EXPRESSO_UMB-BRAGE>>By Steve Osuji
It may seem as if this column is picking on the Lagos State Government, but does any other resident notice that the touted State of Excellence is anything but excellent these days?
Recently we highlighted a gargantuan investment, Giwa Gardens Waterpark and Resorts which lay waste now partly because of LASG’s anti-investment tendencies?
Last week, this column stumbled upon another pointer to the current malaise that is Lagos.
One had attended an interment at the Ikoyi Cemetery and it turned out the shock of one’s life. Upon entering the sprawling facility, one was revulsed almost to a convulsion.
This must be the most unsightly and the most ugly cemetery in the world!
This is probably the oldest cemetery in Nigeria as some tombstones’ inscriptions bear 1900.
To think that Ikoyi-Obalende must be among the most prized real estate spaces in Africa.
IKOYI was for decades, the prime residential abode of the British colonialists while Obalende beside it hosts Dodan Barracks, the seat of power during Nigeria’s troubled days of military power.
This cemetery is not just the resting place of eminent personalities of Lagos, it is a swathe of Lagos’ epochs, Nigeria’s history and a tome of colonial records.
Without searching, one could observe marbled inscriptions of scions of Herbert Macaulay, Adeniyi-Jones and a scattering of British colonialists and missionaries, their tombs desecrated and defiled.
As the accompanying pictures reveal, Ikoyi Cemetery is almost the verisimilitude of an evil forest today. Weeds and shrubs have overgrown the very large expanse of land.
Though it’s supposed to be a resting place, anomie reigns supreme and it looks like a picture of Hades.
Every space in between the rows of vaults has been taken up making the entire ground choked and chaotic. Old family marbled vaults have been breached and left open, creating veritable abodes for reptiles.
IKOYI-OBALENDE LCDA SHAME: There must be a method to managing cemeteries, especially such an ancient, sacred one like this.
For one, it can be rid of wild weeds and kept clean, spick and span. Clearing of weeds and planting of flowers cannot be rocket science in 2025 can it?
Most disturbing is that right opposite the Ikoyi Cemetery is the secretariat of the Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA. From the windows of their high-rise offices, officials can see the sordid state of the facility.
Ordinarily, the cemetery ought to be under the care of the LCDA but governance in Nigeria has been turned upside down, particularly in Lagos.
LASG IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION, WHERE’S ALL THE MONEY: Not only are the grassroots governments denied revenue streams, but federal government direct allocations are not allowed to trickle to the last mile.
Lagos no doubt generates the most revenues among states in Nigeria. It is particularly so today with enhanced funds from fuel subsidy withdrawal.
Since 2019, the current Lagos state government seems to have lapsed into a state of suspended animation. Hardly anything major has happened in the last six years.
Apart from completing Lagos light rail project which had been on for decades, and the ongoing Lekki-Epe Expressway, no other remarkable work can be recorded to Governor Babajide Sanwoolu’s name.
Big ticket projects like the 4th Mainland Bridge and Lekki Airport, among others, can’t seem to take off.
How many new schools, hospitals, housing estates, and even new roads have been built by Governor Sanwoolu? What great visions and signature initiatives would we ascribe to him? Lagos’ basic amenities have remained as they were left by former governors Babatunde Fashola and Akinwummi Ambode. What shall history record as the Sanwoolu legacy!
Where are the huge resources accruing to Lagos state? For instance, Lagos got N531.1 billion in 2024 (the highest among states). And by half year 2025, it has already received N464.51 billion, also the highest in the land.
LGAs in Lagos average N2 billion every month with some getting as much as N3 billion this year. Internally generated revenues in Lagos are also the highest to be got anywhere in the country.
Where’s all the money?
Some residents have lived in unpaved streets with uncharted water channels in Lagos state since 1999. It’s an aberration that LGAs are not enabled to fix inner roads anymore. These huge funds are not applied to the various localities. The LGA funds are dissipated by political godfathers. LGAs merely pay salaries.
Potholes are strewn on most roads, hardly any inner roads or streets are fixed. We had lived in Lagos when nearly all the streets were tarred and drainages well channeled.
Lagos has however, deteriorated badly in the last six years.
LAGOS PECULIAR: We all know the peculiar and punishing nature of Lagos’ governance since 1999. It’s bad enough to have a godfather, when he’s the president of the country, that becomes double jeopardy.
With President Bola Tinubu as the godfather in Lagos, the governor is a mere puppet. Being governor of Lagos state must be the ‘rubbishest’ job in the world today. In the same breath, the governor has no leverage or overriding influence over the state’s legislature. How does he function? How can he function?
A supposedly elected governor with nary any authority to envision, execute or express his leadership style, is a voided entity. It is as good as having no governor at all.
Lagos State has indeed, been a nullity since 2019. Fashola and Ambode mustered the resolve (you can say balls) to stamp their authorities. And they have glowing legacies to show for this.
But history shall record the Sanwoolu era as eight years of vacuous emptiness.
The people of Lagos must rise up as one and say, NEVER AGAIN, shall we have this debilitating lame-duck situation in Lagos. They must choose to shun the godfathers at the polls.
It is also hoped that someday, proper accounts shall be given of the humongous funds earned by the state during this period.
FINAL ANALYSIS: If the oldest cemetery in Lagos is so unkempt and derelict, what else is the government (local and state) getting right?
Osuji was editor at The Guardian and THISDAY, among other national newspapers.
Feedback: steve.osuji@gmail.com
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