Groups Say It’s Provocative To Describe Lagos As ‘No Man’s Land’

Pro-democracy campaigners have acknowledged the leadership role played by Lagos State in the citizen-led democratic struggles, describing the State as a reference point for demonstrations against historic injustice.

At a two-day summit held to mark the 30th anniversary of the historic June 12 election, a coalition of 121 pan-Yoruba groups, under the aegis of Alliance for Yoruba Democratic Movements (AYDM), said Lagos provided sanctuary for pro-democracy activists from across the country during the struggle for the actualisation of June 12 mandate, an election generally believed to have been won by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola.

The summit with the theme: “30 Years After June 12: Tactics and Strategy for Sustainable Democracy in the Future”, was held in the main hall of St. Leo Catholic Church in Ikeja.

Lagos, AYDM said, has shouldered the liberation struggles against all forms of slavery, colonialism and oppression in the last 500 years, noting that it was no coincidence that the State remained the most traumatised, molested, tormented and most intimidated city in the course of the June 12 struggle.

Adewale Adeoye, a pro-democracy activist and media practitioner, said in spite of the accommodating nature of Lagos, the State had become a dart board constantly being insulted and its history being subjected to distortions.

Adeoye, a CNN Multichoice African Journalist of the Year prize winner, said Yoruba people had lived in all human settlements within the territorial boundaries of the entity known today as Lagos centuries before colonial expedition.

He said the antiquity of Lagos must not be reduced to post-colonial encounters, warning that any attempt to put the ownership of Lagos to an ignorant review would translate to provocative attempt by those bent on reducing the status of the State as “no man’s land”.

He said: “Lagos has always provided leadership and should continue to do so. We commend the role Lagos has played in the struggle for justice in Nigeria. As we mark 30 years after June 12, we should be conscious of certain developments. Today, there is the debate about the status of Lagos. Its history and civilisation are being contested.

“Due to its accommodating nature, Lagos is being constantly abused and insulted. Its history is being subjected to distortion. It is important to always educate ourselves and our children about history. Some of the positions we have read are attempts to consciously politicise the history of Lagos. We cannot allow these tissues of fabricated lies to stand. The history of Lagos predated the name itself.

“Ogunfunminire, the first known leader of the indigenous Lagos, had established dominion in the city centuries before the coming of the Portuguese. Today’s Lagos comprises of more than 40 traditional rulers whose evidence of protectorate is tied to land, water resources and spirituality. So, the question of who owns Lagos should not arise. It is an unnecessary and provocative debate that diminishes the status and knowledge of those who blindly argue that Lagos is no man’s land.”

Adeoye said only chronic ignorance would make anyone to proclaim that any land has no indigenous inhabitants, stressing that there was no piece of land in Lagos left ungoverned before the advent of colonialism.

The pro-democracy campaigner lent his voice for what he called “a new thinking” to preserve the heritage of indigenous people of Lagos, dismissing the notion that the move would diminish the cosmopolitan nature of the State. Opposing the move to protect the State’s tradition, Adeoye said, would amount to denying Lagos indigenous citizens their democratic rights to their land.

He said: “The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007, described as triumph for justice and human dignity following more than two decades of negotiations between governments and indigenous peoples. There is also the Convention on Biological Diversity which Nigeria signed in 1992 and ratified in 1994.The Convention also protects indigenous peoples.

“We affirm our solidarity with the LASG and congratulate the indigenous people of Lagos for the bold and decisive step of the Lagos State House of Assembly. Lagos needs to protect historical buildings, art and culture of inestimable values, artifacts, spiritual groves, sacred forests and streams that are tied to its ancestral past and its civilisation. People criticising the Lagos State Government on this move are ignorant, and their aim is to undermine the democratic rights of indigenous Lagosians.”

AYDM, in its recommendation, said Lagos needed to create its own Museum of History where people would learn about the history of Lagos. The coalition also recommended that a booklet detailing the history of Lagos should be produced and made compulsory for students t

o learn.