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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Federal Secretariat

building in Ikoyi, Lagos

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ113901675 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Federal Secretariat is a 15 storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos.

History

The building was built in 1976 for the Nigerian Federal Civil Service. The building's intended purpose ceased in 1991 after Lagos' status as Nigeria's capital was transferred to Abuja, FCT.

Since 2006, the building has been in the midst of legal disputes between the Lagos State Government and a property developer (Resort International Limited) who won the bid to manage the building from the Federal Government.

Although a part of the building was temporarily used by NAFDAC, the building has been in an abandoned state for the most part of its existence.

Editorial summary

“Federal Secretariat” enters the record as building in Ikoyi, Lagos. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Federal, Secretariat and building can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976, 1991, 2006—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Federal, Secretariat and building.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Federal Secretariat” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Federal, Secretariat and building provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q113901675. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1991 and 2006.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Federal Secretariat”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Federal Secretariat primary sources, Federal Secretariat archive and Federal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Federal Secretariat”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Federal Secretariat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.