Lagos: Makoko’s floating school might be sunk by politics

Like a sailing ship, a wooden cottage of about two storey building maintains a picturesque stand atop the Makoko-end of Lagos Lagoon. Though yet to be completed, the cottage, already known as Makoko Floating School, is expected to house school children from the riverine slums ofMakoko and its neighbourhoods.As at the time of filing this […]

Like a sailing ship, a wooden cottage of about two storey building maintains a picturesque stand atop the Makoko-end of Lagos Lagoon. Though yet to be completed, the cottage, already known as Makoko Floating School, is expected to house school children from the riverine slums ofMakoko and its neighbourhoods.
As at the time of filing this report a carpenter and an electrician were seen putting finishing touches to the first floor of the building, which is expected to host the first set of pupils in the days ahead. The floating school has a mother school known as Nwanya Nursery and Primary School, Makoko. The primary five and six pupils of Nwanya have been designated to be the first occupiers of the floating school.
Semide Noah, an indigene of Makoko, who is also the Director of Nwanya Nursery and Primary School, said the much expectation that greeted the construction of the floating school has been greatly whittled down bywhat he and many community members perceived to be undue politicisation of its existence. And this he attributed to the LagosState government which he described as acting as the stumbling block at the early stage when the idea of building a floating school in the area was conceived. The state government was said to have dubbed it an ‘illegal project.’
“The floating school is an extension of Nwanya school. The project has stagnated for some time now on issues thatare politically-related. In fact, last year the Lagos State government officials were here claiming the project is an illegal one and that it will not receive their blessings. Some of us don’t really understand the motive behind that argument uptill now,” Noah told Weekly Trust.
“However, there appears to be a change of heart from these officials and they seem to be cooperating with the architectwhohas been handling the project.  And everything is moving on fine.Barring any change in schedule, the work will be completed on thefloating school soon and our class five and six students will soon movein there,” he added.
From what was gathered from multiple sources in the community, there has been a no-love-lost relationship between the state government and residents of Makoko for many years now. The bone of contention issaid to be the fact that the state government considered dwelling in Makoko slum, especially on the Lagos lagoon, as an eyesore; one that poses health and environment risks to its inhabitants.
On the other hand, residents of Makoko, most of whom are Egun from the Badagry area of Lagos and Benin Republic, insist that riverine habitation is a key part of their culture and livelihood even from their ancestral homes.
The second argument which perhaps could be linked with the politicisation claim Noah made reference to was the true ownership of the location. It is argued that oceans, beaches and territorial water belong to the federal government. Makoko residents are saying that since the Lagos lagoon is in the purview of the federal government and not state, the government at Alausa ought to lay no claim to the place and neither does it have the power to evict them from the place.
The wrangling indeed came to a head sometime in 2013 when the Lagos State government through its task force, launched a forceful eviction on residents of Makoko. The slum dwellers were also said to have retaliated and in the ensuing melee one of the local chiefs in the area was gunned down.
Though, there are a number of court cases relating to this that have been slammed against the state government by the residents and human rights communities, such skirmishes have since 2013 become a recurrent decimal in the area.
“Just last week, we had serious clashes around here and three youths were killed in the ensuing melee. That is how precarious the situation has been since 2013. But no one can remove the underlyingfactors here. One, we suspect government wants to evict us from this place just as they have done to Maroko residents. After the eviction, I’m sure they will allocate the place to their cronies.  And that has always been the basis of disagreement between them and human rights communities. They keep asking government: if you evict them here, where do you hope to transfer them?” Emmanuel Aveh, a community leader in Makoko asked.
“The second and most interesting aspect of the whole issue is the political colouration it has assumed. You know the government at the centre is being controlled by PDP (People’s Democratic Party) while the one at state level is APC (All Progressives’ Congress). So if we insist that the state lacks the power to evict us, theyknow we have a germane point because PDP government will not support autocratic tendency of APC. Interestingly, back home in Badagry, despite Lagos being an APC state, PDP has always had our support in all elections. So you can add the sum yourself and arrive at an answer. This political dimension has stalled everything here including the floating school, at a time,” he added.
Perhaps, the change of heart from Lagos state government in allowing the floating school to thrive might have been necessitated by the interest shown by outside bodies such as the United Nations Development Programme/Federal Ministry of Environment (AAP) and Heinrich Böll Foundation. These financiers put the construction exercise at the careof architect Kunle Adeyemi with active support from Lisa Anderson, Thijs Bouman, Leslie Ebony, Marije Nederveen, SegunOmodele, AdekunleOlusola, ChrysoOnisiforou, Martin Oreoluwa, Berend Strijland and Monica Velasco. Adeyemi who leads the team also pays the bills of the electrician and the carpenter met at the site when our correspondent visited.
 When Weekly Trust correspondent stepped into the building, it was observed that the foundation solidification has been completed as it was noticed that each of the four strands on which the wooden cottage is hosted are firmly concretised deep into the lagoon.
The ground floor is left as an open space while the first floor to be the only one that has been completed. The long-stretched classroom is divided into two and it is said to be in preparation for the accommodation of primary five and six pupils of Nwanya school.
“We have actually gone a long way. All the finishing touches are what we are putting in place.  We are aware that those children will move in here any moment from now. But they can only occupy the first floor which is ready. The upper section which is the second floor has not been developed yet as you can see. But we hope todevelop it too after we have seen how this we are experimenting with now, fares,” Sunday Posu, the electrician met at site of the floating school told Weekly Trust as he conducted the correspondent round the project.
Beyond the frills and thrills of having the floating school is the big question of the quality of education that will be dished out there when completed. So also is the question of who will cater for the welfare of the teachers and educational materials that would be used by the pupils, many of whom are from poor homes.
Although efforts to get any of the contracting team failed, the picture of how the mother-school: Nwanyan Nursery and Primary School is being run as painted by the school director presents a grim picture.
 “Although, it is more or less voluntary work, yet I still manage to pay each teacher the sum of N10, 000 every month end. Since there is no government support, what I do is to rally round friends and organisations. There are some people that come around here and will say, ‘Noah, we will help you two months’ salary of your staff.’ If this is not coming up, nobody will like to turn up here.  And it will interest you to know that all the members of staff and myself were born in this community,” Noah told Weekly Trust.
“In all we have 218 pupils in the mother-school here and eight teachers. But to sustain this initiative, we need more donations and support from kind-hearted individuals, corporate bodies and philanthropic organisations to assist us especially in the area of providing us with stationery, textbooks for the teachers and payment of the monthly salaries of teachers. In fairness some organisations have been assisting tremendously, yet we need more of such gestures to keep the flag flying,” he added.
On the qualification of his teachers, Noah said many of them are Senior Secondary School Certificate (SSCE) holders but was quick to add that they also run part time programmes just like himself at Yaba College of Technology to broaden their horizon.