Lost opportunity, as Mungo Park House, Asaba decays into oblivion

Mungo Park House was erected by the Royal Niger Company (RNC) in 1886. It is  located in Asaba, now the capital of Delta State. It was built to keep alive the memory of Mungo Park, a Briton who ‘discovered the source of the River Niger’. But sadly enough, he died in 1806 where his boat […]

Mungo Park House was erected by the Royal Niger Company (RNC) in 1886. It is  located in Asaba, now the capital of Delta State.

It was built to keep alive the memory of Mungo Park, a Briton who ‘discovered the source of the River Niger’. But sadly enough, he died in 1806 where his boat somersaulted somewhere in new Bussa, Niger State.

And for this singular act, the RNC members, mostly made up of traders that included that Lander Brothers, erected the building and named it after Mungo Park, as a mark of honour, being the first English explorer that attempted to discover the source of the River Niger.

Thus, Asaba became the administrative headquarters of the Southern Protectorate, while Lokoja served as the military headquarters.

Historically, this sumptuous and monumental edifice was known as the first government house in Nigeria. This was around 1800. But in 1914, Lord Lugard, another English explorer came on board to wed the couple-southern and northern protectorates now known and called Nigeria.

When Sunday Trust visited the building recently, it was observed that the house, erected with stout and cooked wooden palm carefully arranged vertically and horizontally, is falling apart. Indeed, some parts, especially the staircase, where nuts and bolts used to join the wooden palm together, is loosing and falling off, a situation that seriously endangers the life of users.

The staircase floored with imported cooked wooden palm is unique and luminous, but for now, the floor is in panic state resulting to low patronage by tourists. The house is, indeed, wearing away.

In the early 1830s, the Lander Brothers (Richard and John) came on board. They arrived the mouth of River Niger in 1833.

In 1884, Sir George Turban Goldie was brought in as the administrator of the oil River to wed all British firms and named it, Royal Niger Company. Thereafter, the British Government granted it chartered in 1886 with headquarter in Asaba. By January 1, 1900, the British Crown, as it were took control of the territories by lowering it’s flag and replaced it with the British Union Jack Flag which was hoisted at the same time in both Asaba and Lokoja.

Soon, the actions of the British began to tell much on the lives of the people in Asaba in all ramifications.

Speaking on the issue, the curator of National Museum, Mr John Olusegun Ogundele said that the Mungo Park House was built by the Lander Brothers primarily for business of palm kernel, but the place was used as the seat of power when they departed.

Mr Ogundele further said that the place was used by various governments – Western or Mid-West, local and Delta State Government as Orphanages, Women Development Centre, Water Board and now Monument for keeping relics and articrafts to entertain both foreigners and the local people.

He added that “historians do come here to ask questions about the place, then take pictures and send abroad as a prove that Lander Brothers actually stopped and lived in Asaba”.

According to the curator, for the building, “nothing significant validates the presence of the Lander Brothers was in Asaba, but lamented that the place, taken over by government in 1997 and turned to museum, is dilapidating”.

“If the house had served all these purposes – keeping records for a country, community and society, then one expect that the building be properly managed. But regrettably, the place is decapitating by the day”.

Mr Ogundele passionately appealed to the Federal Government to assist in bringing back the building to its normal shape to keep an exhibition reflecting all the activities from the era of RNC to now to reflect the pictorial form in a chronological order”.

Unless Government intervent by ejecting colossal amount of money and bringing experts to handle it, the building will go worst, even beyond expectation in no distant time.

This was the position of Mr Jerry Okosun, the principal ethnographer of the museum who said that the structure must undergo some “surgical” changes without being defaced.

Hear him “we needed this place to be changed but we don’t want to deface it because when you are carrying out renovation, there are element of originality we want to retain, those things must be there and we call it defacement in museum terminology. So, we want government to re-structure the building for us”.

According to Okosun, once the building is rehabilitated, tourists are bound to visit the place for fact-finding about the ethnography and ethnology of the place.

Mr Okoafor Ikechukwu, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Museum sang a similar song by canvassing for the rehabilitation of the Mungo Park House by experts.

Ikechukwu said that once experts are allowed to handle the building, it will take the normal shape.

“In Museum, you don’t just wake up and touch anything because you want it look good. But all the experts must be involved to make sure that it is not being defaced, experts that must put it in the normal and original angle of Mungo Park House,” he said.

Another ugly side of the Mungo Park House is the location. Although the ground level is a bit okay, the unusual noise that is continually emitting from the generating plant supplying electricity to Grand Hotel, one of the most expensive hotels in Asaba is, to say the least, unbearable, and perhaps, this informed the recent low patronage of tourists from in and outside the state.

In addition, the state library and the High Court directly in front of the building blocks the view of the entire building, creating imbalance and uneasy access to the House.