“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture, is like a tree without roots.”- Marcus Garvey
The above quote by Marcus Garvey echoes the relevance of history to humanity. It is so unfortunate that today, most people do not know their history or even the history of their environments. The megacity Lagos dream of today has its roots and without proper documentation, this beautiful history and culture will be forgotten. Of course, Lagos is a large city with so many historical backgrounds of different parts of the state, it will be a herculin task to cover all these parts in just one article, so let us focus on one part for today; Ikoyi-Obalende historical background.
What You Need to Know About Ikoyi-Obalande Historical Background
Before the tall beautiful buildings you see today at Ikoyi, Ikoyi-Obalende used to be a scarcely inhabited area, the area was known for farming and hunting, a certain farming area which used to be known as “Oko Alagbon” (Coconut Plantation) is now the ground for the popular polo club. It was the increasing expansion of the then colonial era in Lagos and the development of Marina that later led to the development of more lands in the area to accommodate the increasing numbers of British officers and senior Nigerian civil servants in the early years of amalgamation.
This new development happened during the era of Governor MacGregor, as the area was inhabiting more people, there arose an immediate need for sanitization and the governor’s administration began to drain the Okokomaiko swamp, they also constructed a carnal through Lagos Island from the north to the south, this carnal separated Lagos Island from Ikoyi and was named after the then colonial governor, “Sir MacGregor Carnal”.
In a bid to separate residential areas between Europeans and Natives, a policy was made, as a result of this policy, the Northeast and Southeast areas of Ikoyi were allocated to senior British officers, Diplomats, and Industry Leaders, while the Southwest part of Ikoyi (Keffi) was allocated to senior African staffs. This arrangement lasted until the early years of Nigeria’s independence, and since then Ikoyi became the main hub of the Federal Government of Nigeria, post-colonial era.
After the era of the colonial masters, a transition in government from military to civilian occurred in October 1979, the new civilian government under the leadership of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande expanded the eight local government areas to twenty-three. Unfortunately, this only lasted till the 31st of December 1983 due to the coming of the military government, the military government annulled all the newly established local government areas created by the civilian government. There was a new order by the military government for all states to revert to the provisions made by the 1976 Local Government Reforms. This new rule continued until August 27, 1991, when the military government created fifteen new local government councils throughout the federation. Consequently, the people of Lagos State made multiple requests for the creation of more LCDAs, it was the request that let to the creation of the Ikoyi-Obalende local government area in October 2003, and thirty-six other LCDAs in the state.
According to data sourced from https://ikoyiobalendelcda.lg.gov.ng/
Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area comprises five (5) electoral wards namely:
Ward “A” Obalende
Ward “B” Ijeh and Dolphin
Ward “C” Inside Ikoyi, Parkview and Lugard
Ward “D” Warders Barracks, Keffi and Awolowo Road
Ward “E” Ikoyi
Today, Ikoyi has become the beauty of many eyes, moderately populated and well planned. It has also become the home of top government functionaries, businessmen, and industry experts.