Our aim with Phenomenal Lagos —Lasisi, Garba

Seasoned arts and culture journalists, Akeem Lasisi and Kabir Alabi Garba, disclose their reasons for writing , Phenomenal Lagos: 50 Iconic Places in the Centre of Excellence that documents landmarks of cultural, tourist and economic values in beautiful essays, photographs and poems.

THE literature on Lagos, Nigeria’s centre of excellence and wisdom has just increased with the publication of Phenomenal Lagos: 50 Iconic Places in the Centre of Excellence written by seasoned arts and culture journalists, Akeem Lasisi and Kabir Alabi Garba.

Colourful and well produced, the 120-page book which profiles the iconic cultural and tourist attractions of the city is one of the off shoots of the recently concluded Lagos@ 50 celebrations.

Interestingly, however, the idea for the project predates the celebrations. According to co-author, Lasisi, Lagos@50 only served as its catalyst. “It’s an idea that we had been faintly developing since over a year ago. When the Lagos @50 celebrations now came up, it prompted us to concretise it.  We developed the content and resolved to identify 50 iconic places using certain criteria. We decided to profile each of them, get very good photographs of each and a poem to celebrate each of the 50 places,” he explains.

Being that what they conceived was big and required serious funding, the duo had to scale it down to the size of their pockets. Luckily for them, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, himself a seasoned arts and culture journalist back in the day, came to their assistance.

According to Lasisi, “we approached the Lagos State Government through the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Steve Ayorinde. We told him we have the project and that we wanted it to be part of the Lagos @ 50 celebrations and he didn’t discourage us. He said we should go ahead and that if there was anything they could do to support, especially in the area of printing which was what we needed the bulk of the money for, they would help us. Eventually, they supported us and relieved us of a very big headache.”

Fittingly, Phenomenal Lagos… is more than just a book, as the authors have included music and poetry in the package. Consequently, there are audio and video CDs of musical poems of each of the selected icons. “We didn’t just want it to be a book hence the inclusion of the audio and video,” Lasisi offers by way of explanation.

The Idejo Statue (Three Wise Men), National Theatre, Sungbo Forest, Christ Church Cathedral are some of the monuments featured in the book, while recreation outposts include Eko Hotels, Akodo Tourist Centre, Freedom Park, MUSON Centre, Whispering Palms, Bar Beach, Tinubu Square and New Afrika Shrine. The iconic infrastructure featured include Eko Atlantic City, City Hall, Ayinke House and TBS, while Eyo, Iga Idunganran and Point of No Return make the cut from heritage.

Explaining how the 50 were selected, Lasisi says: “We debated extensively in terms of which are qualified and which are not qualified to be included in the book.  We were mindful of the fact that Lagos has five administrative divisions: Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island and Epe (IBILE) so we were careful with the spread. We found out that if we wanted to concentrate on Ikeja and Lagos Island alone, you could find 100 places. So, we tried to have a fair representation of all the divisions of the state.  But, we didn’t stop at that; some of the vital places that we couldn’t accommodate among the 50; we highlighted them in the epilogue.

“The book also contains a section on the history of some popular areas in Lagos apart from the 50 iconic places: Mushin, Agege and Ogba amongst others. Though culture and tourism were the main appeals, we also wanted our selections to cut across the political, historical and business landscapes; hence you have Lekki Free Trade Zone, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and Computer Village. Essentially, we wanted icons that are big enough to attract visitors coming from outside Lagos. And we mean big in terms of size, value and heritage.”

Garba adds that:   “We did the selection in conjunction with the Honourable Commissioner and there were lots of debates. We aimed for 10 places from each division but while some had well over 10, some hardly have up to 10 but we ensured that all divisions were represented.

He admits that they had challenges but decided to forge ahead all the same.  The take-away for fellow journalists, Garba says, is that “we need to start thinking creatively to see how we can manage our lives beyond the newsroom. That’s the major lesson we learnt from this project.”