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LEKKI JAKANDE ESTATE: A Dying Legacy or Living Archetype?

State of majority of the buildings in the estate: Photo by Olusesan Ogunyooye

When Governor Lateef Jakande proposed and delivered about 20,000 units of low cost housing estates in 1980/82, little did he know that; one, there shall be none of its kind in the country 30 years after; and two, that his legacy can be murdered, at least, during his life time. 

One of those estates is the Lekki Jakande Estate. Olusesan Ogunyooye  Writes

A foot path ‘decorated’ by abandoned vehicles; jarring noise of grinding machines greets passersby; and popular hip hop music oozing from a rickety Ken Wood speaker animates the market by the road side. Heaps of refuse contest for attention from the very dirty, dilapidated high-rise, buildings mostly with brown rusted roofs. This sight ‘disfigures’ the aesthetics of the coveted, high-brow Estates that lace the controversial Lekki Toll Road. Welcome to Lekki Jakande Estate, where residents live in squalor!

As I wonder how to sail the messy, blackish, stagnant water that carpets the foot path, two women just walk past – straight into the water.  One of them even has a baby strapped to her back.  As I kept hanging to the only piece of dry land under my feet, one concerned shop keeper urges me to ‘enter inside the water.  Just remove your shoes, don’t worry, you would not fall down’.

After a while, I adventurously waded through also, thinking aloud how people walk through this neighbourhood everyday.  “People that can afford it buy ‘rain boots’.  They carry it when they are going out so that once they get into the estate; they wear it till they get home.  You don’t know how much diseases someone can catch by just wading through this kind of water everyday”, Ifeoma Michael, a teacher and mother of one says.  She particularly decided to buy a pair of boots because of her baby.  “I am still breastfeeding my baby and I don’t want to pass on any illness to her”.

Asked how the estate degenerated this much, the chairman of the Community Development Association (CDA), Mr. Tunde Obadimeji, said that it is not the fault of the residents. He explained that residents of the estate are evictees of Maroko in the 80s. He said “after they evicted us from Maroko, they settled us here, but the houses were not completed. Most of the flats were fixed by their owners. It’s even the CDA that did some plastering”.

Homes to some residents of the estate: Photo by Olusesan Ogunyooye

Conducting 3invest Intelligence round the estate, Mr. Obadimeji said the CDA has resulted to self-help. We went round the various drainages facilitated by the CDA in preparation for the raining season. He explained that the community has spent about N2 million constructing the various drainages, while to putting the estimated cost at N10 million.

Speaking on how they raise funds, he explained that they levy the petty traders afforded space in front of the estate N2,000 each, saying “it’s only these petty traders that can pay because they know we can lock their shops. But the residents are not very co-operative, most of them feel it’s the government that should come and fix the problem.

However, there is an on-going project of a larger drainage sponsored by the Lagos state government. But the big poser is: to what effect is this? Is this not leaving the sickness and attacking the symptoms? The roofs over the house are gone with the winds. The standing structures are ticking time bombs. And the community itself is only inches better than a refugee camp.

One is forced to ask questions about the activities, efficiency and relevance of the Lagos State Property Development Corporation (LSPDC), the developer of the Jakande estates.

Interestingly, it was gathered that rents in the estate are not too far from the Lekki standard. A Landlord in the estate, Mr Tokunbo Ajayi, revealed that, depending on location, rents still dangle between N100, 000 and N150, 000. According to him, “areas that are not prone to flood still rent rooms as high as N100, 000 and N150, 000”.

As things stand, the estate is giving way to chalets, huts and kiosks. The community is fast becoming as eye-sore and above all, the dangers posed by the delicate appearance of these buildings and the atmosphere is better imagined.

Residence of some occupants of the Estate. Photo: 3Invest Lens View

However, if information that the government is planning relocation for residents of the estate is anything to go by, the Lekki Jankande estate might just be one of Alhaji Lateef Jakande’s legacies of low cost housing to fall. If the report is not true however, the estate is actually going. How long those structures can stand is only a matter of time.