Community chiefs popularly known as Ba’ales, religious leaders, political stakeholders, students and ordinary folks of Eti-Osa, a local government area of Lagos State, on Thursday, protested the exclusion of their indigenes in the government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The protest by the indigenous people of Eti-Osa is coming days after a group, Eti-Osa Heritage Organisation, alerted the public that outsiders have been listed as indigenes of their local government among the 39 commissioner-nominees sent to the Lagos State House of Assembly for screening and confirmation.
At a world press conference held in Sabitex Hotel along Eti Osa Lekki Epe Expressway, representatives of Eti-Osa intelligentsia, traditional chiefs, clergies, market women, students and ordinary folks, protest what they said was a grand deceit where people not related to Eti-Osa would take their slot.
Adewale Sanni, President, Eti-Osa Heritage Organisation, who read the texts of their demand, lamented that out of the 39 nominees for Commissioners and Special Advisers, not a single one of them is from Eti-Osa.
He said: “Ours is an indigenous community with over 500 years of history and our Local Government is constitutionally recognized as a major constituent part of Lagos State. We consider this as an anomaly and therefore, call upon the Governor to redress the same as a matter of political and constitutional imperative by ensuring that Eti-Osa indigenes are adequately represented.”
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According to Sanni, despite their contributions to revenue generation, Growth and development of Lagos State, the present administration appears to be wilful and persistent in excluding and marginalizing them in the Leadership of the state as demonstrated by the patterns of appointments over time.
He said they have held a series of engagements on the discrimination of their community where specific promises were made to them by the Governor on February 12, 2023. He said to their shock, 12 individuals, unknown to anybody in Eti-Osa, were listed among the commissioner-nominees as indigenes of Eti-Osa.
Sanni said: “It is pertinent to categorically state here that apart from the Executive Council, this administration has not appointed any indigene of Eti-Osa Local Government to the position of Permanent Secretary, Board Chairman or Member, Head or Member of Parastatals or Agencies in the Lagos State Ministries, as well as Councils of Universities owned by the State Government.
“We recall that even in the last administration, only one of our indigenes was appointed as Commissioner while so many total strangers, just like the current list, were used to fill the Eti-Osa quota in utter contempt and disregard for legal and constitutional principles. This development has sparked feelings of continuous neglect and disillusionment among our people.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Eti-Osa has competent professionals in every field of life. We condemn the practice of using other persons to impersonate the indigenes as representatives of Eti-Osa. Even when such people deploy those resources and experience garnered at our expense to go and develop their own communities while leaving us politically and financially desolate.
“Such practice also robs us of our constitutional right to participate in governance in the State as well as at the Federal level. It was in anticipation of this practice of using non-indigenes to replace us and the need to redress same that Eti-Osa Leaders of Thought with Eti-Osa indigenes Forum submitted a list of nominees from among the indigenes to the office of the Governor for consideration.”
Sanni then read out their demands: “We implore the Governor to redress the anomaly in this submission to the Lagos State House of Assembly by ensuring the inclusion of Eti-Osa indigenes from those earlier submitted by our community. By doing so, this administration will send a strong signal of hope for equity and fairness to all the indigenes of Lagos State. Eti-Osa must be recognised as a distinct community for purposes of allocation of our common resources – human and material and there must be an equal and transparent opportunity for employment in the civil service and other agencies of Government as a matter of right.
“Eti-Osa indigenes in State civil service should also be put in strategic positions like their counterparts and there must be deliberate efforts by the Government to end the systematic marginalisation of indigenes.
“Appointment of non-indigenes as our representatives leads to misrepresentation and structural marginalisation. We do not deserve to be treated as mere onlookers in our State but remain hopeful that the Governor will take our concerns into account and work towards a more balanced and representative administration,” he said.