• Advertise
  • Opinion
  • Features & Interviews
  • Investigation
  • Contact
Sunday, July 3, 2022
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Lagos Today
  • Home
  • News
    • Lagos News
    • National News
    • World News
  • Entertainment⚡ by CRAWL
    • All
    • Art & Design
    • Books
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Sanwo-Olu Grants Funke Akindele, Husband, 56 Others State Pardon

    Marriage Collapse: Funke Akindele Allegedly Chased Husband Away Because Of Infidelity

    Funke Akindele’s Marriage Crumbles Again As Hubby Confirms Seperation Rumours

    Funke Akindele’s Marriage Crumbles Again As Hubby Confirms Seperation Rumours

    WizKid, Tems Award Winning ‘Essence’ raking in over $1m in Estimated Streaming Revenues

    WizKid, Tems Award Winning ‘Essence’ raking in over $1m in Estimated Streaming Revenues

    2020 AFRIMA Postponed Till Next Year Over Covid-19

    AFRIMA 2022: Entry Submission Portal Closes on August 5

    Club Shooting: Burna Boy’s Police Escorts Say Bullets Fired Not from Their Guns

    Club Shooting: Burna Boy’s Police Escorts Say Bullets Fired Not from Their Guns

    AFRIMA Meets ECCAS, UNESCO in Gabon, Discusses Plans to Stimulate Africa’s Creative Economy

    AFRIMA Meets ECCAS, UNESCO in Gabon, Discusses Plans to Stimulate Africa’s Creative Economy

    The Musings of Africa’s Proverbial Dad: Chief Pete Edochie

    The Musings of Africa’s Proverbial Dad: Chief Pete Edochie

    Cubana Club Shooting: Lady Speaks On Sad Experience

    Cubana Club Shooting: Lady Speaks On Sad Experience

    Samuel Eto’o Pleads Guilty For €3.88m Tax Fraud To Avoid Prison

    Samuel Eto’o Pleads Guilty For €3.88m Tax Fraud To Avoid Prison

    Sadio Mane Departs Liverpool for Bayern Munich

    Sadio Mane Departs Liverpool for Bayern Munich

  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Features & Interviews
  • Best Of Lagos
    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Nordic hotel

    Nordic Hotel Makes Grand Debut in Lagos

    Bookstores in Lagos

    Love Reading? See The Best Bookstores In Lagos

    Event Centre

    Event Centres in Lagos

  • Things To Do
  • Home
  • News
    • Lagos News
    • National News
    • World News
  • Entertainment⚡ by CRAWL
    • All
    • Art & Design
    • Books
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Sanwo-Olu Grants Funke Akindele, Husband, 56 Others State Pardon

    Marriage Collapse: Funke Akindele Allegedly Chased Husband Away Because Of Infidelity

    Funke Akindele’s Marriage Crumbles Again As Hubby Confirms Seperation Rumours

    Funke Akindele’s Marriage Crumbles Again As Hubby Confirms Seperation Rumours

    WizKid, Tems Award Winning ‘Essence’ raking in over $1m in Estimated Streaming Revenues

    WizKid, Tems Award Winning ‘Essence’ raking in over $1m in Estimated Streaming Revenues

    2020 AFRIMA Postponed Till Next Year Over Covid-19

    AFRIMA 2022: Entry Submission Portal Closes on August 5

    Club Shooting: Burna Boy’s Police Escorts Say Bullets Fired Not from Their Guns

    Club Shooting: Burna Boy’s Police Escorts Say Bullets Fired Not from Their Guns

    AFRIMA Meets ECCAS, UNESCO in Gabon, Discusses Plans to Stimulate Africa’s Creative Economy

    AFRIMA Meets ECCAS, UNESCO in Gabon, Discusses Plans to Stimulate Africa’s Creative Economy

    The Musings of Africa’s Proverbial Dad: Chief Pete Edochie

    The Musings of Africa’s Proverbial Dad: Chief Pete Edochie

    Cubana Club Shooting: Lady Speaks On Sad Experience

    Cubana Club Shooting: Lady Speaks On Sad Experience

    Samuel Eto’o Pleads Guilty For €3.88m Tax Fraud To Avoid Prison

    Samuel Eto’o Pleads Guilty For €3.88m Tax Fraud To Avoid Prison

    Sadio Mane Departs Liverpool for Bayern Munich

    Sadio Mane Departs Liverpool for Bayern Munich

  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Features & Interviews
  • Best Of Lagos
    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    THE LUXURY NETWORK NIGERIA HOSTS MEMBERS’ NETWORKING FORUM

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Exploring Lagos’ Gastronomy With Chef Priyank Singh of Hard Rock Cafe

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    Olu Oyinsan- Saying Yes To Founders At The Early Stage

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    A Rare Hobby: Sports Fishing In Lagos

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Chef Nkesi- Experiencing Different Cultures Through Food

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Wumi Jubril: Creating Memorable Experiences

    Nordic hotel

    Nordic Hotel Makes Grand Debut in Lagos

    Bookstores in Lagos

    Love Reading? See The Best Bookstores In Lagos

    Event Centre

    Event Centres in Lagos

  • Things To Do
No Result
View All Result
The Lagos Today
No Result
View All Result
Home Lagos News

The Origin of the Lebanese Elias’ Family In Lagos

by The Lagos Today
August 16, 2020
in Lagos News, Headlines, Investigation
4 min read
0
0
The Origin of the Lebanese  Elias’ Family In Lagos
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

With their presence dotting almost every industrial and urban pockets of Lagos, you’ll be often quizzed by the mystery behind the origin of the Lebanese in Nigeria.

‘The Takeoff’
There is actually another Lebanese national, Michael Elias, who arrived Nigeria before Kourhy. He found early success as a successful cattle trader. He is said to have later built a three-story building on Ereko/Balogun street on Lagos Island. He was buried in Lagos at his death.
Many more Lebanese began to arrive following the earliest settlers. The largest settlements were mainly in Lagos, Ibadan and Kano, although Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri as well as many parts of the North West, also had significant Lebanese presence.
Kano has a major road; Beirut Road, now the city’s telecoms & computer retail hub. Ibadan has Lebanon Street right in the center of town. There are other similar landmarks elsewhere pointing to their long presence.
By 1938, they had grown in number to 818 documented families, in Nigeria.

Late Ely Calil. Ambitious business man Ely Calil was born in Kano, Nigeria in 1945 to Migrant parents from Lebanon. He was a businessman with a net worth of 350 million Euros as at 2010.

‘Peculiarities’
A major feature of Nigeria’s Lebanese community is that they mostly come from mainly 2 villages: Miziarah in the North populated mostly by Christians & Jwaya in the South, an area populated by Shia Moslems. At the peak of it, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, there were close to 200,000 ‘Lebanese’ settled all over Nigeria. Although quite a number were Syrians, Libyan and Morrocan Jews erroneously referred to as Lebanese; all Arabs/Middle Easterns, tended to be called Lebanese.
Perhaps the most famous monument to their presence in Nigeria is the Independence Fountain at Tinubu Square in Lagos, donated as an independence gift to Nigeria in 1960, by the Lebanese community.

Tinubu square, Lagos Nigeria

‘Population Growth’
After the arrival of the earliest, the first set of second generation Lebanese Nigerians began to be born around the mid 1920s upwards, in places like Lagos, Kano, Ile Ife and Ibadan. People like the Zard brothers; William Maurice and Raymond were all born between Ibadan and Ife.
Relatively younger ones born in the 1940s, including the billionaire businessman Gilbert Chagoury, who was born in Lagos in 1946 are among the older members of the community today.
Today, of the about 116,000 ‘white’ Nigerians by naturalization, it is reckoned that there are about 30,000 Lebanese, many of whom are third and fourth generation Lebanese-Nigerians who hold the Nigerian passport.

Gilbert Chagoury, co-founder the Chagoury Group. An industrial conglomerate with interests in construction, real estate and property development, flour mills, water bottling and purification, glass manufacturing, insurance, hotels (Eko Hotel and Suites), furniture manufacturing, telecommunications, IT, catering and international financing and others.

‘Commerce and Industry’
They engaged originally in cocoa, textile sales, cattle, hides and skin trades, up till about the 60s.

After independence they dominated the Cinemas, Restaurant, Nite Life, Gaming and Pools Betting industries.
They later moved into the oil and gas, tourism/hospitality, construction, food processing and manufacturing industries in Nigeria.
The Aim Group, for example, a family run conglomerate whose activities includes broadcasters Cool FM and Wazobia FM, Wazobia TV, Confectionery, Architectural Design and construction, is Lebanese Nigerian owned, descendants of Michael Elias.
Between them, the Lebanese Nigerians, generate a significant percentage, in the middle 1 to early 2 figure percentile of Lebanon’s GDP through remittances back home.
There are also streets named after Nigeria there in Lebanon, both in Jwaya and Miziara.

Amin Mousalli. Amin Mousalli is a Lebanese-Nigerian based businessman. He is the founder of AIM group, a conglomerate that is into construction, engineering design, communications and more. He is also the owner of Cool FM, Wazobia FM, Nigeria Info 9 and 3 FM.

‘Diplomatic Relations’

Curiously, Nigeria and Lebanon didn’t seem to have formal diplomatic relations till 1973, when Nigeria’s mission was opened in Beirut.
Historically prominent Lebanese-Nigerian family names include Fawaz, Gamra, Aboul, Hajiag, Moukarim, El-Khalil, Boulous, Zard, Saad, Kawam, Halawi, Taktouck, Safiedin and many others.
Back in the ‘70s, there were several flights to and fro Beirut per week and it was a popular shopping and holiday destination. The Lebanese civil war from 1975, put an end to all that.
The war also brought an influx of refuge seekers to Nigeria. Many did not bother to learn the host culture and tended to display racist attitudes both in their speech and employment practices. Some engaged in criminal acts. That was the beginning of their sometimes poor reputation.

‘A Place Like Home’

Undoubtedly, the Lebanese Nigerian population has reduced in the past many years. Many of the younger ones have gone on to acquire American, Canadian, Australian and other citizenships, and have moved on, but Nigeria remains a true home for them.

Gbenro Adebola

Follow us on social media
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...
Tags: Lebanese family in Lagos
Previous Post

Lagos Commences Waterways Transportation In Bariga

Next Post

Sanwo-Olu Presents Staff of Office to Alara of Ilara

The Lagos Today

The Lagos Today

Related Posts

Food Prices Increase as Nigeria’s Inflation Climbs To 14%

Food Prices Will Continue To Rise In Nigeria, Other African Countries — Ukraine

by Segun Adewunmi
July 2, 2022
0

The Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, has said Nigeria and other African countries might face worsening food...

Nigeria’s Raw Materials Imports Climbed to N2.3trn in 2020

Buhari Welcomes Berthing Of First Ship At Lekki Deep Sea Port

by Rosemary Opara
July 2, 2022
0

President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and all stakeholders in the...

Next Post
Sanwo-Olu Presents Staff of Office to Alara of Ilara

Sanwo-Olu Presents Staff of Office to Alara of Ilara

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

Canada declines Air Peace’s request to evacuate stranded Citizens

Air Peace Resumes Lagos-Johannesburg Flights

9 months ago
Nigerian Stock Exchange Morphs Into a Public Company After 11 Years Stint

Nigerian Stock Exchange Morphs Into a Public Company After 11 Years Stint

1 year ago

Popular News

    Newsletter

    Connect with us

    Tags

    #EndSARS #EndSARS Protests 2023 Elections 2023 polls 2023 Presidency ACCIDENT All progressives Congress APC Babajide Sanwo-Olu Bitcoin CBN Central Bank of NIgeria China Coronavirus pandemic Covid-19 Covid-19 in Lagos Covid-19 in Nigeria Covid-19 Vaccine Covid-19 Worldwide Cryptocurrency Donald Trump Dubai EFCC Federal Government Federal Government of Nigeria Fraud Gov. Sanwo-Olu Insecurity Lagos state Lagos State Government Lagos State House of Assembly Lagos State Police command LASEMA Latest jobs in lagos Lekki Tollgate Shooting Muhammadu Buhari Murder NDLEA Nigeria Rape Russia Strike action UK United states US

    News

    • Business
    • National
    • Politics
    • Tech

    Opinion

    • Editorials
    • Today’s Opinion
    • Letters
    • Sunday Review
    • Advertise
    • Opinion
    • Features & Interviews
    • Investigation
    • Contact

    © 2020 The Lagos Today - Nkali.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • Lagos News
      • National News
      • World News
    • Entertainment
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Features & Interviews
    • Best Of Lagos
    • Things To Do

    © 2020 The Lagos Today - Nkali.

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Create New Account!

    Fill the forms bellow to register

    All fields are required. Log In

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    %d bloggers like this: