Project Alimosho Heritages gets Operational Tool as Ambode Inaugurates Lagos Theatre

Story by Toyo C. Ngem

It was jubilation in the camp of Barlade Image Communications (B.I.C.) on Wednesday (15/05/2019), as Governor Akinwunmi Ambode delivered Alimosho’s leg of Lagos Theatre to the public.

The organisation had keenly looked forward to this event as the core content required from the side of government to deliver the set objectives of Project Alimosho Heritages (PAH).

In his speech for the event, Governor Ambode described Alimosho to be one of the five local governments that benefited from his administration’s “promise to create a new economy around tourism, hospitality, entertainment and sports”. Other local governments that host the remaining four Lagos Theatre are Badagry LGA, Ikeja LGA, Epe LGA and Ikorodu LGA.

But going down memory lane to connect this Lagos Theatre Hall to PAH, B.I.C. Director, Mrs. M. O. Shutti-Jimoh, said she “would have preferred this tourism edifice to be recognised as Alimosho Theatre Arts and Cultural Hall”.  She was however quick to state that she could reason with the State government’s explanation that such identity could be misconstrued to mean that the Theatre was built by Alimosho LGA, particularly when the future tendencies tilt more towards absolute demarcation between state’s and local government’s properties. Besides, as she said, “the identity matter only provides a gap the prospective PAH’s own edifice of Alimosho Cultural Arts and Monuments Place (ACAMP) would have to fill”.

Shutti-Jimoh went further to explain the conception origin and core objectives of PAH to establish their meeting points with the Lagos State’s policy directives on culture and tourism, which gave birth to the Lagos Theatre.

She said: “It may be emphasised here that B.I.C. idea of collating the monuments of Alimosho’s historical heritages only speaks the mind of Lagos State Government. The PAH’s objectives have their meeting points of concurrence with the policy directives of both the Executive and Legislative arms in paradigm shift on economy of tourism, entertainment and hospitality.

            “Not long ago yet in this administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed a resolution on the same subject of the need to collate the historical monuments and centres in Lagos State for their imperative preservation for the future generations. Curiously, this came just about two years after the implementation of PAH had commenced and progressed significantly.

            “However, the relevance of that resolution to the value of PAH as conceived is that the importance of historical monuments is made only out of generational myths attached to historical subjects. For instance, in the context of the supporting motion raised for the issue at the purported plenary of Lagos Assembly, Carter Bridge and Epetedo on Lagos Island were specifically mentioned as foremost in the enlistment. But in reality, these two are respectively common place infrastructure and area people pass through daily without conscious notice of their historical values.

            “Carter Bridge is historically the first ‘modern’ bridge built to fly people across the Lagoon in link of Lagos Island to Mainland. But down memory lane, this may not be the only issue of interest about it much as the myth of a self-sacrificial pact between the builder contractor and the ‘goddess of Lagoon”.

            She explained the myths and situates same in the metaphor of Epetedo as the place where Chief MKO Abiola sealed a similar pact with goddess of Democracy for Nigeria.

She said: “Local history has it that as the bridge was being built, it would encounter destruction at a stage. Through a‘mysterious power’ of the contractor, as the tale goes, the goddess of the sea around the axis was discovered to be responsible for the destruction. Determined to do his works, the contractor was said to have dived into the bed of the sea to meet the goddess where a treaty of his death was signed if the goddess would allow the bridge to stay. The death was said to be by way of returning to the sea bed to live permanently with the goddess after completing the bridge.

            “Metaphorically, Epetedo could also be described as a place where the fate of Nigeria’s democracy was sealed into irreversible existence with the ‘death pact’ Chief MKO Abiola signed with the ‘goddess’ of democracy too: that he would sacrifice his life if democracy could be allowed to have its roots in Nigeria. This is so because it was place where Chief Abiola declared himself as the duly elected President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria on account of the results of June 12, 1993 Presidential election. For that action, he was arrested by the Military Government in power and imprisoned. He never returned from the prison alive”.

According to her, the import of this analysis in contexts of the purported Lagos Assembly’s Resolution was to say that the historical values of places, events and monuments from the ancient time of Alimosho will only come out when they are given the isolated documentation of their respective relevance of their times. “This is how PAH connects with the governance philosophy of the legislative arm of the Lagos State Government”, she said.

            Going further, she said “the coming of Governor Ambode to officially commission the Alimosho’s 500-audience capacity Lagos Theatre and Cinema also presupposes the meeting of the PAH’s objectives with the policy thrust of the Cabinet Office of the Lagos State Government. The inauguration implied the delivery of that iconic tourism infrastructure for undoubtedly the like of PAH’s prospective use”.

            She said it was “a good thing that Ambode delivered on his promise and we at B.I.C. should be the happiest people in Alimosho  to receive this gesture. You know why? While receiving the idea behind PAH, the Governor said this project (Lagos Theatre), would be delivered to Alimosho people year, though referring to 2018.

            “He told us never to be skeptical about that schedule because the fund had been captured in that year’s budget. It was for this reason that we had since kept vigil at the project site from January this year, monitoring the progress of works to completion. We did that because somehow, the fate of PAH’s further implementation progress is tied to it”.