Cocoa House, the first skyscraper in Nigeria and tropical Africa, was commissioned in 1965 by the government of the defunct Western Region led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Ladoke Akintola and other Yoruba politicians.

The 23-storey building built with Cocoa proceeds remains one of the most visible and enduring achievements and legacies of the early political leaders in the South-Western part of Nigeria.

Formerly known as ‘Ile Awon Agbe’ (House of Farmers), Cocoa House derived its popularity from its height of 105 metres and is currently being managed by Odua Investment Company Limited.

In January 1985, the entire building was gutted by fire. Cocoa House lost its beauty, glory and elegance to the inferno.

The fire was said to have consumed everything in the building, because at the time, the firefighters in Ibadan did not have the equipment or the skill to put out a raging inferno in a skyscraper.

Burnt beyond recognition, the skeleton of the renowned structure stood ingloriously at Dugbe in Ibadan for years, until August 1992, when it was reopened for use after years of renovation.

After the renovation, Cocoa House did not only regain its lost beauty, it also became a tourist centre of sorts; and a cash cow for Odua Investment Company, generating millions of naira for the business establishment owned by state governments of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos.

However, 26 years after it was reopened for use, Cocoa House under the management of Odua Investment Company and supervision of the six Yoruba states, is seriously begging for repair and renovation.

Cocoa House at the mercy of poor maintenance

Poor maintenance, which is believed to be a national culture in Nigeria, is visible in Cocoa House. This is evident in the abuse and disuse to which the building has been consigned.

A recent visit to the building by Pulse showed that the first skyscraper in Nigeria is suffering from neglect as the entire building is in a serious state of disrepair.

The giant structure that was once the fruit of hard work and achievement of regional politicians, is crumbling and fast becoming a shadow of its original self.

Since 1992, a brush of paint has not touched the outer walls of the building. No facility seems to be in good condition; and it appears the current management of the building is only interested in making money off the skyscraper till it becomes completely useless.

Lamenting the poor state of the building, a tenant who spoke to Pulse on condition of anonymity scored maintenance of the edifice 40 percent.

The source, who’s an employee of one of the business outfits in the building and has been working there for five years, lamented the poor state of toilets, windows, taps and elevators.

“I have been working in this building for five years. When we talk about the current status of this place, the maintenance culture is poor and I will score it 40 percent, because there are some things that need to be fixed. Look at this glass window, no hanger to hold it. If anybody comes here, say there’s a scuffle, people can fall from here,” he begins.

“We also have four elevators here, but only two are working. Even now, out of the two, one has stopped working, we all use one now. So if you’re going to the 23rd floor and you can’t use the stairs, you’ll need to queue for hours. We have complained to the management but they said they have ordered for elevators to replace the bad ones. This is the third week now.

“Apart from the broken window, water doesn’t run in the building at the expected time. We always need to shout here and there before it gets pumped. Again, the toilets are not in good condition. We have our toilets here. When you use water, it won’t sink, it will stay on the floor. The pipe is blocked and they have not done anything to it, and it has been like that for six months. So, the maintenance culture is terrible”.

The 1985 fire incident in the building was reportedly caused by a spark in a malfunctioning electrical equipment. That incident is a dark episode in the history of Cocoa House and till date, a spark or smoke in the building is a scary reminder of the conflagration. A sort of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the building and its occupants.

In July 2018, a smoke emanating from the fourth floor of the building sent workers and business owners scampering for safety. The panic and stampede was reminiscent of the 1985 fire in the building.

Even though a tiny spark can disrupt business activities and prompt occupants of the building to run for their lives, the management is yet to see any reason why electrical cables for air conditioners and other appliances need to be properly taken care of.

While moving around the building, this writer found a set of disorganised cables sprawling out of their cover at one of the floors.

Another anonymous tenant complained about poor maintenance of the building, saying he has never seen it renovated.

“The building has been here for years. It is strong; and looking at the structure, I don’t think we can build something like this again.

“But I will say the building lacks maintenance. Look at the wall. The management needs to do something about it, maybe renovate or paint it because this has been the outlook of the building since. No renovation, no painting, no change.

“We do have meetings with management, we tell them some things, and when we have issues with toilets and other facilities, they do it for us. But the outer part is not well maintained. Many people don’t come into the building, they only look at it from the outside, and I think it’s high time the management renovated the building”.

The ‘discomforting’ rules of Cocoa House management

While the foremost skyscraper is gradually crumbling due to poor maintenance, tenants are also grumbling over policies of the management of the building.

For instance, workers in the building are not allowed to use the only functioning elevator during weekends and public holidays. Workers, whose offices are on the topmost floors are expected to use the stairs.

The management believes that everyone with offices in the building should leave the environment and observe the holidays at home. But the same management rents spaces out to businesses that have reasons to come to work during holidays.

The fourth and fifth floors of Cocoa House are partly occupied by Africa Independent Television (AIT), Raypower FM and another radio station called 32 FM.

The staff members of these media houses are expected to use the stairs every weekend and during holidays because Cocoa House management doesn’t want them to use the only working elevator in the building.

According to a source, the staff members of Adron Homes & Properties Limited, who occupy the 16th floor, had to stop coming to work on Saturdays because of the policy.

Apart from prohibiting the use of the elevator, whoever decides to come to work on weekends and during holidays will also not be able to use the taps.

One of the tenants who spoke to Pulse said, “On holidays, the elevators don’t work. The tap will not be opened because some people use the tap and let the water run without turning off the taps after use.

“Normally, on holiday, it is expected that everybody should leave the environment and observe the holidays at home. That’s how they do it here. If you check the toilets we have big containers there, and a day before the holiday, the management usually instructs the tenants to fill their containers with water because the cleaners won’t be around.

“We have complained about the elevators not working on weekends, and they said they will do something about it.”

Cocoa House is a suffering cash cow

In October 2019, Odua Investment Company declared the sum of N849 million as profit for the financial year ended December 2018, during its 37th Annual General Meeting in Ibadan.

The company made 22% increase in profit before tax from N698m in 2007 to N849m in 2018.

This business establishment owned by the six Yoruba states is always declaring profits in millions and Cocoa House is one of the backbones of its revenue generation.

Nothing is free at Cocoa House; every available space is sold per square metre for hundreds of thousands of naira, yet the complex is being supervised to rot from inside.

“Tenants pay for everything here,” one of the sources said. “You have to pay for your generator space apart from the rent. You have to pay for maintenance separately, you pay for light and space separately. And the space you pay for is per square metre, they will have to measure it for you. Our generator space was paid for. Dish and mast up there were paid for aside from the rent.”

Asked how much it costs to pay for a square meter space at the complex, the source said, “Let’s keep that for security reasons.”

Another employee, who also works in the building, later revealed to Pulse that a square metre or space for a big size generator costs N500,000 per annum, while a space for a media house mast and dish costs N2 million per annum.

Cocoa House is a very large complex with two wings in all the 23 floors. While the topmost floor is occupied by the management of Odua Investment Company, the others are occupied by media houses, travel agencies, law firms, estate and property companies and other lucrative business establishments.

According to one of the sources, a wing in the building costs N5,000,000 per annum, while any business taking a whole floor pays N10,000,000 per year.

Despite the millions of naira Odua Investment Company makes from Cocoa House, the complex is in a state it should never be in. The toilet facilities are an eyesore. The old paint is scraping off the wall; and three out of four elevators have been condemned to disuse as a result of poor maintenance.

“One of the tenants asked the management to let him repair the elevators and paint the building and then deduct the expenses from his rent, they said no. They did not give reason for declining the offer, I guess they don’t want an individual to claim the glory. They probably thought the person will go around telling people that he paints Cocoa House and repairs the elevators,” one of the sources said.

Odua Investment Company ignores Pulse email

In a bid to get comments and reactions from the management of Odua Investment Company, Pulse reached out to the company via the two phone numbers made available on its website only to find out that the lines are dead.

We also sent an email to the two email addresses provided on the contact section of the website, but the company failed to reply to the emails.

However, because Oyo State is one of the owners of Cocoa House, Pulse reached out to a couple of government officials in the state for their comments on the condition of the legacy left behind by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his contemporaries.

In his reaction, the state’s commissioner for environment, Hon. Olatunji Kehinde Ayoola, said that any issue concerning the building is a matter for Odua Investment Company, not Oyo State Ministry of Environment.

“The issue of Cocoa House is a matter for Odua Investment, not Oyo state ministry of environment. I will be ready to answer you if it has to do with packing of waste, reclaiming the setbacks, cleaning, trees, ornamental flowers, emission of toxic materials into the atmosphere and stuff like that,” he said.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Oyo State government, Taiwo Adisa, also absolved the state government of any blame on the abysmal condition of Cocoa House, noting that the Oyo government alone cannot make a decision on the edifice even though it is sited in the state.

“The day-to-day running of the place belongs to a certain organisation. If they are not doing well with it, the owner states will sit together and probably sack them or privatise it, but a single state cannot decide what would happen. Even though it was sited in Oyo State, the fact that it belongs to others means everybody must come to the table to decide what to do with it”.

Cocoa House is located at Dugbe, a busy commercial area in Ibadan, with a number of Odua Investment Company’s properties such as Cocoa Dome, Cocoa Mall, Aje House, and Heritage Mall.