Stakeholders urge governments to preserve building heritage

The Lagos State Government has promised to keep and maintain all the building heritage in the state. It noted that some of the building heritages would serve not only as history for students, but it would also help in educating students in the built environment, especially those studying architecture, building, engineering among others.

They will see how buildings could be constructed to last longer as against buildings that are finished today only to collapse the next week.

Speaking during a seminar organized by Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Lagos Island Cell with a theme: Preserving Lagos Island Heritage Building: the Commissioner, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Olumide Abiodu, noted that one cannot preserve what one does not believe in. “I think the first challenge is for us to go back and understand what these important heritage structures we are talking about are. If you understand the importance of this edifice then you start thinking of how to preserve it. It is important that our children in secondary school should come here. Our children in Tertiary Institutions that are studying built environments like architecture, building, engineering should come here and see why these structures must be preserved, how it was done, why it was done for future development.  Well as you have seen and heard, this is a way of keeping some of our building heritages safe. This is a Palace used by one of our Obas in Lagos. Most importantly this was built by the Europeans for resolving conflicts within the Community in those early years.

So it is very important that we cannot afford to let such an important structure fade off just like that. We need to bring them here,” he said.

According to Dr. Kunle Awobodu, former President Building Collapse Prevention Guild, when a building constructed over 90 years ago was able to weather the coastal elements to stand the test of time, it becomes imperative for those of us who are adherents of standard building construction to promote the sustainability of such a heritage building. “The architecture and construction of Olusi Palace deserve to be preserved as a monument for future generations,” he said.

Speaking on the edifice, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, noted that the event which was about heritage building is a turnaround for the maintenance of heritage buildings in Lagos State. The purpose of this gathering is to talk about heritage and to ask our government to sustain our heritage. This heritage is important to Lagos. This building was built with special technique nearly a century ago. Nigeria doesn’t lack maintenance rather what we need is to increase our ability for maintenance. Though we are trying our best in that regard, governments need to do more,” he said.

In his contribution, Mr. Mubarak Gbaja-Biamila, Coordinator BCPG Lagos Island Cell said: “This building has stayed over a century and it is still standing. It is called ‘IGA’ where the Colonial Government then used to settle conflicts within the community. It was a palace for an Oba in those days. It has stayed over time and should be maintained as a building heritage. In terms of preserving building heritages, governments are trying but they need to do more in preserving these iconic heritages. In the past the government tried but family members came and demolished those heritages. But this has remained and I encourage governments to keep preserving these historical buildings as part of history for the children to learn.

Speaking on the same development, Olayinka Adio, General Manager Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory said: “It is a crucial thing that we must maintain our monuments in Lagos, particularly in Lagos Island being the heart of government in the colonial era. We are not maintaining our heritage and we have rediscovered ourselves, hence the reason we are here. The government must be intentional about maintaining our heritages.”