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

A City in Transition: Vision, Reform, and Growth in Lagos, Nigeria.

Transforming Lagos: A Mega City Addresses Its Urbanisation Challenges

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Funding for this report was made possible by Cities Alliance, for which the author is most grateful. The Foundation for Development and Environmental Initiatives (FDI), Ibadan, Nigeria where the author serves as the executive director, provided seed funding for the study and a congenial environment for executing the project.

The author appreciates the commitment and assistance of staff of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, particularly the role of Joseph Ayodele Adediran, Special Assistant to the Honourable Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, in making available the bulk of the relevant records, data, and information used in producing the report. He is also most grateful to the Honourable Commissioner himself, Bolaji Francisco Abosede for his comments and explanations on the various issues discussed in the report and on the lessons derived from the reform process.

The author is particularly grateful to Professor Johnson Bade Falade, UN-Habitat Programme Manager for Nigeria, for his incisive contribution to and editing of the final draft of the report. Equally worthy of mention is the contribution of Paul Okunnola, the programme officer of the UN-Habitat Programme Office in Nigeria (HAPSO) who assisted with the editing of the final draft.

The author also wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Ijeh Chukunyere of the University of Ibadan, my research assistant on the project; Elizabeth Owolabi, Secretary and Administrative officer of HAPSO; and the secretarial staff of Foundation for Development and Environmental Initiatives (FDI), particularly Abiola Elaturoti, Abimbola Adegoke and Dupe Odegbaro for the word processing of the report.

This acknowledgement would not be complete without giving especial thanks to the Cities Alliance Secretariat staff, particularly to the Programme Manager, William Cobbett for his suggesting the concept of a study of the transformation process in Lagos, and Chii Akporji, Communications Officer who task managed the project. Special thanks also to Deepali Tewari, Sr. Municipal Development Specialist for her sound reviews and comments.

Professor Michael O. Filani

Foundation for Development Initiatives

Executive Summary

This study is about Lagos, Nigeria, the centre of excellence and the largest conurbation in Nigeria. Despite the national controversy about population figure for Lagos megacity, it is regarded as the 18^th largest city in the world with 10.58 million people and one of the fastest growing cities of the world. Projections are that by 2015, the population of Lagos megacity is estimated to rise to 11.66 million and to 14.16million in 2020, with global ranking of 17^th and 12^th positions respectively (World Urbanization: Prospects: The 2009 Revision) Lagos is the economic and social nerve centre of Nigeria and the West African sub-region, accounting for 32 percent of national GDP.
Over the past several decades, the city has had to contend with the challenges that accompany such staggering growth rates.

Since 1999, however, the city’s governance has begun to improve. There is now overwhelming evidence of Lagos’s transformation from its former status as an erstwhile infamous, decaying metropolis into a modern, beautiful, and functional city.

This report, funded by Cities Alliance, documents the critical achievements of the city’s governance over the past one-and-a-half decades, the major innovations that accompanied various reforms, the catalysts of change, and the lessons learned in the process.

Chapter 1 provides a brief outline of the study, its goals, and structure. Chapter 2 captures the origin and development of Lagos as a megacity. The city’s population grew at a modest rate between 1891 and 1963, but from 1963 till today the population has skyrocketed and the city has expanded to cover the mainland to the west and to spread northwest by more than 40 kilometers, merging with Ikeja and Agege to form a great conurbation.

Between 1967 and 1999 the country was under military dictatorship, with the exception of a civilian administration in 1979–83. Lagos witnessed unprecedented infrastructural development during these three decades. But as it faced explosive population growth without effective land-use planning and city management, the city had to contend with various developmental challenges.

From 1999 to date, the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola administrations, through good governance and exemplary political leadership, have brought about the transformation that is now ongoing in the megacity. The essentials of the reforms that have taken place are captured in chapter 3, which discusses the catalysts of change and the reform process. In particular it outlines the 10 attributes of effective reform, which are a knowledge-based approach (KBA) to planning; budget reform (and its linkage with the activities of government institutions); popular participation and partnership building; policy change; legislative and institutional reforms; resource mobilisation; transparency and accountability; the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in governance; programmatic interventions; and sustainability.

Chapter 4 documents the critical innovations of the various reforms. The discussion is grouped under three broad headings: namely, physical infrastructural development, urban planning and environment, and slum upgrading redevelopment and social transformation.

The reform process in Lagos aimed to promote effective, equitable, participatory, and accountable governance as well as security of life and property. Such initiatives and their implementation present their own challenges from which several lessons can be learned. These lessons are presented in chapter 5, and include the need for an institutional framework for effective service delivery, the promotion of participatory governance, the establishment of mechanisms for effective resource mobilisation, increased transparency and accountability, planning and the development of a strategic vision, and the use of ICT and comprehensive data in planning.

Chapter 6, asserts that during the past one-and-a-half decades, the megacity had witnessed tremendous progress, attributable majorly to the combined efforts of the Tinubu and Fashola administrations, especially during their tenure in office The city’s transformation has resulted from good governance that has hinged, as previously noted, on responsive leadership, strong political will, a strategic vision, popular participation and partnership building, resource mobilisation, transparency and accountability, and the mainstreaming of information technology in promoting governance. But in spite of the success story told in this report, there remains a need to overhaul the administration of physical planning in the state, especially the need to expand the responsibility for planning beyond the Lagos state government alone to include the local governments. With the expectation that Lagos will become the third-largest city in the world in 2015, the extent of federal government infrastructure in the city area, and the extension of the megacity into certain parts of Ogun state require cooperation between the federal government, the Lagos state government, the Ogun state government, various local governments, and the private sector in promoting service delivery and public welfare in this burgeoning Nigerian metropolis.

CHAPTERONE

Introduction