The Obafemi Awolowo Memorials

The Obafemi Awolowo Mueum

On a visit to Ikenne, Ogun State last weekend, I stopped by at the Obafemi Awolowo country home where I made these photos of the memorials of the late politician and sage. We weren't allowed to enter the museum because it is required that we should have written ahead of time to request permission to enter. So one could only take photos of the exteriors and not see the mementoes of the great leader of the Yoruba people.

Obafemi Awolowo's resting place

The car that Obafemi Awolowo rode for his presidential campaigns in 1979 and 1983

Obafemi Awolowo

One of the three famous statues of the founder of modern Yoruba politics and economy, Obafemi Awolowo stands immortalised at the Allen Avenue Roundabout in Ikeja. The two other statues like this one are located in Ibadan and Ile Ife (inside the university named after him).

Freedom Park, Lagos

The new Freedom Park museum and exhibition hall

 The Freedom Park is a new public facility that rose out of the ruins of the old Broad Street Prisons, former home to some of Nigeria's most important politicians like Herbert Macaulay and Obafemi Awolowo. They were both incarcerated by the British government for their agitation for independence. After many years of being in ruins, architect Theo lawson, who I was lucky to meet and get a personal tale,  drew up a plan to rehabilitate the prison and turn it into public use. This beautiful new world class park is the outcome.

Photo of the old Broad Street Prisons on display in the museum

Nobel prize winner Wole Soyinka described it thus: ''An arena for the 'abandonment of hope', the Broad Street Prisons, now opens out to embrace the yells of a hopeful generation. Open sales stalls have replaced the dismal prison cells of colonial memory. A performance stage bestrides the very spot where the prison gallows once stood and performed their macabre ritual.''