99 percent of today’s Lagos State was Western Region
By Seun Ogunseitan
Lagos State was never Nigeria’s capital. Lagos State could never have been as it was only created seven years after Nigeria’s independence. Lagos State was created with 80% if it’s land being squeezed out of lands that were already developed by the Western region in 1967. Lagos State was treated like all other Nigerian states, till date.
Lagos State never received any special allocation despite bearing the weight of Nigeria. It is only all Oil Producing States which exclusively received and always shared a percentage of Nigeria’s Oil revenue.
Lagos Island was Nigeria’s capital and harboured the federal Secretariat.
The British had used the Island as a Colony of the Britain for 52 years before Nigeria was even formed. Nigeria adopted the Island because it was already the most developed part of Nigeria that could serve as Nigeria’s capital city, at amalgamation virtually without any expense.
Lagos State was created with 20 Local Governments in 1967. Those Local governments received allocation too like all other Locals Governments in Nigeria. The population of Lagos was less than three million in 1967. Today, in 2026, Lagos State with a population that is at least 10 times that of 1967, still has only 20 local governments still receiving federal allocation. Kano State in 1967 had 20 local govts receiving federal allocations like Lagos State. Jigawa State with 27 Local Govts was carved out of that same Kano State in 1981.
Kano State’s old 20 Local Govts has also become 44 Local Govts despite the 27 bringing total number of Locals Govts in old Kano State to 71, all sharing federal revenue allocation. Despite a 10-fold increase in population only 20 LGs are recent federal allocation in Lagos State.
To take governance nearer the ever increasing population of people in Lagos State, the state government under Tinubu as Governor, created 37 new Local govts. The federal govt instead of supporting the state government stopped giving revenue allocation to even the 20 original Local Governments.
As it had always been, the federal government didn’t bother about the huge population of Nigerians from other parts of Nigeria that were burdening Lagos State.
Please note that it is the same creativity with which the Lagos State government is funding the 37 new Local Government Area Development Councils in Lagos that the same State government has been developing faster than the Nigerian federal government since 1999 with minimal financial involvement of the federal government.
Please recognise that as much as 80% of federal government investments in Lagos State are like private investor’s investments seeking to make money from Lagos State. One proof may be the multi-billion dollar level of multinational private partnerships successfully running in Lagos State such as the Lekki Deep Sea Ports and whole new city being built on the Atlantic Ocean expected to yield Lagos State government as much as four times Nigeria’s total crude Oils sales today, when it is in full bloom, from tourism, estate financing, hospitality, trade and commerce among others.
