CULTURE-NIGERIA: Town with Vibrant Past Yearns for Brighter Future

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LOKOJA, Nov 14 1995 (IPS) - For now it is a sleepy provincial town of just 80,000 people, but Lokoja in northern Nigeria looks back on a vibrant past as the country’s capital.

And though in view of Nigeria’s present status as a pariah in international politics it might seem an unlikely dream, residents of Lokoja hope they can revive some of the old grandeur and turn their hometown into an international tourism resort.

“We are the first town in northern Nigeria,” says resident Femi Johnson proudly. “We are so lucky tourism-wise. But the problem is that our tourism potential, our historical relics and monuments, has not been developed.”

There are no official statistics on the number of tourists who visit the town, but local entrepeneurs say most come from other parts of Nigeria, a majority of them being students. At present, Lokoja’s main sources of revenue are fishing and marble.

Nestled in a valley below the wooded grandeur of the 458-metre- high Mount Patti, the town lies at the confluence of the Niger and the Benue, West Africa’s two largest rivers.

The first Europeans arrived here in 1830. Years later, Lokoja became the seat of power of the country’s first British Governor- General, Frederick Lugard, who was to create present-day Nigeria by amalgamating the northern and southern regions in 1914.

Today, the capital of Kogi state is strewn with monuments and relics, evidence of European and African activities from the early 19th century to independence from British colonial rule in 1960.

For example, the Northern Region’s first cantonment church still stands as it was built in 1905, with the names of British military officers who died during the war between the colonisers and local potentates inscribed on brass inside it.

A cenotaph with the names of the fallen heroes of both the first and the second world wars stands in the centre of the town. Also on display here are the remains of two canons marked 1914 and 1918.

A rectangular stone wall and a gate serve as reminders of Magazine Hill’s former use as a munitions’ store by the Royal Niger Company Constabulary and later by the West African Frontier Force.

Other relics of the past have been converted to modern use. Five residences built for Lord Lugard’s senior staff from materials imported from England in 1900 are now used as offices, residences or court rooms.

There are also two pyramid-shaped buildings set up 1865 through the efforts of early Nigerian Christians as the region’s first primary school, which is now called ‘The Holy Trinity Bishop Ajayi Crowther Primary School’. (MORE)

= 11140319 DAP0016