Ilojo Bar should rise again

Stakeholders agree to redevelop lost monument

Ilojo Bar, the national monument on Lagos Island that was illegally demolished in 2016, will rise again in a new form. That is part of the agreement signed by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the Olaiya family, since 1933 owners of this architectural heritage.

Legacy, as a member of the Technical Committee for the Ilojo Bar site and contributor to activities that led to the signing of the Memory of Understanding, was invited to its official signing on January 2021. On that occasion the statuette that used to be on the parapet of Ilojo Bar was handed over by the Olaiya family to the Lagos Museum for safekeeping. What Lagosians called the ‘Angel’ statue is the only artefact of substance salvaged from the demolition.