The callous and vicious manner a 161 year old heritage building was destroyed on Lagos Island last week has been generating a lot of criticism from the culture and arts community and the entire people of Lagos,both home and abroad ever since the building popularly called “Olaiya House” llojo House or Casa do Fernandez built in 1855 was destroyed by bulldozers belonging to private property developers.
The office of the LAGOS@50 Festival Committee has released a statement to all Lagosians and especially the Afro-Brazilians for a dialogue on the way forward on historical buildings all around Lagos and especially on the Lagos Island.
The Legacy Group, a historical and environmental interest group in Nigeria, is collating signatures for a petition against the demolition of Ilojo Bar. Kindly sign the petition HERE
No official statement has been issued yet by the Minister of Information and Culture,Alhaji Lai Mohammed or the office of the National Monuments and Museum or any relative authority in Charge.
This won’t be another “cold case” as the matter has been brought before International organisation protecting Heritage sites all around the world.
A Message from LAGOS@50
To Lagosians and Especially the Afro-Brazilans.
You are invited to a sensitisation encounter at SPEAKER’S CORNER, Freedom
Park, Broad Street Lagos.
The message on the celebration logo exhorts us to ENHANCE (NOT Denounce) the Heritage. In spite of on-going Initiatives, to preserve and enhance the -in this case, Afro Brazilian Heritage that narrates History, not merely of Lagos but of the African Diaspora in monuments – the OLAIYA Building in Tinubu Square was clandestinely bulldozed in some commercial development interest during the recent extended Muslim holiday.
This has been an on-going struggle, especially since National Independence. In order to pre-empt a repeat under the ever-hovering bulldozers, please let us gather at the Speakers corner on October 22nd, 2016 at Freedom Park, to discuss strategies against a repeat of this midnight assault on a common Patrimony.
What we find especially galling and embarrassing is that this accelerated demolition took place at the very time when at least two foreign governments had committed to assisting with the preservation of the
Brazilian structures in Lagos and had begun is work closely with Nigerian preservationists.
The format will be an Open House exchange with the hopeful consensus of an appeal, not only to the government of Lagos but to the Federal government to adopt and effect a uniform policy for the Preservation of ALL national heritage sites and buildings even in the frenzy of development.
