Built during the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo and designed with the exterior made to look like a military hat, the National Arts Theatre was completed in 1976 in preparation for the 1977 Festival of Arts And Culture (FESTAC). It has a 5000-seater main hall with a collapsible stage and 2 capacity cinema halls. In 2010, Olusegun Obasanjo announced that there were plans to privatize the theatre and on the 30th of December 2014, it had been sold to a Dubai-based conglomerate for $40 Million dollars. This caused much controversy but like pretty much all the outrageous stuff that has happened in this country in the last few years, people got over it.
2. The Welcome To Lagos Statue
Commissioned under the administration of Colonel Raji Rasaki and designed by Bodun Shodeinde in 1991, the sculpted three chiefs was built to welcome people coming into Lagos state and stood over 12 ft tall. It stood until Nigerians burnt it down in 2004 because they insisted that the statue was full of juju and was the cause of the accidents that were happening around it. It was rehabilitated and moved to it’s present location along Epe only for people to burn it down AGAIN during the fuel subsidy sage in 2012. I am tired of Nigerians.
3. Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS)
Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) is a 35.8- acre ceremonial ground (originally called Race Course). It was constructed over the site of an abandoned race rack (which is why it was called race course). The entrance to the square has giant sculptures of 4 white horses above the gate and 7 red eagles. The square has a capacity of 50,000 which has housed a lot of historical events like Nigeria’s independence celebration which took place on the 1st of October 1960 at which the prime minister Tafawa Balewa gave a speech.
4. The Third Mainland Bridge
Opened in 1990 by the then president Ibrahim Babangida, The Third Mainland bridge is the longest of the 3 bridges (Eko and Carter) connecting Lagos island to the mainland. It was the longest bridge in Africa until 1996 until the 6th October bridge in Cairo, Egypt was completed. It measures about 11.8 km in length. If you live on the Island and work on the mainland or vice versa, then you’ve definitely passed this bridge and experienced the insane traffic on it.
If you enjoyed this, read this next article about 20 pictures from Nigerian history that will make you wish you could time travel.
