igbo people in his lagoon for failure to vote along tribal lines in the 2015. It accounts in part to a campaign to clear settlements  of non Yoruba in Lagos for acquisition by the state and the silent unofficial policy of encouraging non Yoruba to leave Lagos for legosian Yoruba and a desire to see them go back to their states and leave Lagos alone.

But Nigerians should remind the Yoruba about their inalienable indigenous rights to Lagos which has been accommodated in spite of this historical reminder through appointment of non Yoruba lagosians to the state executives and election as officials.

However the rights go beyond mere pretentious or cosmetic platitudes, the ownership of Lagos extends to property rights held by Nigerians in Lagos.

Despite all tribal invectives and suggestions, the Yoruba or Lagos cannot just seize property belonging to any Nigerian with a C&O even if Nigeria where to disintegrate into different countries.

Lagos will whether it likes it not have to respect the property rights of not only individuals from tribes across Nigeria, but multinational firms based in Lagos or risk expulsion from the committee of nations and reprisal sanctions and seizures of its assets and accounts world wide. 

Former Governor Fashola and all succeeding govornors need to understand this background behind the concentration in Lagos and act responsibly by handling social welfare issues of its residents in appreciation and reciprocation for the benefits and investments in the hyper growth of Lagos that has contributed to its earning power above all states in One Nigeria

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NGhDhvwyw