Lagos Assembly calls for renaming of sites, monuments named after Colonial Masters

The Lagos State House of Assembly has called on Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to direct the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture to liaise with the Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice to look at the listed sites (Prevention) Law, 2015 with a view to removing all vestiges of slave trade and colonialism.

This motion was moved by the Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Noheem Adams representing Eti-Osa constituency 01 at the plenary session on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

In the Motion, the lawmaker recalled the gruesome killing of George Floyd, an American who was killed on Monday 25th May, 2020 at Minneapolis, Minnesota United States of America by a white man named Derek Chauvin.

“The Assembly further noted that this brutal and callous murder of Floyd triggered worldwide condemnations, demonstrations, and protests against the continued police violence and racism of blacks in US and Europe without provocation”.

“The House is aware that these protests further drew attention to the reality of systematic racism, oppression and domination of blacks by whites in spite of abolition of vexatious slave trade and related activities since the 18th century”.

“This House is further aware that the demonstration brought about the pulling down of status of Edward Colston, a notable slave trader into a river in Bristol, London, while the British authorities removed from her museum status of another prominent slave master and promised a review of history pertaining to slave trade monument and sites,” he said.

In his comment, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa stated that the intendment of the Motion was not about history, and that history could not be changed.

Obasa added that statues are not our history, and that Africans all over the world should give backing to the blacks that are fighting for the rights of blacks.

He added that the kind of treatments meted to George Floyd must be stopped and that we should support those who are protesting against such an act.

“South Africa got her independence much later than the rest African countries and they are not talking about ‘Black Lives Matters’ campaign.

“We must protect the interest of our people all over the world. So many statues in London and other places are being brought down. We should change the names of some of these buildings. We cannot bring down the buildings because they were once used by colonial masters.

“We can change the names of some of these buildings and streets. Some of the names remind us of these people that enslaved our people.”

“We need to change the names, but it does not affect our history. We should look at the history,” he said.

The Speaker further asked why anybody would ascribe the discovery of River Niger to Mungo Park and Richard Landers brothers.

“Does that mean people were not living there before the arrivals of the foreigners”? He asked.

Obasa went further to say that even the name Nigeria was given to us by our the colonial masters.

“It is what you believe that says who and what you are. It is about what you believe and what you can do on your own.

“You need to exhibit your own beliefs and culture. Most times, we speak like foreigners and some of our children cannot speak our mother tongues”.

“We are saying that our own language is inferior to their own language. We should let our children know that we are superior.