Former minister of Education and founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili, has called on President Bola Tinubu and Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to immediately provide emergency shelter and humanitarian support for residents displaced by the ongoing demolition of homes in Makoko, Lagos.
Ezekwesili, who made the call in an open memorandum addressed to both leaders, described the demolition as a grave assault on constitutional citizenship, human dignity and the rights of some of Nigeria’s poorest citizens.
She said the treatment of Makoko residents raises fundamental questions about whether the Nigerian state exists to protect all citizens or only those with wealth and influence.
According to her, Makoko residents are not squatters but citizens who work, raise families, contribute to the Lagos economy through fishing and informal trade, and actively participate in the democratic process.
She lamented that, despite their contributions, they have been treated for decades as though poverty cancels their citizenship.
“This memorandum is written because a deeply troubling picture has emerged from the morbid silence that follows the heartless demolition of homes far beyond 100 meters of the power line in Makoko. All reasonable people can easily see the injustice to the victims of the demolitions and condemn this dubious State-sanctioned eviction unequivocally.
“This memorandum is written to demand an immediate halt to the systematic oppression of the poor being done to the people of Makoko by the Lagos State Government, with the silence and acquiescence of the Federal Government. Seizure of Makoko from the residents is unjust, unconstitutional, and morally indefensible.
“What has happened in Makoko is not about safety nor urban development. What is happening in Makoko is that individuals in authority of the Nigerian State are engaged in a vicious Class Cleansing- to banish the poor from the sight of the powerful and their rich friends,” she stated.
Ezekwesili also said the demolitions have created a humanitarian emergency, leaving thousands of families homeless, disrupting children’s education and destroying livelihoods.
She noted that many displaced residents are now sleeping in the open, exposed to rain, heat, disease and insecurity, while security forces are deployed against civilians whose only offence is living in poverty on valuable waterfront land.
She rejected the Lagos State Government’s claim that the demolitions were purely for safety reasons linked to high-tension power lines, alleging that they went far beyond the agreed limits, extending deep into Makoko’s residential areas and affecting homes, schools, clinics, and livelihoods with no direct link to power-line safety.
“Our Governments went from a safety claim to forced eviction of our citizens from their lands. What is occurring in Makoko is not merely a technical planning dispute over metres.
What is happening in Makoko is an undisputed constitutional failure of process, transparency, and restraint. Period.
“Until the latest safety reasons, the repeated justification of demolitions in Makoko was under the banner of “urban renewal” or “megacity aspirations”, and that in itself reveals a deeply troubling governance mindset. It is the classic mindset that thinks of development as something done to the poor, not with them and that the city is for the wealthy, while the poor are disposable.
“A State that cannot build with its poorest citizens but can only bulldoze over them has failed the most basic test of leadership,” she lamented.
Speaking further, she maintained that what is happening in Makoko is not genuine urban development but a form of class cleansing aimed at removing the poor from areas of high land value to satisfy elite interests.
Ezekwesili therefore demanded a number of immediate actions, including a halt to all demolitions in Makoko, public clarification of the legal basis for exceeding the stipulated safety limits, and compensation.
