THE fever of 2007 is al ready on a rampage. Everywhere all over the federation, the stakeholders- the people, the electorate, politicians, statesmen, the electoral commissioners and the security agents have swung into action, claiming to be preparing ahead of time to avoid being caught unawares. At the federal level, the scourge has been identified as the major cause of the tension in the polity. The states are not left out.
In Lagos State, candidates have begun campaign with all sorts of weapons and missiles deployed to prosecute the war. Among those identified as showing interest in the governorship seat are a the deputy governor of the state, Mr Femi Pedro, a commissioner in the Tinubu cabinet, Mrs Remi Adiukwu Bakare, a former commissioner for Home Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and a two-term Senator, Mr Tokunbo Afikuyomi. All of them showing interest in using the Alliance for Democracy (AD) platform. In the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), those who have indicated interest in succeeding Governor Bola Tinubu in the Alausa Oval Office include Chief Funso Williams who was also the party’s flagbearer in the 2003 contest and Chief Lanre Razak who until he decamped earlier in the year was a chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Although yet to confirm his interest, the Works Minister is believed to have done enough to show his hands early. Many observers of the scene believe that his relentless verbal assaults of Governor Tinubu is to pave the way for his emergence in 2007. Already, he appears to be the major financier of the party’s activities in the state.
So far, Nigerian politics has been allowed to hinge mostly on personalities, with issues swept aside unlike the situation in developed countries. In the build up to 2007, not much has yet been said of the personalities of those in the race, this might come up later as mudslinging may still play a major part in the run up to the election.
However, one major issue that has been raised by the contestants and their supporters is who is qualified to rule Lagos? Some of the contestants who claim to be “indigenes” are leading a campaign that only those certified to be indigenes of the state should be allowed to pick the ticket in both major parties. In their view, since Lagosians cannot contest in other parts of the country, the governorship of Lagos State should be reserved for only Lagosians.
Chief Lanre Razak, a former Deputy National Chairman of the ANPP and a former commissioner in the state under the military belongs to this school of thought. A political stalwart from Epe, he contends that t would be unfair for people who have the right to contest in other states to be allowed to contest against true Lagosians. He told Vanguard that “we have 36 states in this country and each of the 36 states is being ruled by indigenes and it has a serious implication if indigenes are not allowed to rule Lagos. It is not expedient, neither is it politically reasonable, it is culturally important that one allows a justifiable situation to exist in the geographical and political system of this country.”
Speaking further, Chief Razak who appeared to be making efforts to suppress his anger said, “a Lagos indigene cannot go to Kano and say he wants to become the governor of Kano State, it`s not possible; neither will it happen in Ogun, Kwara or Osun states because you`re not an indigene. Then if the resources of Nigeria is divided on the basis of states for indigenes to have that development spread, then why are they taking what belongs to Lagos indigenes away from them just because a larger percentage of non-indigenes reside in Lagos and as such, people are playing up sentiments so that non-indigenes would build up if Lagos is not properly run. If Lagos is not allowed to have a reasonable and even development, Nigeria will suffer. So, those who don`t have anything to offer Lagos, I don`t think they have any right to rule Lagos, they`re creating problems for this state because whatever problems emanate from the misrule of these people will spill over to other parts of the country and it will have a dangerous, negative effect on the country, that I can assure you.”
Chief Razak’s views draws support from Mrs Remi Adiukwu Bakare who insists that only an indigene of Lagos should be allowed to rule the state. Her words: “Do you honestly believe that apart from Lagos State, any other state would accept a non-indigene to contest in their state for that exalted position? I want people to be honest with themselves. Do you honestly think that any other state, apart from Lagos State would accept that, because everybody has moved to Lagos State when it was still capital; but do you think an Ijebu man can go and contest in Oyo State and he would be accepted as governor?”
But then, there is the question, who is a Lagos indigene? The two politicians, obviously speaking for other Lagos politicians who share their views tried to define the concept. To Mrs Adiukwu-Bakare, “an indigene of a particular place is different a citizen of that place. These are two different things. An indigene is someone who has either of paternal or maternal claim historically to a place. A citizen is someone whose parents come from a different place probably they came here to trade and they settled down there and they have become citizens. I have a child and I am a Nigerian. I can decide to give birth to the child in America. It does not change the fact that I am a Nigerian and he is a citizen of America, not an indigene of America and therefore we have indigenous people and we have citizens within an area. Indigineship can be acquired by marriage. If your husband comes from, let’s say Lagos State, mother and father are indigenes of Oyo State and you get married to an indigene of Lagos State, you have automatically become a Lagosian, an indigene of Lagos State. All your children would be indigenes of Lagos State.
But be that as it may, I want to say that because Nigeria is still a country where we ask questions, whose child is he? Whose child is she? People say Lagos is no man’s land. I beg to differ, it is not true. People own Lagos. There are people who are indigenes of Lagos State. We have more citizens in Lagos than indigenes. I guess that is why they say it is no man’s land. But there are those who would not ordinarily go and contest in Oyo, Ogun, Osun States as they are to Lagos State. It then simply means that while the Oyo man contests in his place and they would not allow an indigene of Lagos State in his place, he or she comes to Lagos again to contest and therefore he has claims to two states. His brother is in Oyo State as governor, he is here as governor of Lagos State. So Lagos State is being short changed.”
Chief Razak’s views are similar: “In Nigeria today, we have indigenes and we have settlers and because Lagos was a Federal capital with much economic activities on the high side in Lagos; it is only in Lagos that you can buy and sell, and it is only in Lagos that you can seek for job employment and a lot of good things happen in Lagos, people want to be part of it.
“Veritable percentage of people migrated to Lagos and that does not say you don`t know who the indigenes of Lagos are, or who the landowners of Lagos are. It`s a clear issue, but in Lagos today, we know where the Ijaws come from in Nigeria, some of them have been staying in Lagos over the past 30to 40 years and when you consider the constitution of this country, of course, they have a right to live. They don`t need a passport to live in Lagos., Lagosians are the Aworis, the Eguns, the Ijebus, of course, they are the owners of Lagos.”
The debate over who is an indigene and thus qualified to rule in Lagos State is not new. It has been contended that the first civilian governor of Lagos who is generally believed to have done an excellent job is not really a Lagosian. His forebears are said to have hailed from Ofa in Kwara State. Yet, he governed the state with distinction for four states and earned the appellation “action governor” from even those who did not belong to his political school of thought. Until Alhaji Jakande got his fingers burnt during the Abacha reign, he was a cult figure in the politics of the state and had a large say in whoever would emerge in power.
It has also been suggested that the current governor, Senator Tinubu is actually from Iragbiji in Osun State. Many have even queried his name. All these have not stopped him from winning a second term despite ferocious tackles from the party in power at the centre.
It could be said that the people of Lagos State are not easily swayed by such sentiments. They want a good leader who would provide pipe borne water to every household, ensure that electricity is available in the homes, to artisans and industrialists alike and want jobs provided for the youths. Anyone who could do this is seen as deserving of the trust of the people.
When Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora emerged member of the state house of assembly in 1999, his ambition to become the speaker ran into storm as those opposed to him campaigned that only an indigene should be made the Number Three citizen. In his place, they suggested Hon Ola Animashaun from Ikorodu. Despite the campaign, sometimes threatening to degenerate to brigandage, Mamora was freely elected speaker by the Honourable members. He served with distinction and for much of the period was made the chairman of the Speakers Forum. Even when he was succeeded by the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Mamora remained the moving spirit behind the group.
Last year, Mamora, a medical doctor turned politician, indicated interest in representing Lagos east Senatorial district in the Upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly. Again, the opposition pointed out to the electorate that it would be unfair to make an indigene of Ijebu Ife, Ogun State, their senator. despite the hot campaign, Mamora was elected by the vast majority of the voters as they trooped to the polls on April 19. His main opponent was the then incumbent senator for the district, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe who had crossed over to the PDP. It was well known to the electorate that Ogunlewe hails from Ikorodu and could therefore claim to be an “original Lagosian.”
The campaign over who should contest into leading offices in Lagos was hot last year. The anti-Tinubu forces in the PDP argued that he was not deserving of a second term on account of what they described as his nom-indigene status. Chieftains of the PDP including the state chairman, Alhaji Murtala Ashorobi and Chief Bode George pointed out that he should relocate to Osun State to obtain power. Even after he had been elected, at every point of disagreement, the point was made that the Lagos State governor was not performing in the best interest of the people because he hails from a different state.
On one occasion, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Dele Alake told newsmen: “we do not believe in ascribed status, but achieved status...Bode George himself where is his roots? Is Lagos his roots. Don’t mind the shouting around that some people are Omo Eko while others are Ara Eko. Bode George is an Egba man...Go and do your research. Even Funso Williams, go and look at the photograph of his father and confirm to me if you will not notice the Egba Owu marks on his father’s cheeks.”
The Lagos State Commissioner who himself is an Ekiti man said the opposition had resorted to such tactics because they could see the handwriting of defeat on the walls. He said they were drawing support on the basis of an irrelevant issue. His words: “These people lack self confidence, so they will jettison their roots and latch on what they can use as the pedestal to attain illegitimate gains.”
The place of Lagos in Nigerian politics
Mr Joe Igbokwe, a notable public affairs analyst and activist has described what happens in Lagos as very important to the country. In one of his many releases last year, Mr Igbokwe called attention to the need to ensure that only a competent person emerged as governor of the state that is home to about 70 per cent of the industries in the country. He said about 100 persons enter into the city every minute thus raising issues about what would be the state of infrastructure by the time Lagos city becomes a mega city from 2015 as predicted by the United nations Organisation. In his view, unless something is done to raise the level of debate and decision making beyond sentiments, the state would begin to sink in the post-Tinubu era.
One Epe born politician who prefers to wear the cloak of anonymity called attention to the situation when Chief Michael Otedola from Epe was governor in the short-lived Third republic. According to him: “Lagos went asleep despite the fact that you had a Lagosian in charge. Those things mean nothing to me. All I want is good governance. What does it mean to th unemployed that a Lagosian is the governor? Would that put food on his table? We must outgrow such sentiments. Those running such campaign are enemies of the people."
There is no doubt that Lagos occupies a special place in the history and structure of Nigeria. This position is not recently acquired. The capital of Southern Protectorate was moved from Calabar to Lagos in 1904 by the colonial authorities owing to the growing importance of the city. According to Sir Walter Egerton who was then the High Commissioner for the Protectorate, “it was only after some consideration that I decided to recommend that Lagos should be the capital.”
What factors could have so moved the High Commissioner? In the words of Esquire, a Portuguese businessman of the 15th Century, it was already obvious that the city would play a major role in the process of colonial expansion into the country. “Lagos”, he said, is “an island partly submerged in water and surrounded by a fringe of mangrove.” Just what the colonialist adventurers wanted. Its special position was further confirmed in 1861 when its status as a colony, the only colony in Nigeria, was established.
By 1906, Lagos was already being described as the “Liverpool of West Africa” because of the natural harbour. Pauline Baker described it thus: “one of the few places along the West African seaboard where the Atlantic ocean breaks through the coastline to form a natural harbour connecting with the inland creeks and lagoons.”
In recognition of the special status of the city, the Townships Ordinance enacted in 1917 classified Lagos as the only first class city in the country. Three years later, three seats on the Town Council were made open for contest. In 1923, the Hugh Clifford Constitution gave Lagos the opportunity to elect three members in the Legislative Council. Calabar was the only other town that had the opportunity of being represented by elected members, but even then it could only elect a representative.
Up till 1950, all the political parties were based in Lagos while 75 per cent of the lawyers operating in the country practiced in Lagos. Lagos can be described as the most cosmopolitan of the towns and cities in the country, indeed in West Africa.
According to the Master plan for Metropolitan Lagos Technical paper released in 1978, only 25 per cent of residents of the city are Lagosians. Twelve per cent were said to have hailed from Oyo State, 7 per cent from Ondo, 27 per cent from Ogun while the Igbos made up about 10 per cent. those from old Bendel state were 8.2 per cent of the population, 5.2 from Kwara State and 2.4 from old cross Rivers State. while people originally from Rivers constituted 1 per cent of the Lagos population.
Others, that is from the North especially, were said to be in the range of 4 per cent. The figures indicate that the Lagos population was made up of about 75 per cent non-Lagosians. The figures also show that 50 per cent of the "settlers" were from other Yoruba States. Ogun State alone has more people in Lagos than the indigenous population.
Lagos in Nigerian politics
IN the early days, politics in Nigeria revolved around Lagos. All the political parties were based in Lagos and many of them did very little until the emergence of the National Council of Nigeria and the Camerouns in the 1940s to woo voters outside the city. Both the Legislative and Executive Councils were based in the city and franchise was largely restricted to residents of the city until the Macpherson Constitution was promulgated in 1951.
It was therefore not surprising that most of the early politicians practised irrespective of their areas of origin. Some of those who bestrode the scene like colossuses were Ernest Ikoli from Rivers, Samuel Akisanya, an Ijebu, Mazi Mbonu Ojike from Arondizuogu from present day Imo, the famous Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Bode Thomas from Oyo. They all practised unhindered and drew support from the people irrespective of their states of origin.
How many people remember today that Zik represented Lagos in the Western House of Assembly? How many people remember today that Mazi Mbonu Ojike, the apostle of boycott of products from Britain was once a deputy mayor of the Lagos Town Council? Who remembers now that Chief Rotimi Williams was, in the early 50s chairman of the Town Council? Then, their areas of origin did not matter.
Indeed when elected unofficial representation first introduced into the Legislative Council were Dr Crispin Curtis Adeniyi-Jones, Mr Eric Moore and Mr Egerton Shyngle. They were all non Lagosians. Before then, on the strength of their standing in the Lagos society of their time and their accomplishments, Sir Kitoyi Ajasa, Christopher Sapara Williams and Dr Obadiah Johnson had been in the Nigerian Council which was later renamed Legislative Council. Kitoyi Ajasa was originally Edmund Macaulay, son of Thomas Benjamin Macaulay, a Sierra Leonean freed slave of Dahomean extraction. As many of the West African elite of the time did, Ajasa chose to settle in lagos because it was fashionable at the time. Sapara Williams, the first Nigerian lawyer was an Ijesa man and was duly so recognised as the Legal Adviser to the Owa Obokun of Ijesa land. henry Carr was the first African resident of the Colony of lagos, he was of Egba extraction like Sir Kofo Abayomi, a founding member of the Nigerian Youth Movement who later became the president of the party. He was elected to represent Lagos in the Legislative Council in 1938.
Other titans of the era include Sir Adeyemo Alakija, of a Brazillian lagos family. Hechose later to be identified with Egbaland. His original name was Placcido Adeyemo, born to Ribeiro and Maximiliana Assumcao. Born 1884, he was called to the Bar in 1913, stood election to represent Lagos twice (in 1923 and 1926 on account of being an independent candidate) and later emerged the first President of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa.
Until Chief Olabode Thomas took the title Balogun Oyo in 1949, no one bothered to ask his origin. His father was a well known Lagos aristocrat and he had settled down well in the city. He was the founding general secretary of the Action Group following his active participation in the Egbe Omo Oduduwa.
Perhaps the greatest of the politicians of that era was Herbert Macaulay, often described as the doyen of Nigerian politics. According to Professoe Tekena Tamuno, a historian of note and gformer Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan in a biography published in 1979, “Herbert Heelas macaulay was born on 14 November, 1864 in Broad Street, Lagos. With such a collection of names, it is not surprising that some people have argued that Herbert Macaulay was not a Nigerian but a Sierra Leonean. While, as we shall show, Herbert Macaulay had Sierra Leone connections, he was in fact, very much a Nigerian.
“Herbert Macaulay’s paternal grandfather was Ojo Oriare, a medicine man from Oyo. It is said that Ojo and his wife, Kilangbe, were enslaved in the days of the slave trade.”
All the politicians of that era practised unhindered. It is therefore clear that the origin of politicians did not matter then.
Origin of Lagos
Recently, there was controversy over the origin of Lagos as the Obas of Yoruba land and the Pba of Benin engaged in media war over the origin of the Yoruba. While the Oba of Benin, Omo Noba Erediauwa, while launching his autobiography contended that Yorubaland was founded by the Benin Kingdom, the Yoruba Obas, led by the Ooni fired back that Ife is the centre of the universe and that an Ife prince founded the Benin kingdom. A twist was added to the debate when the Oba of Lagos adopted the Benin arguments.
The important point in the debate even as Dr Siyan Oyeweso and Dr Kunle Lawal of the University of Lagos made useful contributions is that all are agreed that the Lagos ruling house has strong attachment to the Benin ruling house. While the Yoruba historians trace the Benin influence in Lagos to conquest, the Benin historians insis that they founded the town. The point of note is that the most important institution in the community, the ruling house settled from elsewhere. This shows the futility of the debate over who is an indigene because it could then be asked whether the Oba of Lagos is indeed an indigene.
2007 race
As the race towards 2007 hots up, many aspirants would claw at anything to survive.
The argument over indigenes may crop up again. But, as the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu himself pointed out last year when some people launched a campaign that only an indigene should be made the Chief Judge, merit matters more than any other thing. If as far back as the early part of the last century, Nigerians were more concerned about what candidates had to offer, such matters should be jettisoned in the 21st Century. Lagos is too important to be allowed to fall for pettiness that could rob it of its special placing in Nigeria of the future.
