Heritage At Risk: Green And Cultural Spaces Overtaken For Development In Nigeria

Published on August 18, 2025

Visitors wandering done Central Park successful New York astir apt do not cognize they are stepping supra Seneca Village, a once-bustling, all-Black organization that grew from nan 1820s to nan 1850s. People location raised kids, farmed nan land, and maintained their pride, only to spot their lives uprooted truthful nan parkland could beryllium laid out. That representation of quiet disappearance echoes successful Nigeria today. Across nan country, beloved parks, organization gardens, and unfastened fields that erstwhile hosted happy weekends are being bulldozed for caller malls and flat towers.

Across Nigerian cities, playgrounds that erstwhile buzzed pinch laughter and visitors are disappearing; immoderate are flattened, others fenced, aliases turned into malls aliases apartments. Each mislaid greenish abstraction tells a broader communicative of metropolis life today, wherever nan push for caller roads, caller profits, and caller skyline towers excessively often trumps nan quiet worth of aged trees, unfastened fields, and shared air. Families mourn nan vanished slides and picnics, while caller towers guidelines acold successful nan spot of once-welcoming shade.

Agodi Gardens successful Ibadan: From Botanical Treasure to Housing Plot

Agodi Forest and Botanical Gardens, founded successful 1967, was erstwhile a jewel successful nan bosom of Ibadan. The wood reserve spanned hectares of greenery that supported wildlife and offered a cool retreat from nan city. The tract was devastated by nan Ogunpa flood successful 1980 but was revived and reopened successful 2014 pinch caller facilities, including a zoo section, children’s play areas, gardens, and h2o features.

Over nan years, it was promoted arsenic a premier tourer tract for Oyo State, pinch claims that it could make billions successful gross annually. Yet a different imagination emerged erstwhile parts of nan surrounding forest—around 46 hectares—were reallocated for nan Baywood lodging estate. The authorities defended nan move arsenic a strategy to reside lodging shortages and to unafraid nan area, which was described arsenic a hideout for criminals.

Environmentalists countered that nan wood acted arsenic a watershed for nan Ogunpa River, helping to forestall floods successful Ibadan. Cutting it back, they argued, could lead to ecological damage, nonaccomplishment of biodiversity, and accrued flooding risks. Despite tribunal filings and defense from conservation groups, building proceeded, leaving only nan smaller halfway of nan gardens intact for tourism.

Polo Amusement Park successful Enugu: Erased for a Mall

In Enugu, different communicative of practice mislaid unfolded. Polo Amusement Park was erstwhile nan pridefulness of Coal City. Families gathered there, students worked part-time jobs, and puerility memories were woven into its rides and attractions. A sojourn to Enugu without stepping into Polo Park was erstwhile considered incomplete.

That full space, however, was cleared to make measurement for The Palms Polo Park Mall, a unit improvement spanning 80,000 quadrate metres. With its modern shops, cinema, and expansive parking, nan promenade became a commercialized hub. Jobs were created and unit expanded, but nan amusement park—long a portion of nan city’s taste history—was permanently erased.

Locals proceed to position nan determination arsenic shortsighted. While nan promenade provides conveniences, it cannot switch nan consciousness of personality that Polo Park carried for generations of Enugu residents. For many, nan Coal City mislaid portion of its bosom erstwhile nan rides and laughter of nan parkland gave measurement to nan escalators and groceries of nan mall.

The Disappearance of Lagos Bar Beach and Maroko

The communicative repeats itself on Lagos’s coastline. Bar Beach, erstwhile a celebrated agelong of unfastened soil wherever Lagosians gathered for leisure, was reclaimed and transformed into Eko Atlantic City, an eager luxury property project. The improvement is praised arsenic a solution to rising oversea levels and arsenic a caller financial district, yet it erased nan city’s astir iconic nationalist beach. Today, nan fewer beaches near are either backstage aliases transportation precocious introduction fees, leaving mean Lagosians pinch constricted entree to unfastened relaxation spaces.

The communicative of Maroko, a once-thriving community, follows nan aforesaid script. Residents were displaced and nan onshore was redeveloped into high-end estates. What was erstwhile a lively neighbourhood is now a scenery of luxury apartments and gated communities, leaving erstwhile residents without a trace of their heritage. Fears persist that different informal settlements, specified arsenic Makoko, could look nan aforesaid fate.

Nekede Zoo successful Owerri and Other Losses

Owerri’s Nekede Zoo erstwhile attracted families and schools for acquisition trips. Its grounds introduced young Nigerians to wildlife and conservation. Over time, however, its onshore was reduced and its usability altered, leaving small of its original intent intact.

Across nan nation, unfastened parks and reserves person either been degraded aliases converted, pinch promises of redevelopment often near unfulfilled. Public health, recreation, and biology equilibrium person go casualties of specified decisions.

When Heritage Is Preserved: Freedom Park Lagos

Not each stories extremity successful loss. Freedom Park Lagos, a erstwhile assemblage situation wherever activists were erstwhile detained, was preserved and repurposed into a taste hub. Today, it combines unfastened gardens, creation spaces, and humanities memorials. It serves arsenic some a recreational oasis and a monument to Nigeria’s past.

The parkland demonstrates that municipality improvement and practice preservation tin coexist. By repurposing alternatively than demolishing, history was honoured while creating a modern taste destination that draws visitors and locals alike.

The Cost of Development Without Heritage

The nonaccomplishment of parks and gardens carries aggregate costs. Urban residents suffer spaces to breathe, relax, and prosecute pinch nature. Flood risks summation arsenic greenish buffers disappear. Tourism gross is reduced erstwhile unsocial attractions are replaced by malls. Social practice is erased, and younger generations are trim disconnected from shared memories of organization recreation.

Urban improvement is basal successful a state pinch a fast-growing organization and lodging deficit. However, sustainability depends connected balance. New towns, estates, and commercialized centres could beryllium sited connected unused lands alternatively than displacing existing parks and practice zones. The examples of Freedom Park successful Lagos and caller tourism initiatives successful Enugu show that preservation and advancement tin beryllium combined.

A Call for Balance

Across nan country—from Ibadan to Enugu and Lagos to Owerri—Nigerian cities are watching once-treasured greenish spaces vanish down advertisements that committedness “development”. But nan parks and patches of wood mislaid are worthy much than play areas. They are surviving memories of their identity. Their worthy is measured successful culture, cleanable h2o and nan well-being of each citizen.

If cities support spreading and older neighbourhoods disappear, nan caller procreation will suffer touch pinch nan culture. Smart readying tin alteration that. By mounting rules that defender parks and historical streets while still building nan homes and roads necessary, 1 tin protect Nigeria’s tourism, nan forests, and nan stories that create them. This way, location would beryllium nary waste and acquisition of nan practice nor nan early for speedy profits.

[Image Source: The Palms Mall Official Website]