Social Equity

In the current discourse of possibilities for ‘African Urban Futures’, Lagos city is amongst the most highly contested.  The preferred imagined future of Lagos is one which fronts a global, modern city, envisioned and realized through developments such as ‘Eko Atlantic’[1]. However, there are implacable realities which exist alongside grand ‘Africa Rising’ narratives, and instead necessitate the provision of basic services and infrastructure.

A modern city is a centre of opportunities for all – rich and poor – to reach their highest potentials, that is governed in an inclusive, collaborative and sustainable manner. Prof. Taibat Lawanson from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Dr. Ademola Omoegun from the Department of Architecture, University of Lagos aimed at understanding how affected people cope with the effects of government interventions for replacing informality with formal structures and how Lagos fares in embracing creative and innovative strategies of inclusive development initiated and implemented by the affected people.

Lagos State government increasingly ventures into Public Private Partnerships to provide infrastructure in forms of roads, waste management, water supply; even complete residential and commercial “city” projects are outsourced. A very controversial development is the rebuilding of open markets by private developers disrupting decade old economic and social patterns in the informal sector

Plumes of smoke, splintered wood and twisted pieces of corrugated iron, surrounded by mounds of debris were frequent roadside sightings in 2016 around Eti Osa Local Government in Lagos State. At times these periodic demolitions of roadside shops and markets caused one to stop in ones tracks because they actually resembled bomb sites in a war zone, where destruction takes place without any immediate moves to remove the ugly damage...