LAGOS DEVELOPMENT: The Urbanoid Problem

A problem is anything of which man may or may not be conscious of, which affects or is likely to affect his well being adversely, and (or) hinders the attainment of his objectives and the satisfaction of his needs.¹

Generally, urban development problems have specific natures but it must be noted that man is the master in this process of urban development where the physical order are to obey and serve man. One of the major problems of urbanism in the developing world (including Lagos development) is the lack of consensus on what the urban development of the future will be; which the roots causes can be traced to the following:

• Superficial solution to urbanism rather than deep theoretical cum research based solutions to these urban problems.
• The 2 dimensional approach to urban development problems in place of multiple dimensional approaches.
• Sometimes the indifference to the problems until they are piled up and solving them becomes another group of problems, that is, URBANOID PROBLEMS.

For the purpose of this article, Lagos development problems will be grouped into the following 5 groups (physical, socio-cultural, administrative, economic and urbanoid) of which the URBANOID shall be looked into for now while the other 4 groups shall be dealt with later.

Urbanoid problems are caused by accumulated unresolved urban development problems over a long period of time some of which includes the following:

• Inadequate physical development control
• Waste and sanitation management problems
• Urban sprawling and decay
• Population explosion with excessive pressure on all the available infrastructure
• Inadequate shelter

The root cause and perhaps the major sources of these noted problems above include one or two of the listed below:

• The uncontrollable trend of rural-urban migration
• The inadequate manpower to monitor the physical development of built-up environment
• The inadequate fund to do the right thing at the right time
• The lack of political will by the administration to do the right thing as at when due
• The approach to urban development is always a drug after sickness, that is, curative and not the preventive approach

The urbanoid problems have serious adverse effects on Lagos development among which are:

• Distortion of urban aesthetics
• Gross inadequacy means of live hood e.g. jobs
• Excessive pressures on existing infrastructures, which cause them to decay very fast
• Excessive pressure on the existing housing stock due to overcrowding
• Excessive pressure on the available fund for development.

Lagos development is a product of the growth of a group of fishing cum farming settlement into an urban area in the early decades of 1800’s and into a city in 1900’s. As at the independence in 1960, Lagos was the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which had its boundaries near Fadeyi bus stop along Ikorodu road in the North, Alakara and Idioro along Agege Motor Road in the West, Boundaries bus stop cum Malu Road at Ajegunle; and St. Finbarrs College, Akoka in the East; while Victoria Island in the South. Moreover, at this time of independence, Lagos residents hardly experienced water shortage, transportation was relatively easy, water flowed in the public drains which encouraged kids to organize mock regatta with matchboxes according to Architect Tunde Kuye. More so, most streets were tarred and planning regulations were enforced. The public toilets were well located with running water. The Lagos City Council was a strong authority that supplied and maintained these infrastructures. Even, motorists exhibited a high level of discipline and there was no vandalism to public works. Apart from the administration (political) life that was functional due to the left over of colonialism, the social life was good. While the “Marina cum Broad Street had their own distinct business characters and lovers felt secure to stroll in the evening along the former (Marina); shopping was pleasant to do from UTC to Bata along Broad Street. There were green areas, Ikoyi and Bar Beach parks offered relaxation for holiday makers. Tinubu square and Race course were public open spaces for tourists. There was order and the city residents and visitors respected the laws”.²

But today, sad to say because the story has changed and the new generation of settlers behave as if there is no rule and they can do anything (even crimes) and challenge anyone for it –  IYALAYA ANYBODY philosophy (according to Lekan Sote in The Punch Wednesday August 10, 2016 pg 48). In the real sense, the city deserves a better future than the assault that is been visited on it unabated in the name of urban development (especially from the 1970’s through the 1990’s) when commerce and retail trading took over the city completely and worst still, the city authority seemed helpless, the rules and regulations that used to guide the city had been forgotten, even the new ones made were never implemented, while the social services that existed to give relief to stress and frustration had been converted to commercial ventures not for any other reason but out of greed of the elites especially the political class.

The genesis of this regress in Lagos urban life and its status could be traced to the appearance of the soldiers on the street in 1966 and the 1967-70 civil war. From then onward, Lagos was not just the Federal Capital alone but also the state capital. And within this time frame, the city took up a new status of city state whose boundary extended to Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu and Epe. It was this political structure created in the second half of the 1960’s that has gone through five decades of socio-economic development that is now transforming into physical, one unitary human settlement in form of a mega polis known as the Lagos mega city. The movement of the State Government seat of power from Lagos Island to Ikeja in 1976 began the spread of the effect of urbanism and the foundation of metropolitan Lagos. And since 1976, Lagos metropolis has grown tremendously in size and population (from about 1 million to about 21 million in a space of about 50 years). In course of these five decades, land has been reclaimed, rural areas opened up, factories established, educational and administrative institutions established by the public (federal and state) and private sectors. Therefore, the political, socio-cultural and economic growth has created more problems than they seem to have solved due to poor coordination, especially in the rate of migration from within, and outside the country for employment opportunities. Above all, the existing infrastructures within Lagos city state were just inadequate to support the geometrical increase in population.

A study on the resource consumption has shown that a city with 1 million inhabitants will need the following on a daily basis:

• 625,000 tons of water
• 2,000 tons of food
• 9,500 tons of fuel

The consumption of these items generates 500,000 tons of wastes according to the study. The implication of these is that Lagos of 2016 (with an estimated population of 21 million) will need the following daily:

• 125 million tons of water
• 42,000 tons of food
• 995 million tons of fuel

This means that a waste of about 10.5 million tons will be generated on a daily basis. No wonder, all the efforts of the city state authority at managing the urban waste has not yielded the final desired result (a mega city with an effective wastes and sanitation management system) as the demand in just more than the supplied efforts and the available resources. It must be noted that the Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) as a performing tool of the city state authority along with the other initiatives with the private sectors can move the Lagos mega city Waste and Sanitation Management system to the desired goal if the current tempo is maintained between now and 2030. The need of discipline of Lagosians now and tomorrow will compliment the efforts of the city state authority especially in dumping of waste anywhere that used to block the liquid waste drain system (sometimes main canals are blocked). Therefore, waste cum sanitation management as a fallout of urbanization has become one of the major urbanoid problems in the process of Lagos development.

Inadequate planning and implementation of the few plans as a result of inadequate physical development control are in themselves the root cause of urban sprawling and decay with resulting ghettos and slums as end products. These are in themselves, urban problems to be solved. Therefore, urbanoid problems can be classified as problems that create another set of problems whose solution lies in the identification of the roots, stems/leaves and the fruity; as all these needs to be dealt with properly to get a permanent solution. The approach to solving these urbanoid problems could be technical, socio-cultural or politico-economic; which will be determined by the nature and the scope of such problem.

Population explosion with excessive pressure on all the available infrastructures especially the transport network has been described as the major fallout of Lagos development. The road network seems to take the lion share here. In the days preceding the Udoji’s award of 1970’s the bicycle was a reliable and common means of transportation in Lagos. But motorcycle took over from bicycle post Udoji award which the SAP (1980’s) withdrew from Lagos roads as many individuals cannot really buy them again. But recently, motorcycles were back on the roads and it is the fastest means of transportation within Lagos today in the mist of the irresolvable traffic congestion. The inadequate tapping of the potentials of water transport is another problem of Lagos development; as it was during the colonial era of Lagos development that water transport was forsaken for rails and roads as means of internal transport. The current efforts of the city state authority in this direction needs support of the private sectors to enrich the Lagos mega city with functional, effective and modern internal water transport. Inter-modular transport system of Lagos mega city will be impossible with a modernized internal water transport system.

Inadequate housing is yet another fallout of Lagos development. The issue is that of quantity and quality at the same time. Urban housing with Lagos development can be classified into the following:

• Official and private housing – if the official includes government and its agencies that accounts for 10 percent of Lagos housing stock, then the private housing account for the remaining 90 percent.
• Organized private developers, unorganized private developers and public developers (government agencies) housing.
• Low, medium and upper income housing – the bulk of official housing were reserved for the upper and some for the middle-income class. While the low-income class (more than 60 percent of the working class) are left on their own in the hands of the upper income class shylock landlords both in the organized private developers as well as the unorganized private developers. All the attempts of the public developers (to house the low-income class) has not yielded the desired result.

Another aspect of this urban housing problem is the approach been used to solve them. In a free market economy, for any housing policy to succeed, employment opportunity is a primary factor. Moreover, in order to be able to achieve Shelter For All (SFA) within the context of Lagos development, there must be an improvement to land acquisition, capital (Housing Finance) and the building materials. More so, housing co-operative should be encouraged within the framework of a supporting state which provides the necessary financial and planning framework.

“In the long run, it might be worth trying the Polish experience, whereby parents place their new born names on waiting lists for co-operative houses and pay into a fund to reserve a unit for the time they become adults”.³

The relationship of urban and rural areas (of orphanage and orphan) is a fallout of urban development when the migrants run from the rural to the urban areas. The rural area are treated as orphans and the urban areas as orphanages. In other words, the relationship of slave and master exists between rural and urban areas. In the actual sense, the urban areas should be able to help the rural areas to develop. But in this case, the master can hardly meet up its own basic needs talk less of helping the poor slaves (who is to serve the master). The only way out is intensive Lagos development, it is then it can help others like the serving hinterlands and the immediate rural areas.

The excessive pressure on the urban system has also been extended to the natural environment especially air and water. Sometimes due to congestion and overcrowding, the natural available air has to been polluted to high degree. The water mass was not spared hence, chronic water shortage has become a regular thing. The antidote to these urbanoid problems can include one or some of these ways:

• Elimination and mitigation of blight and slums
• Massive creation of jobs (professional/non-professional) wealth creation
• Urban renewal of old business areas to provide decent, safe and sanitary housing in a suitable environment.

References:

1. Awolowo Obafemi (Chief) – “The Problems of Africa: The need for Ideological Reappraisal” Macmillan (1977).
2. Tunde Kuye (Architect) – “Living for Tomorrow” pg 20
3. Tunde Kuye (Architect) – “Living for Tomorrow” pg 25