To residents of Jakande community and the popular ‘Ghana School’ area, Monday 11th March 2024 would always be remembered as a day of Destruction and Displacement. It was a day they were given the matching orders by the Lagos State Government from a place they had called home for years.

For residents, any air of calm was replaced with chaos, confusion, and commotion as each tried to salvage their properties before the caterpillars pulled down their illegal structures. Every attempt to protest was effectively quelled by heavily armed security operatives deployed to oversee the demolition.

A resident of the ‘Ghana School Area’ disclosed they were notified about a year or two ago. According to him, some property owners were compensated by the Government and asked to relocate. Another resident claimed an agreement, though not documented, was reached with the Government that residents could finally stay there.

It is a sad reality, that even with a note of warning about the impending demolition, some residents refused to comply on relocation. One can only wonder why residents would refuse to comply.

The popular Jakande Estate, Ilasan is a low-cost housing estate built by the former Governor of Lagos State, Lateef Jakande. The estate, largely occupied by the poor and low-income earners, has seen a rise of shanties and all sorts of illegal structures built around it. This has been as a result of population surge over the years.

Lagos remains the commercial hub of Nigeria and witnesses an influx of people from all across the country on a daily basis. The Jakande community is situated at a prime point at the Lekki/Epe expressway. Residents can easily connect to Lekki, the mainland, or Ajah. To most residents, who practically live from hand to mouth, the cost of relocation is huge and not affordable, hence their decision to stay back, in hopes the Government would have a change of heart, but unfortunately this was not to be.

From 2011, when Fair Life Africa Foundation was set up, our focus has always been the empowerment of the poor and impoverished in society through practical social initiatives. We support poor families, several located in the Jakande community, sponsoring their children through school. Before now, we have seen how demolition works have affected the poor, as some of our beneficiaries have been impacted. Late last year, a parent of a child we support called to inform us about her shop being demolished due to ongoing road expansion at their area (Ibeju Lekki).

Now, four of our children have lost their homes, while a fifth child lost her family’s means of survival, as her mother’s shop was demolished. These families need new homes, like a thousand other affected neighbours in their community who have resorted to sleeping in the open at night. We are sad when events like this happen as families who are barely managing to survive these harsh economic times are now left to relocate and find new means of survival.

We are happy at the response from some partners so far. One of our children was allowed to stay with her proprietor, so she could complete her exams. Another family was taken in by their church. We have also opened our office to two of the other children who lost their homes, and we expect another child who is at risk to soon need our intervention. While we look for new homes for the children we support, we are providing them with meals daily to help them through this hard time.

If you would like to support the relief efforts for the affected families, please donate to

Fair Life Africa Foundation (The Spring Initiative) – FCMB – 2001005283

You can also support our work by donating online at https://globalgiving.org/projects/18330

Feel free to reach out to us at 08058711125 or 08092832745 to learn more about how to collaborate and support our work with those less fortunate in society.

Write up by Chukwuemeke Ndego and Ufuoma Emerhor.