Obasa Proposed Lagos Bill: The Lagos We Know Is That Of Subomi Balogun And Alex Ekwueme, Says Oseni Rufai

Amid the growing public uproar that has greeted the ‘Indigeneship Bill’ being proposed by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honorable Mudashiru Obasa, renowned television anchor, and public affairs analyst, Rufai Oseni has criticized the Bill by going down memory lane to narrate a remarkable incident that occurred between the recently deceased owner of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Otunba Subomi Balogun, and the late Chief Alex Ekwueme.

While speaking during ARISE TV’s ‘Morning Show’ program on Friday, Rufai revealed how during the civil war, helped protect Ekwueme’s home in Lagos after the latter was forced to return to the Southeast.

According to Rufai, Balogun not only renovated and preserved Ekwueme’s home throughout the years that he was away, but the banker also remitted all the monies he collected as rent from the property to Ekwueme when he eventually returned after the war.

He said; “In the thick of the civil war, a certain young Igbo architect, who happened to be the first Ph.D. holder in architecture in the country, had a home close to Subomi Balogun’s house. And when the war started, the Igbos had to go back to the East. Balogun saw that squatters had taken over the home of this young architect. He drove those squatters away, renovated the house, and put it up for rent. He was keeping the rent for the young architect. Balogun could have taken over the property then because there was a war going on in the country, and the Igbos were being denigrated. But he kept the home for its owner. And when the architect returned after the war, Balogun brought out large wads of cash and handed it over to the man as the rent he had been collecting on his behalf.

The man thanked him and left. That architect later became the Vice President of this country. His name is Chief Alex Ekwueme. And that good deed was later rewarded. When it was time for Chief Subomi Balogun to get his own banking license, that same man (Ekwueme) was instrumental in helping him procure it. This story tells us what Lagos is all about because it all happened in this state. This is the Lagos I know, the Lagos of Chief Subomi Balogun and Chief Alex Ekwueme. This is the Lagos that tells us that where both men came from did not matter. It was all about the love and unity that binds us as a people. As for me, I don’t know the Lagos that Mudashiru Obasa is talking about. The Lagos he is talking about in his proposed indigeneship Bill is not the Lagos we know”.
-Ngdailynews