Trade Fair Complex demolitions, an act of vendetta: The deliberate ruination of businesses without any justification, which is what the Trade Fair Complex demolitions is all about, is an act of bad faith. While the victims are the immediate losers, at the long run, Nigeria bears the brunt of state policies borne out of extreme nepotism and ethnic hatred, because as Obi rightly noted, “A society that seeks to make progress must protect enterprise, encourage productivity, and defend the dignity of its citizens.”
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
On October 1, Nigeria marked its 65th anniversary as an independent country and Nigerian leaders, typically, used the opportunity to preach peace and unity, insisting that the country is the handiwork of God.
President Bola Tinubu, using his presidential bully pulpit, led the choir in his nationwide broadcast with this rallying cry: “While our system and ties that bind us are sometimes stretched by insidious forces opposed to our values and ways of life, we continue to strive to build a more perfect union where every Nigerian can find better accommodation and find purpose and fulfilment.”
His protégé, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, called on residents to contribute their quota to the development of Lagos State and Nigeria at large, stressing that national growth can only be achieved through unity and collective effort.
Quoting Henry Ford, the late American business magnate and founder of the Ford Motor Company, Sanwo-Olu said: “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself. Government and people must find and have faith in each other so that the effort of one is supported wholeheartedly by the other.”
READ ALSO: Traders protest willful demolitions at Trade Fair Complex by Lagos Govt
Those that are more religiously inclined insist that since God does not make mistakes, then a united and indissoluble Nigeria must be seen as part of God’s divine purpose. But in reality, these preachments of unity mean nothing. They are mere sound bites meant to wheedle the unwary but which, at the end, as the legendary Shakespeare noted in Macbeth, are “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” They are periodic effusion of platitudes, wearing the toga of an idiot’s tale.
Barely one week before Tinubu’s speech which was supposed to rouse compatriots to action on a utopian Nigerian dream, over 19 properties belonging to Igbo traders were maliciously demolished at the Trade Fair Complex by the Lagos State government led by the self-same Sanwo-Olu who was preaching national renaissance through unity and collective effort.
The victims claim they were not given prior notice. To make matters worse, they were stopped from salvaging their wares before the buildings worth billions of Naira were reduced to rubbles.
While the affected traders are bemoaning their fate and demanding justice, the Lagos State government is doubling down on its belligerence. Its response to Mr. Peter Obi’s comments following his visit to the market on Tuesday, was, literally, ‘go to hell with your people.’
Obi, former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, praised the traders for their restraint, even as he described the demolition exercise as “a test of impunity, justice and compassion.” The state government accused him of indulging in “emotional theatrics.”
Mr. Gbenga Omotosho, Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, in his rebuttal, claimed that when the state’s physical planning officials visited the complex, the gates were locked against them and they were beaten up. “The police had to rescue them. When the government invited the owners for talks, they bluntly refused to show up,” Omotosho further claimed.
It will amount to sheer hallucination for anyone to believe this cock and bull story. It beggars belief that Igbo traders in Lagos would have the temerity not only to stop Lagos State officials from carrying out their legitimate duties but also assault them and nobody heard about it. If that had happened, those traders would have been declared persona-non-grata and banished from Lagos by this intemperate government.
But a little background to this whole saga will be helpful. The Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, a 350-hectare facility along Lagos-Badagry expressway was constructed in the 1970s to host international trade fair events. But there was also a fundamental shift in 2002 when President Olusegun Obasanjo gave federal government’s nod for jewelry, auto spare parts and other consumer goods traders from Balogun Market on Lagos Island to relocate to the complex.
Today, the complex hosts various business associations dealing in textiles, clothing, household goods, auto spare parts and machineries, jewelry, luxury goods, fashion accessories, etc., thus making it a thriving commercial hub. Till date, the complex is a federal property established by law and managed under the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex Management Board Act.
The beleaguered traders insist that the demolished buildings had valid approvals from the Trade Fair Management Board, which, in their understanding, is the statutory authority empowered by law to oversee the complex on behalf of the federal government.
Addressing journalists on Monday, chairman of the stakeholders’ forum, Chief Eric Ilechukwu, said: “The respective lease agreements we signed clearly indicate that the Board is the approving and supervising authority for constructions within the complex. At no time were we served contravention notices.”
Bearing unequivocal testimony to Ilechukwu’s claim, Executive Director of the Board, Vera Safiya Ndanusa, who confirmed that the complex is under the control of the federal government through the Board, regretted that they were not carried along before the demolitions.
But Omotosho said the Board, though a creation of the federal government, lacked powers to grant building approvals and regulate physical development within the complex. All such powers, he said, has been invested in the state government “under the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Act (1992).”
“We must decide whether we want a society governed by law or one run by emotions, driven by political interests,” he declared presumptuously.
Fair enough!
We all desire law and order. But did the traders know about this? If the federal government appointed board chairperson is insisting that the complex is a federal property, wouldn’t it have been fair that the state government carried them along? Doesn’t common sense suggest that if they were, they would have, in turn, guided the traders aright, assuming they erred? Does it not amount to gross impunity for the Lagos State government to trespass into a property that belongs to the federal government to wreak such havoc even if the constitution vests the state with exclusive authority to regulate and approve building projects within its borders?
Suffice it to say that, to borrow a cliché, “The law was made for man, not man for the law.” Simply put, legal systems and regulations should serve and benefit people, not the other way round because laws are meant to protect human well-being and promote justice. And that was exactly the point Obi made on Tuesday when he urged “governments at all levels to act with compassion, fairness, and a deep sense of justice, especially at this difficult time.”
While no one will condone lawlessness or acts of impunity, the law at all times must wear human face. As Obi rightly noted, and he should know because he is an entrepreneur, most of the traders whose livelihoods have been whimsically destroyed, invested heavily – often through loans – in the hope of securing their livelihoods and contributing to the wider economy.
It is therefore callous, to say the least, to destroy such businesses simply because you can and you feel the victims can do nothing. It is even more so when the targeted businesses are legitimate investments as it is the case in this matter and the destruction is recklessly done without due process.
The question that the Lagos State government needs to answer is this: If these properties were owned by the Hausa-Fulani, for instance, would they have been so reckless and malicious? So, this is not about law and order. It is political vendetta which has spiked since after the 2023 elections when Peter Obi, an Igbo, defeated the self-acclaimed owner of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, in his own turf. It is all about personal vengeance.
This is one demolition too many. The state government may well continue to hide behind its whitlow finger but the truth remains that these demolitions are done in bad faith. Unfortunately, many of these traders that have become collateral damages in the battle of the political titans didn’t even vote during the last elections. Some of them don’t even have voter cards. All they ask for is the right to earn a legitimate living in their own country.
The deliberate ruination of businesses without any justification, which is what the Trade Fair Complex demolitions is all about, is an act of bad faith. While the victims are the immediate losers, at the long run, Nigeria bears the brunt of state policies borne out of extreme nepotism and ethnic hatred, because as Obi rightly noted, “A society that seeks to make progress must protect enterprise, encourage productivity, and defend the dignity of its citizens.”
So, while Tinubu, expectedly, pontificated about national unity in his October 1, broadcast, in truth, it was just for political correctness. The ethnic profiling and intimidation of Ndigbo in Lagos, which is sadly reflected in the very pugnacious disposition of the state government towards Igbo businesses and economic interests as evidenced in the Trade Fair Complex demolitions, is intensifying and promises to get worse in the coming days.
But, while Ndigbo are the victims, the joke is on Nigeria because this extreme callousness arising from simple political differences that ought to be settled at the ballot is critically injurious to the very project of building a united nation.
