National Museum Onikan

Onikan Museum: Where Nigeria's culture and history are kept

The National Museum in Onikan, is one of Nigeria's kept monument with the most preserved cultural antiquities coupled with back ground preservation of Nigeria history. AUSTIN JACOBSON in this visit to the museum chronicled its importance in the preservation of Nigeria culture and history for the world to see. Excerpt:

THE pride of every nation is the significance it attaches to its culture, its people, events and what symbolises them together as a nation.  The people are the natural endorsement bestowed on the nation and the events that have passed through them takes the people from one phase to another.

That is why monuments such as museums are created and emblemised in to the fibre of the people for the purpose of remembrance and to show or attract tourist from all over  the  world to come and see what has become of the race or how events in the past has shaped the country to what it is now.

This brings to the fore the importance of The National Museum Onikan in Lagos which was built and later extended at a cost of one hundred thousand pounds sterling and was open to the public in 1957. National Daily during a visit to the museum reliably learnt that the museum as it  is today was part of the King George V Memorial Park which is situated opposite The Race Course.

According to one of the administrators in the museum who conducted National Daily through the museum Mrs. Abah Elizabeth, the museum is equipped with good workshop and laboratory facilities for tackling all simple conservation problems. She said there is a good dark room and studio and five storage galleries air conditioned.  On the corner of the museum sits an old building constructed of imported brick and pinch-pine, dating from the turn of the century.

There are also art galleries with collections of Nigerian meta work and pottery sculpture including fine examples of Nok Figurine Culture and one of the best of Ife bronze heads as well as first class examples from more recent Yoruba brass-foundries.

National Daily was also shown   one of the most visited arcades in the museum which is the car in which the Late General Murtala Muhammed was assassinated thirty five years ago.  The car which is placed at the centre of The Nigerian Government Yesterday and Today attract the highest number of tourists to the museum.

The car National Daily gathered has continued to attract an average of 3,000 tourists monthly, from within and outside Nigeria.   The bullet-riddled metallic-black Mercedes Benz 230.6 car is displayed at the 57-year-old National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, alongside other historical national antiques.

The Late General Murtala Muhammed, Nigeria's military Head of State from July 29, 1975, was assassinated in a coup-de-tal by soldiers led by Lt.-Col. Bukar Sukar Dimka on Feb. 13, 1976, after less than seven months in office while going for the Friday prayers in Obalende.

The car according to the museum officials has continued to attract the highest number of tourists, especially on days shortly before and after the yearly memorial.  “During the museum's peak period, about 3,000 tourists visit the car while 2, 000 visit it at off peak periods.

The car was taken into the museum shortly after Muhammed's assassination. It tells a story of the end of an era. The car is been preserved by the museum authorities and many who visit the museum daily request to see it. It was formerly under the tarched roof building but when the roof was falling off and in order to preserve the originality of the car it had to be moved to where it is presently.

The gallery were the car was before became unsafe for visitors and the monument and that was why it was relocated it to a better place known as  Centre of The Nigerian Government Yesterday and Today  at the back of the museum with the assistance of the Ford Foundation.

The car had which is  well-maintained and still glistering  had over 20 bullet holes with photographs and write ups on the Nigerian political history from the colonial era to date adorning the room where it is on display.