Surulere was once the most prominent urban slum in Nigeria until Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe was appointed the Minister of Lands, Surveys, and Natural Resources in January 1954.
He was one of 12 Nigerian ministers in the colonial Council of Ministers in Lagos under the Macpherson constitution arrangement. There were four Ministers from each of the three major parties at the time -NCNC, AG and NPC. The Council was headed by the Governor-General of Nigeria at the time; Sir John Stuart Macpherson and contained five other British ex-officio members.
Mbadiwe convinced the Council that he can clear the unsightly slums in Lagos mainland within his one year tenure. The AG opposed it and staged massive protests which failed to make the Council withdraw the consent already given to Mbadiwe.
He started the Surulere housing estate and within 12 months, he cleared the slums and rehoused all the slum dwellers in the newly built Surulere housing estate. Just like Gwarinpa estate in Abuja, the housing estate started attracting massive developments around the Surulere area.
No minister or governor has been able to replicate this feat in the history of Lagos as the federal capital and now a state in Nigeria.
The likes of Mbadiwe will always be remembered for their unequal contributions to the making of Lagos.
Changing the Ozumba Mbadiwe road to a different name does not erase the greatness of the man of timber and caliber.
Mbadiwe set up his own newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, as an organ of protest. He later re-joined the party and was appointed Minister for Trade and Communications and also served as a special adviser to the Prime Minister, advising on African affairs.
He was one time Minister of Lands, Minister of Trade and Commerce, and Minister of Aviation. He was also appointed as the first and so far, the only “Ambassador Extra-Ordinary and Plenipotentiary” of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. KO, popularly known as “Man of Timber and Calibre” was a larger than life character with awesome accolades; he was the Agadagbachiriuzo of Arondizuogu, the Ononenyi of Orlu, the Maye of Lagos, the great eagle around whose name many legends are spun.
He built and inhabited the landmark, The Palace of The People, at Ndianiche Uno commissioned by late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1965.
Time shall tell!
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