THE OMO ONILE SYNDROME in LAGOS Rufus T. Akinyele The
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CONTESTING FOR SPACE IN AN URBAN CENTRE: THE OMO ONILE SYNDROME IN LAGOS Rufus T. Akinyele We wish to make known to you that as a family land, only the family Head and Principal members of the family have the right to alienate to any individual, group or corporate organisation, any portion of our client’s family land. Th is category of the members of our client’s family is clearly not your vendor, and is unaware of any sale to your organisa- tion. It would therefore appear as if you have dealt with impostors and charlatans, who have no interest or right whatsoever to convey to you. As highly educated and articulate members of the public, we have no doubt in our mind that you are aware that the doctrine pertaining to the sale of land is ‘buyers beware’.1 Th e above is an extract, from a letter addressed to the Chairman of Faculty of Arts Cooperative Society of the University of Lagos by a solicitor to a land owning family in the suburb of Lagos. Th e key issue raised in the letter generally illustrates the problem of competition and access to land and housing in Lagos. Th e activities of the traditional landowners, popularly known as Omo Onile, are now widely recognised as “a serious menace and impediment to land market operations in Lagos”.2 Th is chapter discusses the subject of land ownership in histori- cal perspective and shows that it is essentially through the control of access to land that the indigenes of Lagos have distinguished themselves from strangers and migrants as true Lagosians in a city that has oft en been described as ‘a no-man’s land’.3 Lagos has the record of being the fi rst city in West Africa to have a population of over one million people. Th is record was attained as far back as 1963 (Sada and Adefolalu 1975: 79–107). Th e phenomenal 1 Letter from Foluso Fayokun & Co. to President and Chairman of University of Lagos Cooperative Society, Faculty of Arts, dated 14 October, 2005. 2 Iseh, F.I. 2005. “Th e Omo Onile Syndrome and the Urban Land Development Question: Th e Case of Lagos Metropolis”. Special Report, presented at the Faculty of Environmental Science Seminar, University of Lagos. 3 Kunle Lawal has tried to respond to this claim in a lecture delivered at the Centre for Lagos Studies of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto/Ijanikin on 18th June 2002. See Lawal, K. 2002. In Search of Lagosians: Social-Political Issues of the 21st century. CEFOLAS Distinguished Lecture series. 110 rufus t. akinyele growth in recent times has also informed the projection that by 2015, Lagos might become the third most populous city in the world, with a population of 24 million coming aft er Tokyo with 28.7 million and Bombay with 27.4 million people (Osuntokun 2001: 495).4 Th e rapid expansion is best understood in the context of the opportunities Lagos off ers diff erent categories of people (Olukoju 2003: 7). As Margaret Peil (1991: 1) rightly noted, the problem of the city appear intractable and the condition of the masses is appalling. Yet, the ‘invigorating liveliness’ and the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ of Lagos have continued to attract people into the city. Indeed, Lagos, ‘Ilu Ogbon’,5 is one place in which “much of the world is represented”, even though majority of the inhabitants have always been Yoruba whose culture is also dominant. Lagos is made up of two parts, the Island and the Mainland. Th e Island comprises places like Isale Eko, Obalende, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Ajah while the Mainland includes Iddo, Oyingbo, Yaba, Ebute Metta, Agege, Ikeja, Alausa, Ipaja and so on. Th e radius between the core area in Isale Eko and the outermost part of the mainland section in any particular direction is over 20 kilometres. Since the 1980s, the city has witnessed phenomenal growth in the northern and eastern direc- tions. It has spilled over into the neighbouring Ogun State in Iju and Ogudu areas. Incidentally, the city is poorly planned and the government housing schemes provide accommodation for only the privileged few who can aff ord the cost. Th e diff erent administrations have established diff erent housing schemes, starting with Yaba and Ebute Metta in the 1930s. However, the number of the units has always been inadequate. Now, the cost of a two-bedroom apartment is about N3.5 million which is clearly beyond the reach of the middle class. Th is has left majority of the people no other choice than to struggle to rent their own accom- modation or acquire the piece of land to build their own houses. Th is is where the encounter with the Omo Oniles becomes crucial. Th e word Omo Onile is a Yoruba expression that means ‘children of the owners of the land’. According to Chief David Olalekan Orisan,6 the 4 See also the article of Adeyeye, J. 2006. “ ‘Lagos is the fastest growing megacity in the world’—UN report”, Th e Punch, June 19 (2), quoting the UN—HABITATS, State of the World’s Cities, Report 2006/7. 5 Ilu Ogbon means the city of the wise. 6 Interview with Chief David Olalekan Orisan, Baale (traditional ruler) of Isawo in Ikorodu, Palace, March 2006..