LAGOS is once again riding the crest of national discussion as the age-long controversy about its foundation, birth and growth as Nigeria’s number one city and melting pot has been reignited. Within a space of just a week there have been at least two major claimants to the founding and or development of Lagos, aside thousands of other claims and counter-claims on social media by the usual ethnic warriors and tribal revisionists as to who deserves the credit for its development and thus by extension own it. Whether stated in clear terms or by innuendo the goal of these latter-day revisions of the history of Lagos is about who owns the land and should control its fortune. 

It was the Omo N’Oba, Ewuare II, the Oba of Benin, that first stirred the hornet’s nest when he said, during a visit to the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwolu, that the Edo of Benin were the founders of Lagos. The monarch said nothing here that has not been said before. Even by no less a personality than the Oba of Lagos himself, Oba Rilwan Akiolu. But each time this claim is made, it never fails to stir up the emotion of many, mostly families of some of the many groups said to be among the first or indigenous settlers and or founders of Lagos. Oba Ewuare anticipated the controversy that was to follow his remark and had pleaded to be excused from it all.  

No doubt the remarks that have now eased out any other came from the President-General of the Ohanaeze Indigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. Unlike the claim of cultural precedence and symbolic pride that was Oba Ewuare’s, Chief Iwuanyanwu would appear to be making very consequential, political and chest-thumping assertions that can only estrange the most liberal of the Yoruba. It is a claim of Igbo supremacy and exceptionalism that feeds into troubling narratives about the status of Lagos attributed to the Igbo in the distant and recent past, including the weeks before and after the elections of February 2023. It is a variant of the utterly preposterous Lagos-is-a-no-man’s land baloney. This time, the Igbo chief says Lagos was a swampy wilderness, a dark space, until the Igbo he called heroes from the South-East hinterland brought the light of civilisation.   

Chief Iwuanyanwu spoke against the backdrop of the mass demolition of houses built without approval of relevant authorities in Lagos. Most of these are in Igbo-dominated areas along the Badagry Express way. All of this has attracted not just negative but ethnically-motivated explanations of what did or did not happen. 

These readings of the demolitions have, like everything else that have followed the 2023 elections in Lagos and the emergence of Bola Tinubu as president, been viewed from a gross political perspective. In other words, the controversy about the demolitions in Lagos are largely a fallout of the 2023 general elections. It’s been the easiest way out for many people out to play the underdog and continue through the back door the polarising, hate-filled rhetoric of the electioneering months. They simply chalk up to politics anything they cannot find a plausible answer to. 

So have they been going on about the demolition of houses in Lagos with neither the supposed victims of the demolition and their supporters having anything to say about the fact that none of them have been able to provide supporting documentary evidence authorising the construction of their houses. But they are willing to pay for penalties in millions of naira in order to be allowed to keep their properties in the prohibited areas. By building on drainage systems, canals, roads or green areas, these house owners cannot draw a link between their illegal conduct and the many victims of flooding in Lagos and other places. A deadening culture of impunity simply has to be condoned by a plea to ethnicity. Some of their supporters yet smarting from this year’s electoral loss call the country a zoo and it’s clear they would rather we all live by the laws of the jungle.      

To be sure, demolitions have been going on in different parts of the country, from the North to the South, from the South-East where Governor Peter Mbah is currently locked in a legal battle with land developers, to the FCT under Nyesom Wike who has vowed to take the battle to violators of the Capital City’s master plan. But it’s only in Lagos that the exercise has been read in terms of the ethnicity of those affected. As I said, it has been very convenient for some Nigerians to view everything happening with the APC-led government, particularly in Lagos and Abuja, from a crudely ethnic perspective. It is a lazy and most unfortunate approach that has ruined any sense of perspective to what is going on. 

The sight of expensive buildings being reduced to rubble and their inhabitants rendered homeless is distressing enough. They are in many instances the most important possessions of their owners. It’s difficult to imagine where these people are to start their journey of being home owners again even if at all they have the means. To this extent, owners of the demolished houses deserve the sympathy of all who have spoken up for them. And it would not be out of place, indeed every avenue should be explored to see how the cost of the loss they’ve incurred can be mitigated. This is something both the Lagos State government and Abuja should consider. It would be a humanitarian act done on compassionate ground. But that’s as far as it goes. 

Otherwise, much of the controversy around the demolition is contrived to blackmail the government of Lagos by making it look like a particular ethnic group is the target of attack based on the choices they made during the last general elections. To say a particular ethnicity is targeted is to imply that the concerned ethnicity is prone to breaking the law. For why are others not so affected? Let everyone drop the ethnic argument that is giving room to some of the outright false and/or exaggerated claims by some of those speaking in the name of the Igbo. 

Some of their utterances will only serve to aggravate rather than douse the fire of recrimination and counter-recrimination. While the faceless and headless mob of the social media can say whatever they like, that is a luxury opinion leaders, be they of political or socio-cultural groups, cannot afford. To hear Chief Iwuanyanwu say that the Igbo transformed the swamp that was Lagos to the thriving city and commercial hub it is today is like throwing kegs of petrol on a raging fire. He spoke from a place of extreme insensitivity where an elder should never be found.