…Govt bullish with efforts
…Experts call for human face, heritage preservation
…Go to virgin areas – masses urge
This summer, many holidaymakers in New York, including some Nigerian tourists, have been frolicking at the city’s famous Central Park, an open garden and hotbed for leisure and family relaxation.
But beneath the sprawling well-manicured lawns, trees, sit-outs, paved walkways and world-class recreational facilities lies the buried history of Seneca Village.
The village was a once-thriving African-American community built in 19th-century New York by free Black families, who owned land, raised children, and lived with dignity, until the city’s demolition to create the Central Park.
While that is in a distant land, the same happens here, in different shades. For those who cherish local destinations for their holiday, particularly at Ibadan, there is little to desire at their once enthralling Agodi Forest and Botanical Gardens, which was renamed Agodi Park and Gardens by Abiola Ajimobi, the immediate past governor of the state, who is now late.
A substantial portion of the awesome forest reserve (about 200 plots) has given way for real estate projects, reducing its tourism appeal, wildlife conservation, and exposing the remaining land area to environmental degradation.
Elsewhere in Enugu, The Palms Polo Park has been sitting on 80,000m2 on Abakaliki Road since November 2011 when it opened to the public with more than 27,000 m2 of retail space, a family entertainment centre and 1,400 car parking spaces.
Sadly, the large expanse of land on which the imposing shopping mall stands today, once hosted the good old Polo Amusement Park, Enugu, which in the past, was the centre of attraction in the Coal City and the old Eastern region. Then, a visit to Enugu without stepping into the park was considered incomplete.
For many, who grew up in Enugu and who always recall memories of the exciting activities at the old polo amusement park with nostalgia, converting the park to a shopping mall was a wrong way to preserve Coal City’s heritage.
They keep arguing that Enugu has enough empty land for infrastructural development, hence the shopping malls erode the cherished heritage of the old polo park than boost it.
From the Nekede Zoo in Owerri, which has been turned to a different use, Lagos Bar Beach into Eko Atlantic City, Maroko community sacked for luxury estates, among others, there have been some developmental decisions by the government at all levels that, though with good intentions, have resulted in displacement of people, erasing of settlements or projects, alongside with their cherished history.
Of course, such actions are usually through coercion and promises made to the displaced or for rebuilding projects elsewhere are often never fulfilled.
In the case of the Agodi Park and Gardens, the reconstruction and renaming, according to the then governor, was to serve as one of the tourist sites in the state, amid the potential to generate over N5 billion annually.
But the current administration in the state seeks more value for the large expanse of the land with real estate as one of such values.
In his defense, Williams Akin-Funmilayo, Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Oyo State, described the conversion of some portions of the forest to a housing estate as a laudable development that would reduce housing deficit.
Also, considering that the forest has become a hideout for hoodlums, the conversion of some parts of the forest to a housing estate, according to him, is a proactive measure by the government to curb crime in the state.
“Thus, the government is justified for trying to add value to the environment by providing housing instead of keeping the forest and allowing it to remain a habitat for criminals, kidnappers, and evil doers in the society,” the commissioner explained.
Despite the assurance from the government that Agodi Gardens remains intact, the planned development that has been criticized by many including locals, tourism stakeholders and environmentalists, has been on.
“This is an attempt to sabotage environmental order for political profiteering,” a University of Ibadan trained lawyer, who pleaded for anonymity decried.
According to Rosalie Ann Modder-Oyefeso, team lead, Save Our Green Spaces, a safe environment advocacy group, the planned real estate will lead to construction and destruction of trees and root systems with disastrous consequences on the environment, lives and property of the residents of the city.
She noted that allowing the land to remain, would enable it to keep functioning as the watershed for the Ogunpa River and for the entire Ogunpa Forest Reserve, as well as safety for the people of Ibadan.
Sadly, the government did not pay attention to the advice of the environmentalist.
In the case of the old Polo Amusement Park in Enugu, Osita Izuka, a Port Harcourt-based Petrochemical Engineer, decried that the heritage is gone forever as the shopping mall sitting in place of the park has nothing to offer beyond groceries.
Izuka, an Udi-born, who grew up in Parklane, a street behind Polo Park, noted that while the shopping mall has provided job opportunities for many, the displacement of a cherished heritage for the mall was unnecessary, anti-development and a poor decision by the government.
“Sullivan Chime did well as governor of Enugu State, but the destruction of the polo for a mall was a minus for him,” Izuka said.
“Governor Chime, like every other past governor, was trying to do legacy projects that will immortalize his name. But he would have allowed the polo park to remain and take the shopping mall project elsewhere. He was ill-advised and many criticized him for pulling down the park till today because the park was history, heritage and the heart of Coal City for them. Sadly, it is gone forever. When a new and bigger mall comes, the present one will lose substantial patronage, but no polo park has emerged since then”.
Emeka Nmanyili, a graduate of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), who did part-time jobs at the polo park to pay his tuition fees in the early 90s, noted that the government is often destroying history and heritage with its developmental actions because it does not carry the people, who are the owners of the heritage along.
The past governors did not build the polo park, they cannot point to what they have done to improve public space, rather they prefer to pull down Micheal Okpara’s legacy projects for shabby ones, when there is expansive land to build whatever they want,” Nmanyili said.
The Awka-based property developer argued that the governors can site big projects like shopping malls in new areas as key infrastructure for new town development, rather than squeezing everything in the already built-up space, resulting in over population and crime.
“Our governments, especially the new generation governors, should cultivate the habit of preserving history and heritage rather than destroying them. Don’t recreate history; create your own, carve your names on the marble with new and impactful projects. We need new FESTAC towns, nature resorts, monumental edifices and better-built roads and bridges than shopping malls and high-purchase cars,” he said.
For Bode Demurin, a Lagos-based investment banker, the government’s approach to development is rash than thorough, as the residents are often not carried along, and environmental factors less considered.
“We all watch as a new city, twice the size of Victoria Island, is gradually springing up in Lagos. But it displaced the once famous Lagos Bar Beach, which was sand filled without providing alternative open beach and space for Lagosians,” Demurin decried.
“Today, people are dying due to stress and lack of relaxation as public beaches are gone and every remaining one is private or attracts huge entrance fees, amid stress and security concerns”.
The more worrisome for him is that every available public space in Lagos mainland has been converted to real estate by the government and its collaborators.
Real estate is for the growing Lagos population and to address housing deficit. But it should not be at the expense of public health and the environment. Alhaji Lateef Jakande, former governor of Lagos State, went to far places, where there are spaces to site his estates, which no governor has been able to replicate.
“I think that our government should learn to preserve public spaces as our heritage rather than destroying them with luxury estates,” he urged.
While the ambitious Eko Atlantic is sitting on once-thriving Lagos Bar Beach, former residents of Marako cannot trace their way in their once cherished home as luxury estates and new high-profile owners have taken over.
Some argue that the Lagos State government should have left a heritage of Maroko to serve as a memorial for former residents than sell out to developers, who sand filled all and sold to individual developers.
They also fear that Makoko and other waterlogged areas with shanties may likely face the same fate.
“I fear that Makoko will be gone soon. The signs are obvious, the sawmill is gone,” Kike Onabanjo, a tour operator, said.
She regretted that many Nigerians, especially policy makers, travel but have refused to learn from others who are doing well.
“There are shanties and ghettos everywhere in the world. Most countries are even preserving their ghettos, and Brazil in particular, is making millions of dollars from Ghetto Tourism because it preserved it rather than destroy them as we do in Nigeria,” she pointed out.
But elsewhere in Lagos, the government’s efforts have led to better preservation of a national monument into a culture and tourism hub.
The Freedom Park Lagos is one of the most-visited attractions in Lagos today for history, culture, tourism, amid facilities for hosting world class events.
It used to be a prison, where some notable Nigerians were destained in the past and was abandoned for 30 years before being converted into a serene oasis and in a way, offering sustainable preservation for the monument.
According to Theo Lawson, an architect and chief warden of Freedom Park Lagos, the park plays a big role as a spiritual refuge and counterbalance to urban development.
“This park was built on three legs; green area, memorial park and art space. This place is a place of refuge for many people that want to disconnect from the outside world and just relax with nature. We must put nature first,” he said.
He started the park because he felt that Lagos needed a place where people could sit, breathe and interact with nature, like Hyde and Central parks abroad.
Complementing Lawson’s views, Iyabo Aboaba, chief operating officer, Freedom Park, decried that many people want more outdoor spaces to sit and hold activities but there is a scarcity of such spaces in many cities.
“It is tough to live in Lagos, there are very few green areas and parks for children to play, this should not be. The government should build more parks and green spaces in communities, it would go a long way in improving people’s mental and physical health,” she said.
However, some development, environment, and tourism experts commend efforts at closing the infrastructure deficit gap, especially housing, but they insisted that such should be well-though-after and should not be at the expense of public safety, health and recreation.
“The disappearance of parks and gardens could exacerbate environmental issues, and expose people to the impact of climate change,” Boluwatife Aina, a botanist said.
It could also cause loss of jobs and revenue for tourism businesses.
“As a tour operator, people ask after Agodi Gardens and we tell them that it is still open, but they don’t believe us. When Lekki Conservation’s canopy walk was opened after renovation, it took time to convince clients to visit, same also for Olumo Rock. Tourism is a delicate industry, we need to keep our parks running to sustain the industry and even build more than destroy the few we have.
“It is a shame that people visit shopping malls for tourism instead of groceries. Go to parks, gardens, recreation centres, resorts, beaches, carves, natural wonders and festivals for tourism and not shopping malls,” she urged.
In conclusion, many called for balance in urbanization drive and nature to ensure that people are healthy enough to live in the concrete world being supported by the government and real estate developers than the natural world.
For them, urbanisation should be with heritage preservation, the environment and human face, as climate change and the destruction of the nation’s heritage are real.
