A city in Transition: Vision, Reform, and Growth in Lagos, Nigeria. Michael O. Filani Cities Alliance United Cities and Local Governments Acknowledgements

According to Ajose (2010), before 1800 and up to the mid-1900s Lagos had minimal socioeconomic and political problems to contend with, which made its governance easy. There was no serious population explosion, dirty environment, high crime rate, or social ills that characterise present-day Lagos.

But by the mid-twentieth century, the consequences of the influx of people into Lagos due to its prosperity had begun to manifest. Due to rapid and increasing urbanisation, the city changed from being a rural enclave to a modern, heterogeneous, and metropolitan city with a dense road network, modern means of transportation, and new high-rise buildings. As a result of the increasing population growth and expansion of socio-economic activities, the existing infrastructure became inadequate and problems of environmental sanitation emerged leading to the development of shanties and slums and violations of planning regulations among other problems.

To address the issue of environmental sanitation, the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) was established in 1923. The LEDB was in charge of the first slum clearance in Lagos, which led to the founding of Surulere. In later years, health sanitation inspectors otherwise called “wolewole” were employed to address the issue of environmental sanitation. The Lagos City Council, which was established under the 1917 Township Ordinance, was in charge of the administration of the city. The Municipal Transport Service was also established in 1958 for mobility, while a slaughterhouse was built to promote public health.

From 1861 till 1951, Lagos was a separate colony administered by the British. Thereafter, the Western Regional Government took over until 1953 when the city was carved out as a federal territory administered by the federal government. This situation more or less compounded the problem of planning and administering the city. This was the situation until 1967, when Lagos state was created as one of the then 12 states of the Federal Republic. Following its creation as a state, Lagos inherited all the problems and liabilities of Greater Lagos and the surrounding areas that were merged with it. As such the new state was saddled with the responsibility of putting in place appropriate political, economic, and socio-cultural infrastructures that would ease its take-off and growth. It also ushered an era of military dictators ruling the Lagos state up until 1979. Nevertheless, between 1967 and 1975, Lagos state witnessed unprecedented infrastructural development. In the area of construction, many townships and rural and intercity expressways were constructed. Housing schemes were also designed to address the urgent need for habitable accommodation for all categories of Lagosians. 

From 1963 onwards more people migrated into Lagos from other parts of Nigeria, as a result of the oil boom of the 1970s and 1980s. The attraction of Lagos as a place where dreams were realised made many people to troop into the state. The upsurge in population growth had a great impact on infrastructure and social amenities, such as accommodation, sanitation, educational institutions, traffic congestion, waste disposal, physical planning, and other vital sectors in the state. The crime rate became a serious challenge to the capabilities of the security agencies. In view of the explosive population growth, the absence of effective land-use planning and city management was keenly felt.

In 1976 the decision to relocate the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja was taken based on the recommendation of the Justice Akinola Aguda Panel. This situation was necessitated by acute traffic congestion and the inadequate provision of essential infrastructures, which, many believed, had ground the functioning of the city to a halt. In the same year, the 1976 Local Government Guidelines was issued, which led to the creation of new local governments. Due to increasing urbanisation, Lagos city had grown to merge with outlying settlements such as Ikeja, Agege, Ojota, Oshodi, and Shomolu. With the creation of local governments, Lagos metropolis was balkanised into 20 local governments by 1991. This situation again compounded the problem of governance and physical planning in the city.

From 1979 to 1983 the civilian administration led by Lateef Jakande, launched a programme of action to address the problems of housing accommodation, road construction, water, transport development, and provision of social amenities. These interventions contributed to the socio-economic transformation of the state, which in turn led to more prosperity for the people. This situation also led to rising urbanisation and a population explosion.

Other governments and administrations that came after Jakande, especially those who held fort between the periods immediately after 1983, jettisoned some of his good programmes, though it is worth mentioning that they also made conscious efforts to solve some problems of the state. By 1996 Colonel Buba Marwa’s administration had achieved modest success by opening up new development areas at the city fringes and building new housing as well as tackling waste disposal and traffic congestion. The administration introduced Operation Sweep and Neighbourhood Watch to strengthen the capability of the state security outfits. This was the situation until the advent of the Tinubu administration in 1999.

Between 1999 and 2007 the mantle of leadership fell on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. His administration like his predecessors had to contend with the worsening situation in the state. The state’s rate of urbanisation had gone out of control and Lagos state had grown to become a conundrum of cities, with a burgeoning population—estimated to be about 12 million by the United Nations and with a growth rate of 600,000 people per annum. Other challenges accompanying this growth included the increased volume of traffic that lead to chronic congestion on the roads, inadequate waste disposal, proliferation of shanties, and inadequate educational and other social infrastructure. All of these were in a serious state of disrepair and neglect. The Bola Ahmed administration confronted these problems frontally. His administration set-up many agencies as parastatals for effective service delivery to the residents of the megacity. These parastatals include Lagos Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) for controlling of advertisement, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) for waste management, the Lagos State Bus Services (LASEBUS) for rapid bus service and the Lagos State Transport Management Authority for transport (LASTMA) to checkmate the menace of traffic congestions arising from illegal stops and parking along the highways. Since 2007 the Babatunde Fashola administration that took over the governance of the state, continues to build on the foundation laid by its predecessor.

Economically, Lagos has two seaports and local and international airports. It is a thriving industrial and commercial centre. Crude oil and bitumen are found within Lagos state at Epe and silica sand is available in Badagry and Eti-osa. Clay is found at Ikeja and Ikorodu, and wood (including teak, opepe, and abora) for timber products is widely available. Maize and ginger are cultivated throughout the state, while kolanut, cocoa, and cassava are found in Ikorodu. More recently, fish farm estates have been developed to exploit the state’s water resources and combat poverty.

Much of the nation’s wealth and economic activities are concentrated in Lagos megacity, with manufacturing and service delivery, banking, and telecommunication services making more significant contributions than fishing, mining and quarrying, agriculture, and forestry (which accounted for less than 2 percent of GDP. Metropolitan Lagos accounted for 38 percent of total manufacturing employment in Nigerian cities and over 60 percent of the total value.

Industries are concentrated in the Apapa, Ikeja, and Ilupeju industrial estates. Among the factors responsible for the concentration of manufacturing activities in metropolitan Lagos is the availability of sea, land, and air transport; concentration of skilled and semi-skilled workers; and large markets offered by the teeming population and fairly well-developed infrastructural facilities to support manufacturing industries.