National Museum: Tale of another ailing monument

Museums, the world over, are treasured institutions where objects of artistic, historical, or scientific importance and value are kept, studied, and put on display. Unfortunately, however, Nigeria’s national museum is one long night of abandonment as reported by AKIN ADEWAKUN.

 

It was meant to connect the nation’s past with the present, to enable its citizenry project into the future; a rich tourist attraction that should have provided fun for revelers, a huge source of documentation of the nation’s history and revenue for the Federal Government, the sole proprietor of the property.

Museums, all over the globe, are meant to serve such purposes. A reason, perhaps, they are treasured and treated with utmost love and care.

Curiously, this cannot be said of the Nigerian National Museum, located in the heart of Onikan on Lagos Island. The present state of the facility, for many, is nothing but eloquent testimony to the general decay being witnessed in every sphere of Nigeria’s national life. The monument is ailing, just like other once-cherished facilities of the Federal Government littering the entire space of the country, and Lagosians are calling for its rejuvenation.

While many Nigerians are no longer strangers to such national rot and decay, perhaps the importance of this facility to the nation’s history makes this a rot too many.

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For instance, apart from some of the great, but weather-beaten works of some prominent Nigerian  visual artists, such as Ben Enwonwu that gracefully dot the entrance to the facility, ushering in guests to the once hallowed recesses of the museum, nothing in the facility attests to the importance of the monument  to the nation’s collective history.

A recent visit by Nigerian Tribune revealed that all is not well with the once cherished museum, housing the remnants of the Mercedes Benz car in which the then nation’s head of state, the late General Murtala Muhammed, was riding to work on that fateful day of Friday, February 13, 1976, before he was killed by assassins’ bullets.

While the inner part of the museum still belies some of the richest cultural artifacts in the country, the surroundings, to many, represent an eyesore and a great disservice to the memories of the likes of Kenneth Murray, who thought it fit to set up such national monument in 1957.

The whole premises looked unkempt, with dirt, perhaps from pupils, who had earlier in the day paid a visit to the place before the correspondent’s visit. The toilet facilities, provided for visitors and other staff working outside the offices, were in a state of disrepair. Though a water system toilet facility, it was clear from the dry pipes in the toilets that it had been long water passed through them last.

For instance, out of the four water closets in the male section of the toilet, none of the units could be flushed using the toilet handle. The user would have to look for a bucket and apply water manually.

Besides, the once hyperactive premises looked desolate and deserted, a situation that made the correspondent enquire whether the workers at the museum were actually on recess

“No, we are fully on, just like other workers. No recess. The whole place is just quiet, but everybody is around,” replied one of the staff on the premises, who would not want his name in print.

But it was quiet, a surprise to the correspondent that a museum that used to be a beehive of activities, playing hosts to different classes of people, both from home and abroad, could be that quiet on a Thursday afternoon when the Nigerian Tribune called.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that apart from arts exhibition, staged occasionally in the museum, visits, sometimes from school pupils desirous of acquainting themselves with the nation’s history and the vast premises being used sometimes for social functions, the museum cannot be said to be active.

The much-touted relaxation centre the museum was said to possess in the past is no longer there. A visit to the museum kitchen only gave the correspondent an inkling of a place that had once seen very good days, but which, today, lives on its glorious past.

Even the most popular part of the museum, housing the bullet-riddled Mercedes Benz car of former head of state, the late General Murtala Muhammed, is never open on weekends, especially on Sundays.

“It is only opened to visitors on Sundays if such visitors insist on seeing the vehicle,” explained a staff of the place, who begged for anonymity.

An obviously-disappointed Mr. Ibrahim Audu, a frequent visitor to the place would rather see the ugly development at the museum as a proof of “our collective failure.”

“It is quite sad that the Lagos National Museum has become a shadow of its very good old self. It used to be fun right here in the past. Then, if you had not visited the museum, you had not visited any place of interest in Lagos,” Ibrahim stated.

This much was also echoed by Ayo Odulaja, who resides on Odunlami Street, in Marina. Odulaja, now in his fifties, recalled with nostalgia, how the place rendered different purposes to different classes of people, when he was younger.

“It used to be a veritable ground for those desirous of enhancing their knowledge of the nation’s history.  And they were always coming: researchers, students and even curious individuals, desirous of knowing one or two things about the tradition and culture of different nationalities, making up Nigeria. It was always a roll call of who-is-who in Nigeria, then.

“For us, then as young people, it was a place for relaxation, a place where you could nourish body and soul. Interestingly, everything has vanished into thin air. It’s quite sad a national monument such as this is being allowed to degenerate,” he stated.

The frustration is not being felt by Odulaja alone. Other Lagosians, especially residents in the area are angry too. They believe that the museum is not living up to its billing of a huge tourist centre and a driver of the state’s economic growth. Besides being a money-spinner for the government, it should have been used to drive the growth of the domestic economy, too, many believe.

“Anything after 5 p.m, when the people must have closed for work, the place is as good as dead. The kitchen is no longer available, and sellers at the only spot where drinks are sold are in a hurry to leave.

“And if you are conversant with this area, the whole axis is still busy till late hours of the day, due to the presence of some event centres, shopping malls and a club house in the area. Unfortunately, these are activities the museum should have tapped into because of its proximity to all these places,” argued Bisi Ojelade, who works on the Falomo Awolowo Road axis of Ikoyi.

Interestingly, not only residents and guests are praying for the good old times to be restored to the Museum. For instance, a seller at the drinking joint in the Museum believes the more active the place is, the better for business.

“I would have loved to open this shop every day of the week, but you will be disappointed at what you’ll get on a weekend, especially on Sundays.

“I spend close to N700 on transport to get here everyday, but i hardly make up to that on a Sunday, here, because sundays here are usually very dry,” she stated.

Interestingly, Mr. Adedoyin Raheem, a marketing communications practitioner still sees a silver lining on the horizon, if the present managers of the place decide to do things differently.

“First, I think it is very obvious that government has no business running a business in whatever form. To get the place up and running, it needs to let go. Let it just allow a private initiative in the place. Government should only concern itself with providing an enabling environment for such business and others to flourish.

“The fact remains that people will not mind coming there, even if it is a higher cost, as far as the condition in there is conducive. There is that urgent need for total repackaging. The state in which the Museum is today cannot attract visitors, at all. What we have on our hand today, concerning the place is a case of a facility, delivering far below its capacity,” he stated.

But whether Raheem’s advice is taken or not, one thing is certain: the Lagos National Museum is ailing, and it will take serious intervention from critical stakeholders to put it back on its feet.