The occasion of Nigeria’s 47^th Independence anniversary is an opportunity to indulge in nostalgia for the “good old days” when Nigeria was still a callow youth, and neither the thrusting opportunism of her twenty something years, the crass callousness of her late thirties, nor her creeping doubts at the onset of middle age, could have been foreseen.

For business reasons, I currently spend a substantial percentage of my time in Surulere, a popular suburb of Lagos. Despite no longer living in the area, I still consider myself to be a Surulere girl at heart, since I was raised here from a very young age, prior to departing for the UK to further my studies in my early teens.

I remember as a child, having the free run of the area, with my siblings and our friends. It was a tranquil place were everyone knew everyone else. We played in each other’s gardens, rode our chopper bikes after school, and put on plays for our own entertainment. Birthday parties were always a lot of fun. 

Surulere was then a safe and comfortable area which could be classed as a medium density upper middle class neighbourhood.  Power cuts and armed robbery were still fairly rare at that time, and the roads were certainly not filled with potholes as they are now. Ogunlana Drive and Adeniran Ogunsanya were residential streets, with pleasant homes and few commercial properties, in stark contrast to the present day, when  heavy traffic and the jungle of signboards and banners have completely taken over, creating a chaotic environment.

What I loved about Surulere was its vibrant nature. There was never a dull moment, and that sense of excitement is heightened today. You could take your choice between shopping at Leventis on Akerele Road or UTC at the end of Adeniran Ogunsanya. There were no posh hairdressing salons apart from Elegant Twins, and we girls regularly had our hair plaited in Lawanson market.

Other important Surulere landmarks in my childish eyes were the National Stadium, Super Cinema where we rarely ventured because it had a dodgy reputation, and the Pacelli School for the Blind, where we once hurried to see the Head of State give a speech with very little fanfare or security.

Today parents are spoilt for choice among local schools, but that was not the case in my youth; we were driven out of the area daily to attend Unilag Staff School. However, as the strong educational presence in the area developed, my nephew later attended St Martins Day Nursery and Fountain School, both of which are still going strong and developing new generations of Surulere children.

Ikoyi or Ikeja were far away places where we occasionally ventured to visit family friends. The Third Mainland Bridge did not exist as yet, and the traffic across Eko Bridge was usually heavy, despite the “odd and even” car policy of those days. Surulere was quite enough for us – we had little need or desire to exceed the boundaries of our comfort zone.

Sadly, I find it hard to imagine how the word “comfort” can apply in any way to present day Surulere. Now that I have travelled the world and returned home, Surulere to me looks smaller, more overcrowded and certainly shabbier than it was in my youth. Most houses are in dire need of modernisation and especially a coat of paint. The streets are dirtier, the mosquitoes more plentiful, and the hardworking residents have less time to stop and chat. Commerce appears to be thriving; there are businesses crammed into every feasible space, including virtually on top of “Bus Corner”, a busy junction controlled by traffic lights. Cars and okadas move around at a frantic pace, and there are scores of mobile phone shops, fast food joints, and fashion outlets. Difficult to imagine this as the once-peaceful neighbourhood whose name can be loosely translated from the Yoruba language as “Patience has its reward.”

I would argue that the transformation Surulere has undergone over the past 20 –30 years is a microcosm of the Lagos - and possibly wider Nigerian - experience: degeneration of infrastructure, increased levels of crime and other antisocial activity, denser population, faster pace, and a febrile atmosphere where it feels as though almost anything goes.

Robot  Villager

# 1 The occasion of Nigeria’s 47th Independence anniversary is an opportunity t...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 04.10.2007 09:44

toksyleigh  Villager

# 2 Well Ronke my Sister, Welcome to the country called Nigeria. While the rest of world is moving forward, Nigeria is regressing fast. You know, I get a couple of rude e-mails asking me why do I love to say negative things about Nigeria and further challenged me that if I don't like the way things are I should go back home and effect change. My answer to those people is very simple, unfortunately, I did not choose a public service life either in Nigeria or abroad. Now concentrating or Nigeria, the reason being that I have what some might call a very a big mouth. I was brought along with my siblings in a home where you are encouraged to call a spade a spade and not a dog (I can still remeber my Dad saying that, mo ju e lo ni Ile Yoruba won man fi yan eniya je ni (age has nothing to do with common sense) Unfortunately, the Nigeria society is not structured that way. My God! I can still remember that occassional confrontations my older siblings and I will have with some of our our Uncles and Aunties and when do not get their way; they will retort to my parents with the usual sentiments " brother or aunty mi, e ti ba awon omo yin je, nigbati e wa bi won si ilu Oyinbo nko, won oni respect fun agbalagba rara. (your kids are not respectful of their elders, so what if they were born abroad). My point to all this is that, the greatest enemies that Nigeria has are Nigerian's themselves, instead of speding public funds on improving the infrastructures and the lots of the Nigeria and Nigerians respectively, they would rather use that money to buy homes in UK, USA and or Canada. Ask how many of the Ministers, Governors, Senate President, House Leaders, State speakers, special advisers, Senators and even local Government chairmen have their kids schooling in Nigeria and we expect them to fix Nigeria? yeah right! I am not holding my breadth and you shouldn't either. God help us all, Goriola Abamieda Jnr. Posted by toksyleigh| 04.10.2007 10:41

beambolla  Villager

# 3 Real Back down memory lane, i was brought up in Suru-lere too, Adelabu to be precise i am a product of Fountain Primary School {/blue/yellow uniform} Whow just reading this article has brought tears to my eyes since the last time i was in Nigeria things have changed so much. Ogunlana Drive, Bode Thomas, Shell-Club,Alhaji Masha ..................... All i can say is hopefully one day Nigeria will live up to the name other African Nations call it the Jewel of Africa, but till then i will have my childhood memories like the writer, and hold them close to my heart. Posted by beambolla| 04.10.2007 11:03

surulere007  Villager

# 4 But every coin there is the other face and this narration won't complete without the mention of ojuelegba, jubril martins, sam sonibare, ijesha, akerele and 42nd avenue aka ayilara/ibidun , randle, ****ta bay, Aguda, Bank Olemo, Tejuosho etc (how did I remember all these names) I remember those days whenever we are bored in school (unilag) and feel like having change of scene ..we'll head down to Terry's burger (the pioneer fast food chain that started the thread) and once the darkness is deep, take a walk to 42nd and see the other side of life .. boys-will-be-boys attitudes, burger hut, etc Its been a while that I last saw surulere and right now there is a feeling of nostalgia. how I long to hear the sound of ojuelegba - the center of lagos life. Surulere started as a newly developed area in the late 60s with well laid out building structures and road network especially when you look at the building around Adeniran Ogunsanya, Randle etc Posted by surulere007| 04.10.2007 13:14

surulere007  Villager

# 5 But every coin there is the other face and this narration won't complete without the mention of ojuelegba, jubril martins, sam sonibare, ijesha, akerele and 42nd avenue aka ayilara/ibidun , randle, ****ta bay, Aguda, Bank Olemo, Tejuosho etc (how did I remember all these names) I remember those days whenever we are bored in school (unilag) and feel like having change of scene ..we'll head down to Terry's burger (the pioneer fast food chain that started the thread) and once the darkness is deep, take a walk to 42nd and see the other side of life .. boys-will-be-boys attitudes, burger hut, etc Its been a while that I last saw surulere and right now there is a feeling of nostalgia. how I long to hear the sound of ojuelegba - the center of lagos life. Surulere started as a newly developed area in the late 60s with well laid out building structures and road network especially when you look at the building around Adeniran Ogunsanya, Randle etc Posted by surulere007| 04.10.2007 14:17

RAYNOSA  Villager

# 6 Ronke, Thanks for bringing this piece as requested in your last article, Hope to get to know all the SURU-LERE oga and madam in the house. Grew up in RAZAQ BALOGUN off Adeniran Ogunsanya Attended Suru-Lere Baptist pry sch Then G.C.L Eric-moore still have fond memory of EDDIE-KING BURGER UTC, st Anthony catholic church Gbaja,Super cineama. Then Suru-Lere was purely residencial area. Miss Suru-lere Posted by RAYNOSA| 04.10.2007 14:49

ifeolooni  Villager

# 7 awati tejuoso re oshamo!!!!!!!!!! Posted by ifeolooni| 04.10.2007 17:00

churchill  Villager

# 8 As it is with Surulere, so it was with, A. Nigerian Airways before metamorphosing to Virgin Nigeria B. National theater before transformation to “National Morgue” C. Oil refineries before degenerating to “Oil Redundancy” D. Railway tracks before transforming to bush path E. The Lagos national stadium before desertification to sand dunes The list is endless. What is left is the transformation of the country itself to… only God knows Posted by churchill| 04.10.2007 17:42

Omowa2  Villager

# 9 Sista Ronke, I am a Surulere boy too, in fact we lived around the Shell Club area and I knew when LSDPC shopping complex was been built. Games Village and the court house near there. I knew nearly every family who lived on Adeniran Ogunsanya before the shops took over. Well is there anything we all can do to SIMPLY SAVE SURULERE There are too many good people on NVS and that is why it is the flagship of listserves for Nigerians. The Big-K who owns or is it runs it is very conservative and he will never respond to non-elites like himself. Yes that is why I like NVS. Count me in to support Simple Save Surulere campaign...and from there the New Nigeria Network campaign will comence. Saving Nigeria one community at a time! Omowa2 Posted by Omowa2| 04.10.2007 18:09

tanibaba  Villager

# 10 Ronke i want to thank you for this piece. How can we ever forget Surulere. I moved into Surulere from lagos island when i was about 13years old. Did i love surulere? I still go back there though not regularly anymore. And do i feel bad whenever i visit surulere these days? i do. You brought back too many memories. From buscorner where the Bakinson's resided to Bank Olemoh, Super cinema, our little football field sandwitched between super cinema and Ile gogoro, to Ile gogoro itself which housed several of my friends - Badmus, Shadeko (miss), Alaka etc etc to Mama Calabar where we were hooked permanently on smoked gizard. Na wa o for surulere. Then we turned round to visit local wembley to watch stationery stores and continued the circle to ojuelegba and Randle ( the home of my "darling" unforgetable Bodunrin) etc etc. The night clubs nko? i remember Kakadu and Chicago and those "parapara" gigs we had at Bank Olemoh. But no thanks to the influx of people into these peaceful areas and the craze for money by the local governments in the area Surulere (which one can conveniently compare with Pretoria) has been turned to a jungle. It is a pity. taslim Posted by tanibaba| 05.10.2007 10:28

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