Street Renaming: Fashola Warns, Urges Lagos to Protect Historical Legacy

Abiola Olawale
Writer

Ad

The Gift of Hindsight: What I Would Tell My Younger Self, By Johnson Babalola

By Johnson Babalola @jbdlaw Hindsight, they say, is life’s most generous teacher—but it sends its lessons late. It is only after the storms that the patterns become clear; only after the wrong turns that the map begins to make sense. As I celebrate another birthday today and have grown older, I often find myself reflecting…

Gasoline Prices Drop Toward Pandemic-Era Lows

The national average price of gasoline dropped below $3 a gallon over the weekend. GasBuddy has predicted that prices will go even lower in the coming weeks, with good prospects of motorists enjoying sub-$3 prices for extended periods. This drop is overwhelmingly being driven by the significant increase in oil production from OPEC throughout 2025.…

Alleged Christian Genocide Claim is Damaging Nigeria’s Image– Tuggar Laments

By Abiola Olawale Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has voiced concern over what he described as the damaging impact of the "Christian genocide" narrative on Nigeria's international image. This is as the Minister claimed that the country's complex security challenges are being falsely simplified as religious persecution. Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit…

Ad

By Hamilton Nwosu

A former Lagos State Governor and former Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, has called for the preservation of Lagos’s rich historical heritage amid ongoing controversies surrounding streets naming and renaming in the state

Speaking at the public presentation of Discover Lagos State: A History Puzzle Book (Volume 1) at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Fashola highlighted the importance of safeguarding the state’s history to prevent distortion and promote civic values.

Fashola explained the significance of proper documentation, citing the digital archives of the University of Glasgow, which detail the contributions of figures like Dr. Isaac Ladipo Oluwole, the first African medical officer of health in the Lagos colony.

He said: “The archival heritage is a valuable testimony to the socio-political and economic development of humanity.

“For instance, the Glasgow University archives service gives fascinating insights into the influence that the university, its staff and students have had in the history and development of many countries, including Nigeria,” he said.

He said records also contain information about the first Nigerian students at the University of Glasgow at the time, including Dr Issac Ladipo Oluwole, who was enrolled in 1913 and graduated in 1918.

Referencing the archive, Fashola added: “Dr Ladipo Oluwole returned to Nigeria to become the first African medical officer of health in the Lagos colony.

“He pioneered school health services, with school inspection and vaccination of children in their schools, and started the first Nigerian school of hygiene at Yaba in Lagos in 1920. So that’s the Ladipo Oluwole. But the records were kept well in Glasgow, Scotland.

“So those of us who drive through streets such as Ladipo Oluwole Street in Ikeja will probably now understand and contextualise the contributions of such a man and why it was considered such a high honour to immortalise him by naming a street in his memory.

“But it is perhaps instructive that we are discussing street naming and street unnaming and I keep my gunpowder dry,” he added.

“Today I reiterate those words about street naming and Dr Oluwole and with a greater conviction to reinforce my message that the preservation of our history and the documentation of our progress should be taken seriously.”

The New Diplomat reports that this comes amid ongoing controversies following the renaming of Charly Boy Bus Stop to “Baddo Bus Stop” in honor of rapper Olamide Adedeji by the Bariga Local Council Development Area (LCDA).

Ad

X whatsapp