A former President of the Association of
Lagos State Indigenes, Chief Layi Ajayi-Bembe, in this interview with
BAYO AKINLOYE says the real owners of Lagos are the Bini, not the Yoruba
What is your lineage as a Lagosian?
My
grandfather was Ajayi Bembe; the eighth Obanikoro of Lagos – my father
was the last of his children. My mother was the first child of
Gbajabiamila (of Olowogbowo fame) – of course, of Lagos. When it comes
to the ownership of Lagos, it is sad when people talk about Lagos being
no man’s land or Lagos being part of Yoruba land – I consider that
position to be an abomination. Yes, because of the affinity or
geographical location of Lagos, we’re nearer to the South-West (the
Yoruba) than to other regions. It should be stated that Lagos has always
been independent of the West. When I returned from England, (Chief
Obafemi) Awolowo was in prison; before I came back to Nigeria, there had
been agitations that Lagos wasn’t part of the West. No doubt that a lot
of us speak Yoruba – in my family, we’re Bini. Oba of Lagos (Rilwan
Akiolu) was completely right that the early settlers in Lagos were the
Awori and the Bini. We’re talking about the Island of Lagos.
Extending
it to the east of Lagos, you have Oshodi, the Tapa (from Niger State)
were there. And, of course, we knew one another. I don’t understand why
some of our brothers in the West think that we can be enslaved by them.
In all my years, I have not seen what Afenifere has done for Lagos to
inspire me because during the last constitutional conference, they were
not talking about Lagos; they were talking about themselves. Don’t
forget that the so-called Edo State was part of the West before. But to
say Lagos is part of Yoruba land is not fair; it is not charitable. And
when kabiyesi now said, Lagos is Bini, not only because we came from
Benin, there are signs and relics of Benin all over Isale Eko. And obas
(in Lagos) – we don’t call them ‘obas’, we call them ‘eleko’. My
grandfather said in 1903 that when there was a dispute of which
traditional rulers should wear crowns – my grandfather was at that
meeting. Ooni of Ife had to come all the way from Ife to Lagos upon the
invitation of Governor (John Hawley) Glover. And the question they asked
him (Ooni) was, ‘Who are the obas that should wear crowns?’ He
mentioned them – Lagos was not part of the list. We don’t wear crowns in
Lagos. I remember, Pa Edegbele – that’s Prof. Edegbele’s father – when
he said ‘oba’ is alien to Yoruba land that only the Bini use that title,
there was a furore over that. But Edegbele was right. Note that
politicians have done a lot of havoc in Yoruba land more than in other
regions of the country. Nobody is going to doubt the hegemony of the
Sultan of Sokoto in the North. But the Yoruba are fond of creating
problems among themselves in Yoruba land. Permit me to digress: look at
the recent installation of some kings in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. A
governor created 21 kings, for what? Is that what the people need at a
time when the masses are hungry, civil servants are owed salaries and
basic amenities are not available? It now appears there are more rulers
than the ruled.
Are you saying Lagos belongs to the Bini people?
Lagos
belongs to us – the Bini. When you get to Enuowa, they (the
inhabitants) pay homage to Oba of Benin there. Enuowa is in Lagos;
Idumota is like a Bini name; Iduntafa is Bini name; Idunmagbo is Bini
name; Iduganran is Bini name; tell me, what further proof do you want
(that the Bini own Lagos)? Why have some people tried hard to erode our
identity and the labour of our ancestors? Today, if you go to the Lagos
State Secretariat, you’ll hardly see the original indigenes of the state
hold a prominent position. So, why are people crying about the quota
system? You don’t ‘quotarise’ knowledge. Whatever is the case, I believe
that the indigenes of Lagos – by the way, I was president of
Association of Lagos Indigenes for almost 15 years – we know how our
resources were plundered and carted away. Look at the fiasco called
‘Lagos @50’. The state government doesn’t recognise the true indigenes
of Lagos State. Some of the indigenes work with them for the purpose of
getting whatever they can get from the government. Some people are
trying so hard to maintain the stupidity that Lagos doesn’t belong to
anybody – that’s annoying.
What about Alhaji Femi Okunnu’s view of the Awori being the original owners of Lagos?
I
am not a lawyer but Femi Okunnu is a lawyer – a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria for that matter. On the issue of the original owners of Lagos,
my attention was drawn to an article focused on the Idunganran
celebration. Mr. Femi Okunnu happened to be my mentor; he was an
inspiration to me particularly when I returned from England. He was not
only elder ‘brother’ to me because we lived close together. They were
living at No. 1 Ido Olowu Street and I was living at No. 7 Ido Olowu
Street. I have known him for a long time. I remember when he came back
from England as a young and vibrant lawyer. When Femi Okunnu himself was
the Federal Commissioner for Works during the military regime, he was
the one who actually acquired the area where you have the National
Theatre, Iganmu. From whom did he acquire it? He got it from the
indigenes; my grandfather had a place there. We must have a good
perspective of history. People should learn not to mutilate history. The
owners of Lagos are not the Yoruba; they are the Bini. We are Bini;
there’s no ambiguity about that. To prove it further, the obas or the
elekos, when they died, their bodies were taken to Benin for burial for a
time. Tell me, who owns the land then?
Who are the Awori? The
Awori and the Bini are the same. If an Awori spoke to me when I was
young, I understood him. My parents spoke Awori. The Awori are partly
from Dahomey and partly from Benin. My forebears came from the riverine
area through the Bight of Benin and settled in Badagry for a long time
before moving down to Lagos. And when they moved down to Lagos where did
they go? They went to Idunsagbe – a place famed for Bini culture and
tradition. I am an Awori. Tell me, which state did they create for the
Awori now? If you say the indigenous people of Lagos State are the
Awori, then the Awori are the Bini. We must put history in its right
perspective. The right perspective is that Lagos does not belong to the
Yoruba; it belongs to the Bini. According to the Lyttleton Constitution,
the West was created; the North was created and Lagos was made a colony
and it later regained its independence.
Some may argue that the
original Lagosians didn’t protect their legacy, allowing every Tom, Dick
and Harry to hold sway politically and economically.
It is true
that Lagos is open to everybody that could bring ideas. But when it
comes to certain elements within the political spectrum in Nigeria… Look
at it this way, will it surprise you that a representative of Lagos who
calls himself a Lagosian representing the state in the National
Assembly went to Kogi State to vie for the governorship? Isn’t that
insulting? Some are even saying once (Osun State Governor, Rauf)
Aregbesola has completed his tenure in Osun, he will come back to Lagos
to contest a senatorial seat. We called Bola Tinubu, sat him down and
told him how we accepted him and he let us down. I know the role I
played when Bola Tinubu was coming in; when I gave him my second cousin,
(Musiliu) Obanikoro to go along with him (I don’t talk to that one
(Obanikoro) again after he had his hand in something embarrassing;
because you don’t disgrace your family). I am not looking for anything
from them. It is very wrong that people should trivialise the affairs of
Lagos. For example, we kicked against (Prof. Wole) Soyinka being made
the chairman of the Lagos @50 celebration. But nobody listened to us.
Look at the fiasco; was it a success? Who bothered about it? People who
will not celebrate the living are celebrating the dead – it doesn’t go
beyond that. You acquire land from me for a public purpose and the next
thing you did was to share it with your siblings, friends and other
loved ones. It is really sad for people to proclaim Lagos as no man’s
land. Lagos is so accommodating; it is only here you see an Igbo man
being made a commissioner. Even the Yoruba that are shouting, how many
Lagosians are in their cabinets? They all live in Lagos; we know them.
Some of them benefitted from the liberty Lagos offers. But ask them:
what have they done for their host communities? Can you imagine Orji
Kalu, who bought land here, saying Lagos belongs to nobody? They just
talk.
Don’t you think Prof. Wole Soyinka deserved to have been the chairman of the Lagos @50 celebration?
I
am not used to Soyinka and I don’t want to be acquainted with him. It
is unfortunate that because he was made the chairman of Lagos @50, he
began to insult people, claiming that his father had a land in Lagos. We
traced the land – one plot of land – and discovered that the land was
bought from my grandfather. People like him go around insulting others.
Has he not insulted Femi Okunnu before? Tell me who Wole Soyinka has
never insulted? He is part of the Tinubu group. Is he not an Ogun man? I
don’t think he has a right to say that Lagos is no man’s land. Who is
he to say that? I think Okunnu knew better; I don’t think he meant what
he said the way the press reported him. What he said is that Lagos is
‘part’ of Yoruba land; he didn’t say it was owned by the Yoruba. We need
to be discreet in our definition. Geographically, we’re in the West and
culturally, we speak Yoruba. If an Igbo man speaks Yoruba fluently,
does that make him a Yoruba? Go to Lagos State House of Assembly and
count how many of them are truly Lagos indigenes. Again, Okunnu was an
active participant in the creation of Lagos State together with (Philip)
Asiodu and Alison Ayida. They facilitated the creation of the state;
there was a western state then. If Okunnu had advocated the merger of
Lagos with the western region then, one would have thought otherwise.
Wole Soyinka didn’t want Lagos to be created at that time. Soyinka used
to be very radical but having got into the group of Bola Tinubu’s
scientific imposition, he has been mellowing down. Soyinka would be the
one that would stand for the truth when people were accused of
certificate forgery and other ills. He was always at the forefront; he
has become a turncoat. What happened to him? I respected him; he may not
know me and he doesn’t need to know me.
So, you think Okunnu is on the same page with you when he talked about the early settlers of Lagos?
I
believe Okunnu was actually agitating for the indigenes. He was
president of Lagos State indigenes before me – we have Isale Eko
Descendants Union, which we all belong to. All I am saying is this:
Lagos is not part of Yoruba. The settlers are Bini. Wasn’t Benin part of
the West before until the Mid-West was created? The Bini agitated for
that, insisting that we’re not part of the Yoruba. Why can’t the Yoruba
leave us alone for God’s sake? My grandfather went to court in 1889 to
claim all the lands that belonged to him. He got a judgment. Then some
people said, these lands were too much for one family – the place now
called Ikorodu Road, they acquired it – for how much? For £27,000! My
grandfather wasn’t around; he’s dead. But they forgot that this man gave
them a land to build the first police barracks in Lagos. How could Bola
Tinubu come all the way from wherever he came from (Kafaru brought him
to me, turn Lagos into a place for Osun people in the secretariat).
They’re radicalising the owners of Lagos with the way they’re acting. By
the time they stand up you’ll be shocked. What are the people asking
for? Give them what they deserve. Show them some respect. Okunnu did a
lot for Lagos State; most parts of Victoria Island were sand-filled by
the Federal Government. He and his colleagues at King’s College were
able to excise Victoria Island and gave it to Lagos. In fact, Okunnu has
done more for Lagos than any governor. Okunnu had his roots in Isale
Eko.
No comments
Post a Comment