Nigeria’s first-storey building is weeping
By Badagry serves as home to historical landmarks in Nigeria. It is also a major hub of trans-atlantic slave trade in West Africa. The early missionaries in Nigeria arrived and settled in Badagry and pioneered Christianity, Western education and mechanized agriculture. Their contribution to civiization in Nigeria is still evident in some of parts o the town .
Among these is the first-storey building in Nigeria, built by the first missionary in the country, Reverend Birch Freeman, Henry Townsend laid the foundation of the first-ever storey building in Nigeria in 1842, though the building was finally completed in 1845 by Rev. C.A Gollmer.
Overlooking the Marina waterfront, this historical building houses some of the items used by the early missionaries such as the Bible and others.
The number of tourists that visited the 172-year old structure in the previous years would have been more if the ongoing construction of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway had been completed. In 2017, It was recorded that 9009 tourists visited the site while in 2018, 13,609 visitors visited the first storey building.
The number of visitors that was recorded in 2018 was more because of festivals that usually come up at the end of the year which usually attract tourists.
When coconut festival was held, it increased the number of tourists that visited the site. Diffo for the Diaspora festival last year as many tourists and foreigners visited the first storey building in Nigeria. If these festivals were not held, the site would have not recorded such number of visitors.
The Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, in a bid to promote tourism, hasten the completion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway to boost tourism and visits to the site.
The tourism sites in Badagry are not patronised because of the bad state of the road and this is not encouraging to tourists.
It is regrettable that motorists and passengers spend between three and four hours in gridlock while going to the town. Most tourists that visit the site, if it’s not festive period, are residents of the town and students and pupils from private schools around the area.
Schools in other states wish to take their pupils or students to the site but due to the bad road they are discouraged.
Daniel Hodonu, the curator of the site, urged Nigerians to imbibe the habit of visiting various museums and monuments in the country in order to boost domestic tourism. He also urged the Federal Government to assist in giving the building a facelift.
Most of the buildings that were built along with the first storey building had collapsed due to lack of maintenance.
Now the first storey building in Nigeria in being managed by the Anglican Church, Badagry.
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