Lifestyle
THE SPIRIT
OF LAGOS
By Bolaji Yusuf
F
in the air, the hustle and bustle, sometimes I would stand in
front of Tafawa Balewa Square and imagine that I was present in the 70’s or 80’s. I still wonder what it would be like
to live in that Lagos. I listen when old people talk and they
describe the Lagos they knew, that Lagos sounds beautiful,
the environment friendly, and the people having a sense of
belonging, although we all know that along with the development of cities comes the disintegration of its residential
populace due to the protective walls everyone builds around
their families and businesses.
Lagos is everything for me, as I was born and breed here;
then I left for my service year. I had only left the boundaries
of Lagos once and that was an excursion to Benin Republic which was organised by French Village, Badagry. So you
understand that Lagos is all I have and know. And I am sure
there are dozens more like me out there, Lagos taught me
everything I know, whatever information, style, class, perception of the world was gotten from here.
At a certain point getting to know Lagos Island was a sort of
thrill, the colonial structures, the smell of the sea hanging
Therefore it was to my delight when I was listening to a radio
station the other day and I heard the advert for the ‘Spirit
of Lagos’ campaign, some individuals under the umbrella of
The Spirit of Lagos have taken it upon themselves through
public enlightenment and living right to bring back the lost
glory of Lagos.
The Spirit of Lagos group are all about the rejuvenation of
Lagos; its people, environment, image, business. It is a theme
that presents all things good about Lagos and the very essence that connects its past glory with its future that every
resident of Lagos dreams of. History has shown us that the
development of the beautiful and celebrated cities in the
world has always been attributed to the contribution of its
residents, a city’s image and environment isn’t kept because
or those like me born in Lagos in the early 90’s, we got
to experience the ‘Mind our Business.’ Lagos, growing up
we rarely had the opportunity to move around and explore,
even at a point some of my elderly cousins coined a term
for us.
its residents feel a disconnect between them and their environment, it is kept because they are in tune with it.
“We can talk from today till next year, but it is meaningless
unless we all understand that there is a responsibility which
lies within us to make our world a better place. We should
also take cognisance of the fact that government cannot do
everything for us, so we should make it a point of duty to
contribute our own quota to bringing back the lost glory
of Lagos. This includes neighbourliness- living a life worthy of emulation. We should all volunteer to do something
good and positive for our society. We are tired of telling our
children how beautiful Lagos was and restore everything for
them. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the right
step, we all should take the right step and bring back the lost
glory of this land” this was a statement made by the project
coordinator of Spirit of Lagos Niyi Omotosho.
We all should always have at the back of our mind these four
cardinal factors every time we walk through the streets of
Lagos; social justice, civic responsibility, neighborliness and
citizenship. I wa