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And the Streets Remained Nameless

by Sola Ogunbajo [ 2003 ]
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The move to Abuja was based on the findings of the Aguda Panel. The Panel cited a range of reasons that cast Lagos in a negative light. The findings included anti-social behavior, a lack of housing, poor infrastructure passed on by the former colonial master etc. ills linked with the urban sprawl and bad town planning generally. So on December 10 1975, the group reported to the military government that Lagos could no longer cater adequately to the needs of its teeming population without unnecessary hardship to the people. There was a perceived need to start again a tabular rasa that would generate manageable problems. To create a capital that was planned and ordered from inception, located centrally to unite the unstable entity that Nigeria was/is. It was also seen as an opportunity to express in someway an authentic African architecture The move sanctioned by General Murutala R. Muhammad begun construction under the leadership of President Shehu Shagari in 1981. Architecture as solution to social/political problems.
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Lagos with its short -comings in an apparently punitive act was being abandoned to its fate. In a country where the civil service is a prime employer almost single-handedly for the internal economy it was presumed that this would constitute a serious set back for the city. To Yoruba, the people who occupy the south-west of the country where Lagos is located however, it was a relief. The constant political maneuverings the seat of the Federal Capital with its accompanying instabilities which imposed its own restrictions and contortions would from henceforth occur elsewhere. It was assumed by its inhabitants that Lagos would take advantage of the relaxed scrutiny by others in the country to exploit the advantages bequeathed as a consequence of being the former capital of British West Africa. It has not turned out that way however. There are several reports detailing the actual conditions of Lagos which through the years has retained certain constant characteristics. Architecture of Fear, Tunde Agbola- Institute of African Studies, Ibadan. Urban renewal in Nigeria Edited by Habbeb Shuaeeb The consequence of the move to the average Nigerian therefore, was minimal. Omovo followed her silently. She led him into the ghetto night.

They went up the street and came to another intersectionThey passed children who screamed at the roadside as if they were utterly lost. Their sullen fathers smoked cigarettes while their harassed mothers, who sold cheap provisions, attended wearily to customers, Omovo smelt the burning wick of kerosene lamps on the night air Ifeyiwa turned suddenly down a street without a name. It was a dark street and the houses had no electricity. The air was filled with the sounds of night insects Dangerous Love-Ben Okri The streets remained nameless. Perhaps the only constituencies affected where the federal civil servants who had to move and the contractors who had further to travel and in some cases relocated to maintain their proximity to power. It is clear to all that economic stability is the determining factor with respect to problems affecting the city. The responsibility for the current predicament of the city and the nation in general must lie with the leaders, whose ineptitude is well documented and plain for all to see. What is less trumpeted is the culpability of the West. So far the West has done little to help and has often made matters worse. It is hypocritical of the West to blame Nigeria for corruption, fraud and drug running and to demand that Nigerians own up to their foreign debt while at the same time allowing the funds garnered from nefarious dealings to be deposited in Western banks a man who receives stolen goods is called a fence what do call a country who receives stolen goods? asked Dr Folarin Gbadebo-Smith. This House has Fallen- Karl Maier Most Nigerians garrulous by nature can only ask questions. The first few years post-Abacha have revealed how constrained the leadership actually is. The need for foreign investment, real international engagement is clear. But this is where grid lock occurs. Reticent foreign investment will not begin to move until Nigerians begin to invest wealth accumulated abroad in Nigeria (Economist). This is unlikely to happen as these individuals, (usually past and present leaders) are intimately aware of the unproductive inefficient impotent condition of the city and the nation in general. A loss leader situation has arisen, only those with very very deep pockets are able to address the situation. In the interim the grey economy of the Diaspora intervenes. Big business, forever seeking new markets is poised to act, but requires a trekkers guidebook. This cartography is required to reduce uncertainty and thus package risk, (the aim of conquest) is on going and advanced. This book on Lagos along with a number of others (This House has Fallen, Dispatches from Africa etc.) is very much part of the project. Lagosians should note the nature of these particular observations however. The study is at once interesting and curious, at times embarrassing, humorous, revealing bordering on the pornographic. At other times it is a sad conformation of ones most pathetic suspicions. In the light of this taxonomy the guardians of the city will need to revise the intellectual and ii rhetorical schematizations of the west that have hitherto been relied upon to explain the contemporary physical conditions of the city. Peddling the well-worn stories of a western conspiracy, although true will no longer be accepted as the only explanation. Culpability will be apportioned appropriately. Also apparent in the Handbook is the room for maneuverability that exists between the mapper and the mapped. In the cat-and-mouse game that is the hegemony by which we are all subject to, a degree of obfuscation is permitted. This apparent concession is the result of the brief periods of genuine self appraisal and questioning immediately after both World Wars particularly the second. During these periods it was established as a matter of policy that the centre will always require a (manageable) periphery for selfdefinition. The shroud must therefore of necessity, mutate mindful of the new methods of surveillance and the dire consequences of complete measurement. Fortunately the city fathers have an abundance of raw material for the exercise in the extremely aware economically poor multitude that inhabit the city. The human networks must be put to different and varied use. Site of interesting other (exotic) therefore remains a valid position for the city to assume.

This Handbook, the measuring and mapping, imagining of landscape in the mind, inscribed onto paper is the easy part. The physical penetration, the actual imposition of will, can only be traumatic. On a continuous learning curve, the occidents ever more sophisticated methods of remote control will ensure the desired result i.e. the control so central to the project, loosing the battle for hearts and minds in the process. The powers of recovery of people whose space is frequently the subject of hostile vector forces will also be taken for granted. These forces are responsible however, at least to a degree. Trade is the greatest enforcer of mutual dependence, be it permissible or otherwise and in this new era of neo-colonialism the scotch-earth earth polices of the past may no longer be as easy or as desirable. Post-conquest, what would be the spatial consequences for city? Islands of enclaves amid a sea of slums each precinct revealing its genealogy by way of the nature of its infrastructure? New and old estates, foreign/expatiate conurbations and indigenous counterparts; the trajectory of mimicry reinforced? Perhaps. But consider the following Kurtz and Marlow acknowledge the darkness, the former as he is dying, the latter as he reflects retrospectively on the meaning of Kurtzs final words. They (and of course Conrad) are ahead of their time in understanding that what they call the darkness has an autonomy of its own. But Marlow and Kurtz are also creatures of their time and cannot take next step, which would be to recognize that what saw, disabling and disparagingly, as a non-imperialism so as one day to regain sovereignty and independence, and not, as Conrad reductively says, to reestablish the darkness. Conrads tragic limitation is that even though he could see clearly that on one level imperialism was essentially pure dominance and land-grabbing, he could not then conclude that imperialism had to end. Conrad could not grant the natives their freedom, despite his severe critique of the imperialism that enslaves them. Culture and imperialism- Edward Said For the Omovos of Lagos or Mckenzie Warks antipodes a degree of certitude has long ago been established, indeed from the eighteenth century in fact: The antipodes, the other pole, the other foot, always being defined by what is peripheral to- always in a passing state between difference and identity always being neither here nor there. For them their conditions will persist, the response however will eventually differ: The night became cold and dark coverlet of the sky which pressed on his skull. The pool of scum gave off a bad smell He began to paint. The room was stuffy and hot, and mosquitoes whined and stung him in vulnerable places. He worked with unswerving determination. He caressed the canvas with brush stokes of deep muddy greens and reds. Out of all this he painted a snot-colored scum pool full of portentous shapes and heads with glittering, dislocated eyes. He knew what he wanted to do. And was happy. Dangerous Love-Ben Okri A realm that precedes architecture, construction or big business, is the lived world, Omovos world. This world possesses enough happiness, goodness joy and productivity to provide the extracts/fragments of memory with which Omovo can fashion the hope today for all the futures tomorrow. These memories are often uncomplicated, non triumphant in nature, they are the building blocks of stories that allow the simple iv celebration of the human spirits victory over forces inimical to self extension Houses were squat and unpainted where cables sagged on wooden poles Further on along the street they saw the stall of a woman who sold Akara, fried fish and fried plantain. They smelt the oil smoke in the air. The stall, with the womans large frying pan over the grill of blazing firewood, was the only point of illumination in the street.

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Beyond, in the darkness they heard the stains of traditional music. They went on. The road sloped downwards Ifeyiwa ran down. Omovo ran after her. They got to the bottom they were both panting. Ifeyiwas eyes shone. Her breasts heaved. They were silent and they kept looking at each other. Traditional music sounded all around them. They turned a corner and found to their amazement that the entire street had been taken up by an open-air party. In the middle of the street there were wooden chairs and round tables. Poles had been stuck in the ground. Red light and blue florescent tubes attached to the poles. There was a standby generator. There was a live band on a wooden platform. They performed a popular Apala tune which sang praises to the celebrants. Lets join them Ifeyiwa said We are not properly dressed, Omovo said Ifeyiwa laughed and said Lets dance. Dangerous Love-Ben Okri Some streets will always remain nameless. The move to Abuja and the consideration by the west as the gateway to a new frontier offers unique opportunities as we have seen in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai etc. To be an official contributor to the hybrid entity being constructed by globalization is useful as well as fought with perils. It is unwise to ignore price demanded; the construction of ones centre as anothers periphery but given the concessions mentioned earlier i.e. Omovos world it remains a risk well worth taking by all concerned.

African Architecture; Evolution and Transformation- Nnamdi Elleh Towards a Critical Theory of Postcolonial African Identities- Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze. iii The Measures of America- Dennis Cosgrove iv Myth, Literature and the African World- Wole Soyinka
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This paper has been published on Scribd by the BUKKA TRUST [2013]

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Facilitating a dialogue on spatial issues through a variety of prisms: cultural, art, literary and the more conventional forms of architectural and urban notation.