The first military governor of Lagos State, Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson Once Informed the Country, He Said: Lagos is not a No man’s Land, the Capital can move.
According to him: The feeling of Nigerians was that Lagos was a no man’s land. I had to face the challenge of correcting that erroneous impression. There was the need to let people know that the territory called Lagos belonged to a people with their distinct historical background, culture and tradition.
Don’t forget that Lagos at a point in history was part of the West before it later became the Federal Capital, which brought about the parlance ‘gedegbe l’Eko wa’. The West was bitter, claiming that they had all their industries in Ikeja and how can we come to take them (the industries) away? I had to go on a peace mission to the West with my officials to see the late General Adeyinka Adebayo, the governor of Western Region, in Ibadan.
When things improved, particularly after my peace mission to the West, some of them had a change of mind and returned to Lagos State. Folarin Coker and Shamsudeen Thomas were two of the early highly-ranking civil servants that returned to join the service of Lagos State.
I used 10,000 pounds to start Lagos State.