Festac: A town left in ruins…

In 1977, Festival Town, now popularly known as Festac Town roared into life with one of the best infrastructure available at that time. TUNDE ALAO reports that 40 years down the line, it has become a national eyesore

IN 1977, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, popularly known as FESTAC, was hosted by Nigeria, the first having been held in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, in 1966.  Wikipedia described the festival as “a cultural jamboree held in Lagos, Nigeria, from 15 January 1977 to 12 February 1977. The month-long event celebrated African culture and showcased to the world African music, fine art, literature, drama, dance and religion.”

About 17,000 participants from 56 African nations took part in the festival. Countries of black majority and people of African descent in the Diaspora also attended the event, initially slated for 1970 but due to a chain of events in Nigeria, could not be held until 1977.

It was a celebration of African renaissance and pride. The emblem of the festival was the royal ivory mask of the ancient Benin kingdom with most of the events taking place at the National Theatre, Iganmu; National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos City Hall and Tafawa Balewa Square, on Lagos Island. Few other events took place in the Northern part of the country, especially the Durbar events.

It is now 40 years since the event took place but those who witnessed then events are still nostalgic about the festival. One thing that remains a signpost of the cultural fiesta is festival town, later called Festac Town and now simply, Festac in Lagos.

The housing estate was constructed to accommodate foreign participants at the festival. However, the long-term objective of the estate under the then Federal Housing Programme was to ease accommodation problems in Lagos. The project was to be done in two years, with more than 40 contractors working on different sites.

In total of 10,775 housing units were to be completed by the end of 1977. It was intended to evoke the modern age in its designs, with state-of-the-art facilities, police and fire stations, access to public transportation, supermarkets, banks, health centres, public restrooms and postal services, among others.

At the end of the festival, the Federal Government allocated the accommodation, housing units and landed properties to ballot winners, on owner-occupier basis, according to categories and levels of their income at the time.

Today, Festac is a shadow of its former self. Apart from the decay in its physical state, law and order have also taken the backseat, as the town has become a fertile ground for almost all forms of criminal activities, including drug peddling, prostitution, armed robbery and sundry crimes.

Currently, many flat owners have either sold or let out their apartments and relocated to a more serene environment.

Sunday Tribune investigation revealed that the sorry state of infrastructure, particularly the road networks, drainage and sewage facilities, which have virtually collapsed, are the major reasons for this development.

For example, the roads from 1st to 7th Avenue were built over 35 years ago, precisely in 1977 and had not been rehabilitated at all until recently when Amuwo Local Government and the Lagos Public Works Department fixed some parts, which was an attempt a little too late, as many more potholes had opened up. The drainages systems have become dump sites, with offensive stench gozing out from them.

An official of Amuwo Odofin Local government, who would not want to be named, because he was not officially authorised to speak to the press, told Sunday Tribune that it was impossible for the council to fix all the over 100 roads in the town, noting that “Festac is not the only area under Amuwo Odofin LGA,” adding that other areas are also calling for attention.

A resident occupying an apartment at the 4th Avenue, who identified himself simply as Pa Samuel said: “What needs to be done is a total rehabilitation or if possible, reconstruction of all these expired roads and to achieve this, there should be a kind of collaboration between the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Lagos State Government and Amuwo Odofin LGA, since all of them are collecting one levy or the other from residents.”

Another resident, Mrs. Joyce Umanna, who claimed that her family has been living at Festac Town for close to 30 years, lamented what she described as ‘criminal neglect’ by the authorities.

“I think it will be good if the FHA can just hand over the estate to the Lagos State government, or allow residents to have an absolute control of the estate. It’s possible, we can engage the service of facility managers to put some amenities, such as sewage disposal, water supply and drainage services in good order, while local government can take up road rehabilitation,” she said.

Also frustrated at the decrepit situation of the town, Michael Ilesanmi, who operates a cyber cafe near Passport Office, on Road 22, described the estate as a “town ruled by prostitutes,” stating that prostitution is one of the most thriving businesses in the area.

“Prostitution has taken over Festac, so much that some say that there is a festival of sex that holds in certain parts of the town. The trade seems to be booming by the day, as many commercial sex workers can be seen on the prowl, harassing residents.

“First Avenue seems to be the most preferred spot. The trade is booming, not necessarily under the cover of the night alone, but rather, the scarlet ladies line up and wait patiently for customers even during daytime.

“Besides, hard drugs like cocaine, marijuana and cigarette are not in short supply. It is sad to note that even teenagers of 14 and 15 years of age also ply the trade there,” he said.

Investigations by Sunday Tribune revealed that most of the houses lack amenities, with illegal shanties like makeshift shops, beer parlours, beauty salons, chemist shops, among others, dotting major streets.

“More worrisome is the condition that spaces designed for recreational services and other public use have been illegally converted to commercial shops and mini-malls, all these in connivance with local government and FHA officials who make cool money on a monthly basis,” said another elderly female resident, who craved anonymity.

Decay

Like several projects of its ilk across the nation, it is not surprising the Festac project is in such a sorry state. According to Professor Timothy Nubi, who oversees the Centre for Housing Studies at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, the problem lies in faulty concepts, and not doing the right thing from the beginning.

He posited that the Festac Town project and the Shagari housing schemes built all over the country, failed as a result of poor sites selection.

Professor Timothy Nubi at a two-day training/ workshop on Real Estate Packaging and Infrastructure financing organised by the Centre recently, noted that some private developers who invested billions of naira into housing projects, have little or nothing to show for their efforts today, simply because they failed to do thorough feasibility studies to determine the suitability of the site chosen for such schemes.

“Festac for instance, failed right from site selection. We selected a site that is below sea level to build a town. At that time, Nigeria still had money, so they said, the waste cannot flow into the water treatment plant and we said no, we will use pump to pump it. We were using pump to pump. But when Nigeria started running into electricity problems, the pump packed up and Festac is today what it is.

“Festac Town’s failure is right from site selection. So, a real estate development can fail if you chose a wrong location,” he said.

Confused status

The status of FESTAC Town is somewhat confusing as the federal, state and local governments all lay claim to the management of the estate and occasionally issue the residents with various charges ranging from valuation fees, local government levies to tenement rates.

Despite these levies, the state of the infrastructure has not improved, prompting a member of House of Representatives, representing Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency, Oghene Emma Egoh (Lagos PDP), to raise the alarm, over the deplorable condition of the town to raise awareness about its deplorable state.

He described the situation as a looming disaster if the FHA does not quickly move in to fix the sewage lines and water systems.

“This estate has been built for over 40 years and as we speak, there is no functional infrastructure. Today, the Federal Government collects tenement rates from residents in Festac Town, while the Lagos State government also collects land rates.

“There is no single firefighting vehicle left in the place. God forbid if there is any fire incident, it will be a total disaster. So, given its importance as one of the oldest housing estates and satellite towns in Lagos, I had to speak to my colleagues to support the motion and they saw reasons with me; as many of them lived there and still have relations there,” Egoh added.

However, feelers from the Lagos government, through its officials, revealed that the state had no immediate plan for Festac Town.

At two separate interviews, officials at both Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, and the Ministry of the Environment, told Sunday Tribune that except for road rehabilitation carried out recently by the Lagos Public Works Corporation, “there is yet to be an official position as whether to take up the administration of Festac Town, since it simply belongs to the federal government.”