In May 1967, Mobolaji Johnson became the first Governor of Lagos State, this was during the regime of Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi. Then, Lagos State was the Federal Capital.

Johnson was a visionary and one of the first to consider using the waterways as a mean of mass transit in the State.

His administration birthed a plan to encourage car owners to park their cars on the mainland and come to Lagos Island by ferry.

Marina Reclamation
In order to achieve this, on the Lagos Island end, several meters of the Marina Harbour was sand-filled. The reclamation of the Marina shoreline was done in order to build large public car parks and jetties.

The reclaimed shoreline was further reinforced with concrete. That part of Lagos Island is what is today referred to as “Outer Marina”.

On the other hand, they also planned to sand-fill the areas at the back of the University of Lagos. And just like at the Lagos Island end, there were plans to make it into a big public car park where people can park and take ferries to Lagos Island. However, it is believed that the overthrow of the Gowon administrating terminated the project.

Mobolaji Johnson served as military Governor of Lagos State from May 1967 to July 1975. His tenure as Military Governor of Lagos State saw the building of major infrastructure in Lagos State.

He retired from the Nigerian Army in 1975 and went into private business. In his honour, a road, an avenue, and a sports complex were named after him in Lagos State.

Mobalaji Johnson died on October 30, 2019 at the age of 83 in his home. His death was announced by his son Deji Johnson.

See below photos of the old Marina before it was reclaimed and how it is after the reclamation.





Source:

https://autojosh.com/mobolaji-johnson-see-what-the-first-governor-of-lagos-state-did-at-marina/

How very low our standards have fallen in this country.

Today, we celebrate the filling of potholes on roads built 40 years ago.

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Auto josh d researcher

Carbon2Oxide:
Where is the transformation

Check the first picture. Notice where the water is? Check the last picture, see how far back the water was pushed?

Same reclamation was done in Lekki and currently on going at the Eko Atlantic City. Little wonder experts say Lagos is one of the cities in world that will be submerged in the ocean by 2050 if adequate precautions are not taken. Already floods are annually showing us sign of what may ultimately and unfortunately be the destiny of our dear Lagos.

Carbon2Oxide:


Yes i saw that. I just thought there was more

Like a superhigh speed train terminus?

Then, Nigeria has visionary leaders with foresight unlike what we have today.

Is that not the post office at marina?
wow the ocean was that close before?

wow!... history is good o!
thanks autojosh

I have to go thru the pictures several times...I didn't see any transformation


is it my phone screen or my eyes

Much respect to him. Simply awesome (in the voice of the Miz)

He tried, God blessed his soul.
Sometimes I think Nigeria might have been better infrastructure wise if the military had been in power longer because I can't imagine one contractor messing up with projects given to him by those khaki guys. It is either top quality work or nothing unlike what is obtained now from the likes of Gandollar.

The water was this close before, it's sometimes spread reach the road and even devastate it a times.

saintokwuluora:
Same reclamation was done in Lekki and currently on going at the Eko Atlantic City. Little wonder experts say Lagos is one of the cities in world that will be submerged in the ocean by 2050 if adequate precautions are not taken. Already floods are annually showing us sign of what may ultimately and unfortunately be the destiny of our dear Lagos.

i dont think its a good idea to be challendgin the ocean....

These are visionary leaders. Even though large portions of land were reclaimed from the ocean I ve never seen where marina was flooded before

HospitalityDiva:
How very low our standards have fallen in this country.

Today, we celebrate the filling of potholes on roads built 40 years ago.

wasn’t happy with the transportation system in Lagos, and I particularly felt bad about the waterways that we could not fully exploit. I sent a delegation abroad to look for flat bottom boats that could take passengers across the waterways. I wasn’t happy with the transportation system and would have loved to see a better system in place. One of the ideas I had was to construct the 3rd Mainland Bridge. Don’t forget, the 3rd Mainland Bridge was a creation of the government of Lagos State and not the Federal Government. The Federal Government only took it over at a point in time when we didn’t have enough money and, therefore, included the project as part of the state’s contribution to the Second Five-Year Development Programme of the Federal Government in 1972. I went abroad and was surprised to discover that the headquarters of Julius Berger was located in the same area as the hospital where I went for medical treatment. I met Mr. Whitman who later served as vice-chairman of the board of Julius Berger. His first job in Nigeria was the construction of the Itoikin Bridge that links Lagos with Epe.
During my meeting with Mr. Whitman and his team of engineers, I showed them what we were planning for the ring roads around Lagos. I believe people getting out of Lagos should have freeways that they can use. The concept I had for the inner ring road and outer ring road was to have pillars erected to the middle of Herbert Macaulay and Murtala Muhammed Way with the pillars supporting a network of highways on the top like the ones I saw in Tokyo, Japan. I believed we could achieve the same in Lagos. The Julius Berger team looked into my concept and came up with a blueprint ready for my submission to the Federal Government. That was how Julius Berger and an army of officials came all the way to Lagos. Work began in earnest with the engineers in boats and canoes crisscrossing the body of water over which the 3rd Mainland Bridge and its ring roads would be built. At Marina, they proposed sand filling as the best option so as to be able to gain more useful land, in addition to solving the traffic problem on that axis. I was thinking we could use the idea of the 3rd Mainland Bridge to sand fill a sizeable portion of the waterfront of the University of Lagos and adjoining areas and create a big motor park where a park-and-ride system of transportation would be available to take passengers from the Oworonshoki area into Lagos, where you will equally take a taxi or a bus to wherever you are going on the Lagos Island and when you are through with what you came to do on the Island, you will be taken back by boats across the water to where your car is parked at Oworonshoki. That was one major project I would have loved to accomplish but couldn’t. To date, our waterways, I must say, are still largely underutilized.
1936-2019.
May his soul in peace!

afi transformed nah

Truth be told, it's very obvious the then Military government performed far better than the civilian. These civilian guys steal with reckless abandon.

Military regime performance and scorecard better than all these alagbadas'. Everyone behaves normal and in accordance with the laws of the land, as he who bleeps up gets stiff punishment. Their investitures buildings and projects are still of great benefit to Nigeria today. Nowadays we have project that expire after one or two years

MARKone:
Truth be told, it's obvious the Military government performed far better than the civilian.

far far better