ABANDONED NIGERIAN ACTIVISTS HOME TO BECOME MUSEUM

January 22, 2020

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humanrights actvisits, Rev Israel Oludotun and wife, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti has for decades abandoned to rodents and miscreants.

However, following media report drawing attention to the dilaptated condition of the building, Ogun State Government with the consent of grandchildren of the deceased took up the challenge to turn around the home and convert to museum. The colonial era one-storey building was built over a century ago,while landlords were a known Yoruba family noted for their contributions to Nigerian art, religion, education, medicine and politics‎.

The building was constructed with marbles and clay as was the vogue with the aristocrats of the time,but after demise of the Ransome-Kutis the building became dilapidated a‎ place of abode for miscreants,reptiles and other dangerous animals. The late couple from Abeokuta made their names as educationists and unionists long before one of their sons, Fela, became known across the world as an iconoclastic musician and social crusader.

The family head died on April 6, 1955. He was principal of one of Nigeria’s earliest secondary schools, Abeokuta Grammar School, as well as a Christian cleric and pioneer President of Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT.

Similarly,his wife, Funmilayo, died on April 3, 1978 following an invasion of the Lagos home of her son, Fela, by Nigerian soldiers.

She was also teacher, but noted as a political campaigner, women’s rights activist and aristocrat. She was the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria.

Other biological children of the late deceased include; Olikoye, a former Nigerian Health Minister who died at the age of 76 on June 3, 2003; Beko (August 2,1940-February 10, 2006), a social critic and medical doctor who was President of the Nigerian Medical Association; and Dolupo, the only female among them who died a few years after her siblings.

In an interview,the musician grandson of the deceased,Femi, explained why the building had not come under his attention, stressing that even to preserve the legacy of his own father, Fela, was enough engagement for him and his siblings.

Hear him “As Fela’s children, his legacy is so huge‎ for us as his kids to carry and maintain the dignity it requires. Keeping the museum, keeping his shrine, keeping his albums, his fans worldwide, lawyers, case here, case there. We are human,” .

Also speaking, another grandson, Dotun who is the son of Olikoye said the embarrassment of abandoning the edifice should go beyond the descendants of the Ransome-Kutis.

“I think ‎it is embarrassing to Ogun State more than us because the house doesn’t just come like that. It was like that when my grandmother’s kids, Olikoye, Beko, Fela and Dolu were alive. But they didn’t do anything about it’,he stated. “Even what they have done for Nigeria, they have become Nigerian children. Why can’t Nigerians look at the house and say this is a place of value, let us do it up,” he declared.

‎”In the house, we have wooden stairs, they are virtually going to give way. The floor boards are like a death trap. What are they going to renovate? You don’t renovate that kind of a house, you have to build them up’,the grandchild said. “If you want to make it a museum, that one is going to cost about N100 million. And to actually build up the house, we need about N30 million. So, we are looking at about N130 million’,he emphasised.