Lagos has always being accommodating to all comers. In its long and rich history there has never been a history of blood letting and inter ethnic discord and strife. Let us hope that this will continue to be so. Exasperating as the place can be at times, its actual a fun place to live. That’s why it is a melting pot. As in bring me all those who yearn for a rebirth. It is an all comers place precisely because those you meet there on arrival are always so enduringly accommodating.
Not everyone everywhere else is that all encompassing. In a lot of places the old bit about`when in Rome do as the Romans` often times come up to the fore. And not always said nicely.Often times its a threat. Seldom,actually never heard in rambunctious lagos where the free wheeling spirit reigns. Its not that loose and easy everywhere else.
Astonishingly, in contradistinction, there are parts of cities in Switzerland where foreigners cannot buy property. They can rent for as long as they like but none of the changing of title business. Most people first come Across this caveat through the property pages. Difficult to comprehend, after all this is an `advanced country`. Lagos does not have this kind of caveat to its eternal glory. Such is the liberal ethos of the metropolis that no one ever mooted the odious and utterly disgusting concept of `abandoned property` there.
Certainly that most fair minded of men, the Lagos state military administrator Mobolaji Johnson, had all the legal instruments to do so. However the Yoruba are not like that. This is more than you can say for some other people. We must not also forget that a lot of people in lagos also collected rent for those who were trapped in the east due to the civil war. This is a classic case of being your brothers keeper.
It will be most unfortunate if everything now changes due to some senseless and insensitive exuberance. It should not come to ”OK! No more mr nice guy”. If he does it diminishes the very essence of our humanity. Lagos is what we should aspire to be. Its the most civilised part of Nigeria. It has always been.
In the first republic P.C Ebudike represented Badagry West in the Western house of Assembly. Mrs Mercy Eneli, Ibezim Obiajulu and Moronu where councillors freely elected by all lagosians. Its been a long glorious history of accommodation.
To the opportunists and the sabre rattlers let us remind them of the words of Bob Marley `when the rain falls it won’t fall on one man`s house`. For they reap the whirlwind those who (inadvertently, it is to be hoped) sow the wind.
Yes, the Oba actually spoke! But, the Ezes he spoke to even came out they understood him perfectly well to be joking. One can in fact see from the video how every body in the video were laughing heartily. The Oba never refered to all Ibos, he directed his jokes at those visitors of his. They knew the Oba very well and visited of their own free will. The Ibos are part and parcel of the Lagos society and one therefore wonders the extent of hatred being peddled with this simple happenstance. Jimi or Ambode, it’s well with us but let us think of our good old Lagos. The colonial masters tried elsewhere on this country but they were not as welcomed as in Lagos. E jowo e ma b’eko je o!
Thanks! The Lagos approach should be sold to other states, only then can we see a Nigeria of our dream, I was very impressed when I heard 3 non-indegines won house or reps seat, I was singing and praising the spirit of Lagos until I heard the Oba speak.