The Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Adewale Shotobi,GCIO has decried the worrisome but growing trend of selling and converting legacy family buildings across Ikorodu into shopping complexes and office buildings.
Oba Shotobi lamented this worrisome trend on Thursday in Ikorodu during the presentation of post-humous awards to deserving Ikorodu pillar of sports who have contributed immensely to the development of youths and sports across Ikorodu communities.
The Ikorodu-Oga Sports Feista and Award Presentation was part of the line-up of activities for the 34th annual Ikorodu Oga Festival Celebration.
The Permanent Vice Chairman of Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs specifically complained about the trend, describing it as an erosion of historic family values and legacies in Ikorodu.
Oba Shotobi recounted how, as a primary school pupil of Methodist Primary School, Ikorodu, himself and other pupils usually admired the buildings along the Ayangburen Road as architectural masterpieces and major landmarks in the early 60s.
‘Those days, as a pupil of Methodist Primary School, Ikorodu I usually trek from Ajina to school on a daily basis with fellow students, and on our way, we would admire the buildings along Ayangburen Road and pray that we would grow up and build similar houses’, Oba Shotobi said.
‘Unfortunately, many of these buildings have now been sold off to strangers who have converted them to shopping complexes and office buildings’, Kabiyesi added.
The revered monarch blamed children of such families who ‘sold their birthrights, and what their parents laboured for and relocate abroad. But I can still see the Adamson building standing strong. It remains a legacy building in Ikorodu that we’ve been admiring since 1960
Oba Shotobi specifically commended the children of late Alh. Chief Bamisedun Adamson, who received the post-humous award on behalf of their late patriarch for preserving their father’s legacy by not selling the building.
Other recipients of the Ikorodu-Oga Post-Humous Legacy Sports Award were late, Alh. Musediku Alogba, Late Arch. Olutusen Onafowokan, Late Alh. Solaja Alagago and Late Otunba Latagati.
Earlier in His speech, the Chairman of Ikorodu-Oga Development Association (IKODASS), Alh. Kolawole Fatai Olayiwola, DCIO, noted that sport has gone beyond mere entertainment to a tool for empowering the youths.
He equally charged government at all levels, corporate organizations, and well-meaning individuals to invest in the development of sports in the emerging city.
