ROTIMI DUROJAIYE writes that concerns have continued to mount over abandonment of Federal Government buildings in Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre.
The numerous Federal Government abandoned properties in Lagos, among them the Federal Secretariat Complex Ikoyi, have continued to rot away even as the housing deficit in the country gets worse by the day.
Other government’s properties in this class include the Nigerian External Telecommunications building on Marina Street, the Defence House (formerly Independence Building) and the former Navy Headquarters building also on Marina Street.
Despite the contention by the Federal Government that there is no housing deficit in the country, the deficit has now hit 28 million units.
The 12-storey Federal Secretariat Complex in Ikoyi was part of the government properties offloaded into the property market between 2003 and 2006 by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
The complex, built in 1976, accommodated the entire Federal Civil Service but was abandoned in 1991 following the relocation of the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja.
The complex, which has been overgrown by weeds, along with the other properties, is a testimony of poor asset management in a country in dire need of any available space to house its largely ‘homeless’ citizens.
Besides residential housing opportunities, these properties could have been potential sources of revenue to the government if they were put to proper use. By remaining empty and out of use, they are now depreciating and losing value.
Checks by The Point revealed that the value of the Federal Secretariat, including the land and the physical structure, is about N40 billion and it could have been more if the asset had been in constant use.
“That asset is standing on prime land; don’t forget that it is in Ikoyi which is one of the most expensive locations in Nigeria”, an estate surveyor and valuer, who pleaded anonymity said in an interview on the value of the asset.
There has been an attempt; however, to convert the complex into a residential building after it was sold in 2005 for N7 billion to Resort International Limited which had the intention of redeveloping the complex into apartments that would accommodate 480 families.
Taking an average of five persons per family, comprising father, mother, two children and one domestic servant, the complex would have provided homes for about 2,400 persons. But the project was stalled.
As a former governor of the state who has been a strong advocate of special status for Lagos, and also as one who knows the social and economic needs of the state, all eyes are now on President Bola Tinubu to end the rot in the secretariat complex by ending the legal tussle clogging its redevelopment and optimal use.
“It would be an advantage to Nigerians if the custodians of the old Federal Secretariat look inwards and proffer creative ways the building can be transformed either for commercial or residential purposes,” the CEO of Fine and Country, Udo Okonjo noted.
According to the realtor, the secretariat complex could be converted to mixed use developments or work live and play.
“It can also be used as a co-work space, multi-studio apartments. Alternatively, it can be used as retail spaces to reduce the 2.7 million space deficit across the nation,” she advised.
“Checks by The Point revealed that the value of the Federal Secretariat, including the land and the physical structure, is about N40 billion and it could have been more if the asset had been in constant use”
“A lot of things are very difficult to understand in this country,” an estate manager, Debo Ajani, said.
He was also worried that a national asset like that secretariat was allowed to waste away and lose its value on a daily basis because of parochial interests.
“I am still in doubt if it is really the Lagos State government that is holding down the redevelopment of that facility into residential apartments to provide homes for the residents of the state,” he wondered.
He noted that with a housing deficit estimated at 3 million units and the determination to provide housing for the residents through partnership with the private sector, Lagos State government should be encouraging the redevelopment of that complex and not stalling it.
It would be recalled that, along with the 1004 Flats Estate in Victoria Island, Lagos, the Federal Secretariat Complex was among the few Federal Government properties sold to members of the public by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2006.
But unlike the 1004 Flats Estate, the Federal Secretariat has been in contention between the Lagos State government and Resort International Limited, which acquired the property when it was sold.
The Point learnt that the political will to revive some of these monuments as well as legal tussle among parties have led to the present state of the buildings.
This, professionals in real estate observed, has robbed the nation of over N3.5 billion potential revenue from the facilities.
Specifically, there were earlier efforts by the Federal Government to sell Federal Secretariat Complex in Ikoyi, a landmark edifice developed by the then military government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon to private individuals.
But, the move failed because the buyer- hospitality and leisure company, Resort International Limited, wanted to use it for purposes that were against the Lagos master plan for the area.
The 12-storey Federal Secretariat Complex in Ikoyi, Lagos was abandoned in 1991. The complex developed in 1976, served as the engine room of the Federal Civil Service, but is presently in a state where the major components such as doors, windows and other fittings are in disarray.
The old Federal Secretariat building in Ikoyi was advertised for bidders in a hotly contested bid, which was won by Resort International Group as the preferred bidder.
Investigation shows that Wale Babalakin, who won the bid for the secretariat with an investment of N7.2 billion, had planned its conversion into housing units.
Owner of the firm, Babalakin, had explained the controversy surrounding the project.
“After we came up with our own ideas of converting the place to apartments, interests began and these interests were negative interests. We paid N7 billion for the property in 2005. We moved to site around December 2015, we had completed the design, totally prepared the buildings, and removed all partitions for construction.’’
He said two years later, “some people claiming to be agents of Lagos State Government overran the place and stopped us from building.
“We discovered that the argument was that the building ought to have been sold to the state government and not anybody else. We lost an unthinkable amount of money, but fortunately for us, our lawyers anticipated the interference and had provided in the agreement that the Federal Government would be responsible for obtaining a no-objection approval from Lagos State Government, if necessary.
“So, it was actually the Federal Government’s responsibility to protect us from the state government. I continue to thank the body of lawyers, Babalakin and Co; they have really supported me in my various endeavours because without that clause, today, we would have been orphans.
Because of that clause, we went to arbitration against the Federal Government and we won. We will resume work as soon as all the ancillary issues are sorted.”
National Stadium, a shadow of its glorious past
A recent visit to the once elegant structure, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, erected for sports development and promotion, calls to question the nation’s attitude to maintenance culture.
The edifice that gave a name to the entire vicinity where it is located is, today, a shadow of its glorious past.
For the younger generation who were not around when the structure was built about 50 years ago, it was the pride of the nation and the best in Africa.
Built, specifically, in 1972, the then 55,000-capacity multi-purpose stadium had an Olympic-size swimming pool and a multi-purpose arena for athletics, rugby, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, wrestling and boxing.
It hosted the African Games in 1973 and other major sporting events like the 1980 and 2000 Africa Cup of Nations championships, the 1999 U-20 World Cup, and top continental competitions, amongst others.
The main bowl, which was reduced to 45,000 sitting- capacity in 1999, hosted its last major event — the 2000 AFCON — which Nigeria co-hosted with Ghana.
Since then, the once magnificent edifice has been left to rot away by successive administrations.
Following the opening of the 60,000-capacity Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2003, all attention, including that of the government, has shifted to Abuja.
While the Abuja stadium hosted the 2003 African Games, the Lagos stadium was relegated to the background.
According to reports, most of the facilities in the Lagos stadium are in decay.
The roof of the covered stands is torn off, the seats broken, the dressing rooms in tatters, the turnstiles and toilets a pigsty. Facilities like water are long forgotten stories.
The swimming pool, the indoor and knockdown halls, the tennis courts, and the practice pitches are in bad shape.
The entrance gates to the stadium itself were in one state of dilapidation or the other.
A large section of the grounds is overgrown with weeds and has become home to rodents and reptiles, while virtually every corner of the stadium has turned into a trash site.
In fact, an expert report stated that 40 per cent of the stands would soon cave in.
Following the dearth of sporting activities, the stadium also became a choice destination for all kinds of events like religious gatherings, weddings, community meetings, political rallies and music concerts.
Former Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, reportedly ordered the temporary closure of the stadium after the collapse of one of the giant floodlights at the arena. He estimated that it would cost N21 billion to renovate the stadium.
A professor of Building at the University of Lagos, Prof. Olumide Afolarin Adenuga, estimated the economic loss of the National Stadium, Lagos, between 2004 and 2018 at over N52.6 billion due to neglect and lack of maintenance.
According to a 2021 study by the Global Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, titled ‘Maintenance Culture in Nigeria – A Case Study of National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria’ on “a close examination, a maintenance plan was neither designed alongside nor implemented after construction, leaving the facility to suffer severe infrastructural decay.”
The situation of the Lagos Stadium has already drawn the attention of the present administration.
Sports Development Minister, John Owan-Enoh, said that the Federal Government was reconsidering concessioning the facility and might pull it down, to rebuild and bring it to a functional state, because of experience with the National Arts Theatre, also in Lagos which was rebuilt and is benefitting the creative industry.
The National Stadium, Lagos and the Federal Secretariat Complex are not the only national monuments that have been left to waste away especially after the relocation of the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja.
Others in this category include the former Navy Headquarters Building, Marina; former National Assembly Complex at Tafawa Balewa Square; Ministry of Communication building and former Supreme Court building, Ministry of Justice Annex building on Marina/Broad Street, Net Building and the 18-storey NSITF building on Lagos-Badagry Road.
A survey conducted in 2021 by the estate surveyors and valuers put the number of abandoned public buildings at 50,000, mostly located in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, with a market value of about N9.5 trillion.
NET building deteriorates, loses value
In the case of the Nigerian External Telecommunication Building with about 160 metres and 32 floors, it used to be the tallest building in Nigeria and in West Africa.
Located at No.15 Marina road, the building was completed in 1979; it was popular with two names, NITEL and NECOM.
Developed as headquarters of the Nigerian External Communications, it was bought out by the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited.
The building once represented a national heritage for engineering strength and innovation. As NITEL has become a thing of the past, the high-rise property is a shadow of itself.
Speaking on the dilapidating state of the properties, a professor of estate management at the University of Lagos, Austin Otegbulu called for a comprehensive inventory and asset audit of the properties indicating their location, current liabilities, current use and possible alternative uses.
According to him, there was a need for detailed schedules of dilapidation, associated cost, determine their uses and market value.
Otegbulu, who was a member of the board trustees of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, said the government should, “Find out the ones that would generate better investment returns through partnership with the private sector and those that could be sold in their current state. Some could be reallocated to other Ministries, Departments and Agencies instead of renting office space at extra cost.”
He warned that the longer the properties stay without renovation or disposal, the more they will deteriorate and lose value.
Tafawa Balewa Square fades away 63 years after hosting Nigeria’s Independence
From a distance, the beauty of statues of four white horses and seven red eagles atop the imposing façade of Tafawa Balewa Square is lost in the sorry sight of hawkers and restless passersby milling around its entrance.
Sitting on 14.5 hectares of land at 45/57 Massey Bamgboshe Street, Lagos Island, the Nigeria’s foremost independence monument cut a wretched picture of a historical site that birthed the country’s liberty 63 years ago.
Once upon the pride of a nation liberated from the grip of British colonial rule six decades ago, TBS – named after Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa –has aged with time and begs for restoration of past glory.
The festering desecration of the iconic square is apparent from the entrance.
Roving food vendors, confectionery traders, drink sellers, watch repairers, itinerant cobblers, commercial motorcycle riders, cubicles, tents and all manner of makeshift structures have robbed the monument’s frontage of pride it once exuded.
Some metres into the premises from Gate 1, years of neglect the expansive facility has endured readily comes alive. From walls starved of painting to concrete structures struggling to conceal bulgy irons, TBS is now a shadow of itself.
Window fittings of Glass House at the National Assembly Complex located in the square had yet to be replaced since the historic building was gutted by fire in 2016.
“It is unfortunate that a historical place like this with a huge tourism potential is not properly managed,” Anago Osho, a curator and tour guide, who frequents the square, complained bitterly of its present state.
Formerly known as Lagos Race Course which hosted horse racing, the course was redeveloped to celebrate Nigeria’s independence and the lowering of the union jack on October 1, 1960. It was later demolished by the regime of General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), to make way for TBS completed in 1972.
“A large section of the grounds is overgrown with weeds and has become home to rodents and reptiles, while virtually every corner of the stadium has turned into a trash site”
Apart from the sculptures of white horses and red eagles which are national emblems symbolising strength and dignity, the square houses monuments including the Remembrance Arcade (bearing memorials of World I, World War II and Nigerian Civil war victims) and the 25-storey Independence House, built in 1963.
With a capacity of 50,000 people, TBS presently houses the National Assembly Complex, National Broadcasting Commission office, Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency office, shopping centers, travel agencies, restaurants, car parking lots and a bus terminal.
Unlike similar well-preserved monuments in other African countries which gained independence about the same time as Nigeria, TBS has been battling disrepair especially since the relocation of the seat of power from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.
Acknowledging the rot, the Federal Government recently decided to redevelop the square into a world-class tourism destination and business centre through a concession arrangement.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises in February 2021 said the concession process was expected to commence in the second quarter of the year. The former BPE’s Director-General, Alex Okoh, said the government terminated previous concessions after the former concessionaire acted contrary to the expectations guiding the development of the legacy facilities.
He noted that the government’s expectation was that “TBS must move beyond a disjointed cluster of business premises to a world-class integrated events and business facility comparable to its counterparts globally.”
A History Professor and former Vice Chancellor of the Caleb University, Ogun State, Ayodeji Olukoju, recalled that TBS was the cynosure of all eyes before it degenerated into its present deplorable state.
He said the national monument could serve tourism and commercial purposes if well managed, urging that conscious efforts should be made to restore its pride.
He said, “When we talk of monuments, there has always been a difference between the intention/aspiration of the creators and the use such monuments are eventually put into. TBS used to be an awe-inspiring place. It was a repository of history.
“When the National Assembly started in 1979, they started there. It was the seat of power in the real sense of it. It is the soul of Nigeria. However, I still see it as symbolic of Nigeria. Such a monument where Nigeria was declared independent should be in the public domain all the time.
“It should be a place where schoolchildren, especially those in Lagos, should be taken to regularly. Our monuments should be carefully preserved. I think given its central location in Lagos, it will obviously attract people for whatever reason. Lagos being a commercial centre, the default thing is for it to be turned into commercial use but it could be something decent. There may be hawkers but it should be managed in such a way that the place won’t become desecrated. It should still maintain its aura. The national flag should be flying there all the time.”
