The Erelu Kuti IV of Lagos, Chief Abiola Dosunmu, on Thursday, knocked some of the voices in the raging debate about the founders of Lagos, saying many of those joining the debate lack or have shallow knowledge about the subject.
The 76-year-old Erelu said the controversy over ownership or founders of Lagos State would soon be addressed with her new initiative.
Dosunmu, who is also the Erelu Yeye Oodua, disclosed this on Thursday while briefing journalists on the forthcoming inauguration of E.Y.O Cultural Renaissance Centre, which is scheduled to be held on December 3, 2023, in Lagos.
She said the controversy trailing the history of Lagos’s original settlers was part of why her foundation, Erelu Yeye Oodua Foundation, instituted the new centre to enable it to address such controversy relating to the history, culture, art, and lifestyle of Nigeria and others of Africans.
The debate about the first settlers in Lagos gained renewed momentum on Sunday when the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, during a visit to the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, asserted that the Binis founded Lagos.
Oba Ewuare said, “It is in the history books that the Binis founded Lagos. When some people will hear it now, they will go haywire; ‘what is the Oba saying there again?’ But it is true. Go and check the records. Maybe not all of Lagos as we know it now but certain areas in Lagos, maybe the nucleus of Lagos, were founded by my ancestors. The Oba of Lagos will say so.”
Joining the debate on Thursday, Dosunmu said the issue of who founded Lagos should be based on documented evidence rather than hearsay or sentiment.
She said, “First of all, I have spoken about this issue several times. And you see, if people refuse to use common sense and do research and use relics for their argument, why do you waste your time?
“All these things that have been said, you have the evidence, relics, and proofs for a whole lot of these for you to be able to bring the story to the right perspective.
“Everybody is talking from different corners of their mouths especially those who don’t even know anything about it.
“How old are they? How many of them who are kings today grew up within an environment where they could be impacted by the authentic history of their people?
“I became Erelu in my early twenties, and I was sitting with 80 and 90-year-old men, and those men had at least another 90 years of experience and narrative verbatim before I started. I started getting it from them. So, already a 200-year verbatim story, I am getting it from the source. I am almost 80 and I have acquired another century of information by myself.
“If I say anything, I am saying it from at least 300 years of verbatim fact.
“So, some people talk from here another one from there; who are they? What was the point of their entry?
“Some of them, maybe they started imbibing the culture and traditions five years ago and they make themselves authority. Hopefully, that’s one of the things we will be unveiling here at the centre.”
Dosumu added that it was important for the government and critical stakeholders to collaborate towards rekindling the interest and increasing the consciousness of people to project the value and potential of their culture to the world.
“Nigeria is blessed and rich in culture and the sector can add enormous value to the national GDP if well harnessed, as government must ensure continued support for individuals and groups working to scale up the enhancement of the nation’s cultural heritage,” she added.
Erelu further explained that if people were familiar with all her activities they would have noticed that for the past five decades, she had been championing the cause of culture and tradition of Nigeria even when it was not popular.
“I have been there and I believe in it; I believe that our culture, our tradition is what we are and is who we are and then if we make it second-class, then we will remain second-class people in the world.
“It will be a disservice because what we have is one of the best that we should be proud of and we should showcase anywhere proudly in the world. But five decades on, I’m sure I have been proven right because now our culture, and tradition are the centre of attraction for the world, it’s on the world’s stage now.
“My ambition has always been to have a centre for research, for exhibition, and a museum where scholars can come and research Africa and Nigeria’s history and the African way of life,” she said.
