Èkó, a land most diverse and fertile — as the Portuguese colonials named the place Lagos, so does this cradle of men, a city of rivers and wetlands, continue to provide for its people in spite of the conflicts raging beyond its borders. Whether it be the bustling ports or the most diminutive of plantations, the lagoon-city is a sanctuary for all the Yoruba peoples wishing to thrive in the Sahel savanna.

Lagos has always been West Africa's link to the European continent. Its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade as a city-state made a prosperous naval base attractive to British merchants. In 1851, following the popular will of emancipated Creoles and urging from the deposed chief of Lagos, Britain bombarded the town's shores for two months before signing a capitulation treaty that consolidated the British foothold in modern Yorubaland.

While the Oba once again ascended to his throne, Lagos became yet another colony of the vast territories under Anglo rule, which was, for a period, governed by the Ghanaian garrison. The harbor's resurgence of significance did not arrive until 1900, when Frederick Lugard merged the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria with the Lagos Colony, naming the fledgling metropolis, which benefited from its palm oil production and fisheries, as the state's capital.

Following its newfound status, the development of the Lagos Government Railway brought significant modernization to the area along with its complementary projects. However, the liberty of its inhabitants never seemed the priority of colonial administrators, becoming a forgotten issue before the collapse of the British Empire. With unprecedented autonomy came challenges of poverty and management unforeseen — Yoruba's lifeblood is under the sway of no other entities but its own will.