Badagry, an ancient slave tourist centre, is decaying. The Menu-Toyon, Oba Menu – Toyon II, in an exclusive interview with Steve Ogwu-Chinuwa at his Boekoh Quarters Palace in Badagry, bares his mind on the decaying
tourist slave town and on other issues affecting his domain.
EXCERPTS:
As a royal father, what has been the challenges facing your domain?
May I first introduce myself as the Meno the Second, a First Class white cap chief, the Mobee of Badagry Kingdom, Mobee Quarters, Badagry. The challenges that face Badagry are so enormous in times of infrastructure developments. You asked me about the poor developmental structures in Badagry? Yes, Badagry has been an ancient city as far back as 1485 but the problems facing Badagry are as enormous as I said earlier. And the Lagos State government cannot do it all without the assistance of the federal government. But we thank God for the regime of indefatigable Governor B.R. Fashola. We thank him so much because without him, Badagry would not enjoy the little developments that you are seeing now. And most importantly, Governor Fashola has performed wonderfully. Also, we have to give kudos to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as well because Gov. Fashola is following in Asiwaju footsteps. So kudos should be given to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Bagu of Badagry Kingdom. Having said that, you see the community needs to be improved drastically, being an ancient city. But we have been sidelined for a long time ago because the past Governors have overlooked Lagos State. Let me put it this way, governments have been paddling the ship of Lagos State a long time ago, but we thank God for this our amiable governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola. He has promised us a lot of things in Badagry – like a golf course, professional centers, energy city, reclamation of the waterfront lands which is an on-going process and he has also promised to rebuild both primary and secondary schools in Badagry.
Slave Trade Relics
Yes if I want to comment on the slave trade reliecs, in fact all the 8 quarters in Badagry have participated in slave trade business. But we thank God today that our own ancestors, the Mobee have preserved a very good monument for the prosperity of children, because it is only our compound, Chief Mobee’s compound, that you can find relics that have been preserved as far back as 1852 to be precise. It is only in our compound that you can find relics that we used in capturing slaves in those days, leg chains, hand chains and the lip chains. The chains they are in our museum and the museum was so small. But by the time that Governor Fashola visited it, he instructed the state Ministry of Works to site a very good museum that can accommodate about two hundred people at a go, and it is a part of the Badagry projects that will be actualized. We also have the first four story building which was built in 1842 by Reverend Golmer. Then the slave ports is also here in my domain as well as the Point of No Return, slave paracon, divisional officers residence, early missionaries’ ministry, etcetera, is here in my domain. I want to tell you that Mobee Quarters harbors almost about 90 of monuments and artifacts in Badagry today. So in all these, the state Government wants to improve upon them.
Importation of arms and ammunition into Apapa Ports
Yes I saw the program on CNN the other day. In fact I am not happy about the whole development. But I learned that the goods were not meant for Nigeria but a foreign country. Eventually it was captured in our port here. How does it manage to enter into the Nigeria port? That is the question. So there is a kind of foul play somewhere in that area. Maybe they are just trying to hide it from us but I think the Federal Government (when I say federal government, I mean President Jonathan) should wake up and get people that know much about these things. They should try and build up a very good security network in Nigeria because all of us here are afraid of these happenings. We do not pray for bloodshed but with the recent developments at our ports.. You can imagine the day Nigeria was celebrating its 50th anniversary; in there was a bomb blast. In fact it is a shame to this country, it is a shame to Nigeria, it is a shame to everybody. But by the special grace of God we are praying to President Goodluck Jonathan as president of Nigeria today to look inwards into Nigeria’s security problem. When we say youth, yes youth have something upstairs more than these old people..
Governor Fashola has done a lot of job in Lagos State. Concerning prison inmates, if you look years back the kind of Black Maria the prisons authorities use in conveying prison inmates, from their prison yards to court. In fact it is barbaric but now Governor Fashola has donated buses for such purposes that the prison inmates should have a sense of belonging. And again, I was watching AIT when prison inmates at Kaduna prison went amock. The federal Government is to blame for the jail breaks recorded in various prisons. When you prosecute a person, do it immediately and if he or she is found guilty, pass the sentence. If not, let him or her go free instead of congesting the prisons with awaiting trial inmates. So both the federal government and state governments should do something good for the prison and prisoners’ welfare.