Location
| History | Agriculture
| Mineral | Education
| Tourism | People
| Local Government Areas | Links
| Contact |
| Capital: |
Ikeja |
| Area: |
3,577
sq kilometres |
| Population: |
10,601,345
(2005 FOS est.) |
| Language: |
Yoruba |
| Governor: |
Babatunde
Fashola (AC) |
| ISO
3166-2: |
NG-LA |
| Date
Created: |
27
May 1967 |
| Population
Rank: |
Ranked
1st |
|
 |
Lagos State, Nigeria was created on May 27, 1967 by virtue
of State (Creation and Transitional Provisions) Decree No.
14 of 1967, which restructured Nigeria’s Federation into 12
States.
Prior
to this, Lagos Municipality had been administered by the Federal
Government through the Federal Ministry of Lagos Affairs as
the regional authority, while the Lagos City Council (LCC)
governed the City of Lagos. Equally, the metropolitan areas
(Colony Province) of Ikeja, Agege, Mushin, Ikorodu, Epe and
Badagry were administered by the Western Region.
Lagos
State lies to the south-western part of the Federation. It
shares boundaries with Ogun State both in the North and East
and is bounded on the west by the Republic of Benin. In the
South it stretches for 180 kilometres along the coast of the
Atlantic Ocean. The smallest State in the Federation, it occupies
an area of 3,577 sq km. 22% or 787sq. km of which consists
of lagoons and creeks
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Before
the creation of the States in 1967, the identity of Lagos was
restricted to the Lagos Island of Eko (Bini word for war camp).
The first settlers in Eko were the Aworis, who were mostly hunters
and fishermen. They had migrated from Ile-Ife by stages to the
coast at Ebute-Metta.
The Aworis
were later reinforced by a band of Benin warriors and joined
by other Yoruba elements who settled on the mainland for a
while till the danger of an attack by the warring tribes plaguing
Yorubaland drove them to seek the security of the nearest
island, Iddo, from where they spread to Eko.
By 1851
after the abolition of the slave trade, there was a great
attraction to Lagos by the repatriates. First were the Saro,
mainly freed Yoruba captives and their descendants who, having
been set ashore in Sierra Leone, responded to the pull of
their homeland, and returned in successive waves to Lagos.
Having had the privilege of Western education and christianity,
they made remarkable contributions to education and the rapid
modernisation of Lagos. They were granted land to settle in
the Olowogbowo and Breadfruit areas of the island.
The Brazilian
returnees, the Aguda, also started arriving in Lagos in the
mid-19th century and brought with them the skills they had
acquired in Brazil. Most of them were master-builders, carpenters
and masons, and gave the distinct charaterisitics of Brazilian
architecture to their residential buildings at Bamgbose and
Campos Square areas which form a large proportion of architectural
richness of the city.
The other
two groups of Lagos State citizens are the Ogu people of Badagry
and its environs, and the Ijebu in Ikorodu and Epe Local Governments.
Badagry
town houses the first storey building in Nigeria, built in
1845 and still standing on its original site.
Badagry's
original name was Gbagle a contraction of the word Ogbaglee,
meaning in Ogu (not Egun as commonly mis-pronounced and mis-spelt)
"a farmland near the swamp". The Ogu people are historically
reputed to have migrated from the ancient Ketu.
Kingdom
(part of Oduduwa's Kingdom) and they left Ile-Ife around the
mid-13th century, for Accra in Gold Coast. The Ga/Ewe (Aja-Ogu)
speaking group of today's Ghana are indeed the kith and kin
of the Ogu of Badagry. The history of Badagry has a fascinating
tradition of Kingship (Wheno-Aholu) and local administration.
The ancient town of Badagry is divided into eight quarters
namely: Jegba, Ahoriko Awhanjigoh, Boekoh, Wharakoh, Pesuka
and Ganho and its adjoining villages on both the mainland
and island, have for centuries recognised the Wheno Aholu
Akran of Badagry, of which there have been seventeen from
the earliest times to the present Akran, Menu Toyi I crowned
in 1977.
The Ijebu
people of the Epe and Ikorodu Local Government areas share
a collective heritage with their kith and kin in the present
day Ogun State, but have also developed strong trade and cultural
links with the entire riverine coastline of Nigeria, with
its interlaced pattern of waters and creeks which empty into
the lagoon and the Atlantic ocean. By the turn of this century,
through administrative sleight of hand by the British, all
the major towns and settlements of the two areas had been
annexed as part of the "colony" and the amalgamation in 1914
finally merged Ikorodu with the protectorate.
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Lagos State has taken giant strides in fulfilling
the educational aspirations of its citizenry. The state has
906 primary schools with 859,456 pupils. The state also has
360 secondary schools with 633,247 students, 5 Technical Colleges
with 3,223 students, two Colleges of Education including that
for Primary Education, a Polytechnic and a University - the
Lagos State University (LASU) located at Ojo. It also houses
the federally owned University of Lagos. The thrust of the
government educational policy is the provision of qualitative
education and the pursuit of academic excellence
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Bar Beach, Lagos Physical/Man-made * Badagry
Beach, Lagos Physical/Man-made * Kaiyetoro Maiyegun Beach
Physical/Man-made * Eleko Beach Physical/Man-made * Lekki
Peninsula Physical/Man-made * Tarkwa Bay, Lagos Physical/Man-made
* Water Parks, Toyin Street, Ikeja Man-made Resort * Apapa
Amusement Park Resort/Man-made * Frankid Leisure Park, Festac
Resort/Man-made * Whispering Palms Iworo- Physical/Man-made
Badagry * Lekki Conservation Centre Man-made * National Museum,
Onikan Museum/Monument * Slave Relics Badagry Monument * First
Storey Building, Badagry Monument * MUSON Centre, Onikan Man-made
* National Theatre, Iganmu Man-made * Oba's Palace Lagos
Cultural* Igbo Igunun, cultural
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Agege,
Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Alimosho, Amuwo-Odofin, Apapa, Badagry,
Epe, Eti-Osa, Ibeju/Lekki, Ifako-Ijaye, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Kosofe,
Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, Mushin, Ojo, Oshodi-Isolo, Shomolu,
Surulere.
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www.lagosstate.gov.ng
Lagos
State Govt on the Web, WebCam
of Lagos
Schools
on The Web: www.unilag.edu
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State
Liason Office:
286, Akin Olugbade Street, Victoria Island Lagos. Plot 639,
AL Fayyun Street off Abidjan Street, Zone 3, Abuja
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