Time and time again, the statement “Lagos is no man’s land” has caused several arguments between people, and more than half of the time, those who push that agenda are those who work overtime to distort the history of Eko Ile.

It is one thing to not understand the history and seek to be educated and another to say something as huge as the history of a people with authority when you know little or nothing about the said people.

Lagos as it is now used to be called Eko is a place with a rich culture, tradition, and history. It will amaze anyone willing to learn that history to know that Eko dates back as far as the thirteenth century, occupied by the aboriginals who were said to be Aworis.

The current name, Lagos was given in 1472 by the Portuguese explorer Ruy de Sequeira and the original name back then was Lago de Curamo.

It is also very important to state that Lagos, as we know it now, did not just become what it is now.

It will be a right assertion to say that Lagos evolved from the days of battling for the Oba kingship to the modern-day Lagos that boast as the commercial capital of the country.

One thing that was constant in the story of Lagos, however, is that it has always been a commercial city. Right from the days of the slave trade when the ports of Lagos were so important that the whites will help the people of Lagos decide who to be king till today when multinationals choose Lagos as a destination to invest in, Lagos sets itself apart.

Truly, several people from several places have worked towards the development that we now see but that alone does not simply make the history of its people void.

There are the original settlers of Lagos, as well as there are the inhabitants, and also the royals. Eko Ile, now known as Lagos will be nothing as we see it today without the immense contributions and sacrifice of those people.

Moving from a state of just two hundred thousand in 1952 to the current 15 million people, Lagos has grown immensely, and the growth does not seem to be stopping anytime soon as Lagos continues to grow, both with population and development.

Note: This is an excerpt from an unfinished book written by the same author of this post.