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This is Lagos |
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Monday, 22 August 2005 |
Chris Ngwodo
The title of this piece comes from an old joke. It used to be said that whereas other Nigerian cities receive visitors convivially with signs like ‘Welcome To Jos’ or ‘Welcome to Kaduna,’ visitors are not welcome to Lagos. Instead a terse notice informs you ominously, “This is Lagos.” To confirm that you are now in a different clime, the familiar but unwelcome stench of refuse wafts in through open windows to assail the nostrils of those coming in by road. When flying into the city, you know that this is Lagos due to a sudden loss of visibility. The smog filled Lagos skyline will test the aviation skills of incoming airline pilots. This is clearly not a city for the faint hearted.
Lagos is a visual aid writ large for understanding Nigeria’s social and urban collapse. The sprawling megapolis boasts about 30 million people. In terms of population density, Lagos is ranked among other mega cities of the world such as New York, Bombay, Manila and Rio de Janeiro. Beyond this however, similarities end. In terms of chaos, disorganization, lawlessness and rampant filth, Lagos is incomparable. Though some of its denizens persist in the fallacy of calling it the ‘center of excellence,’ many people assess the city differently. It was once described on a BBC Africa service program as “the armpit of Africa.” President Olusegun Obasanjo once called it “an urban jungle.”
Living and working in Lagos is for the most part a study in human misery. Commuters routinely spend hours in the city’s famed traffic jams. The worst sufferers are those who use the public transport system. The buses are antiquated relics rescued from extinction in foreign scrap yards by unscrupulously enterprising Nigerians. The ‘Molue’ buses are essentially motorized coffins. The smaller ‘Danfo’ buses are usually former bakery vans and mortuary vans from Europe that have been given a second lease of life. Once in Nigeria, they are retooled with more chairs fabricated to seat more passengers. The absence of windows in these buses means that they are stuffy and uncomfortable. Commuters have to endure being cramped together like sardines in claustrophobic spaces with poor ventilation while at the same time, inhaling the toxic stream of carbon monoxide being spewed out from congested traffic. To say the least, commuting in this city is a travesty of human dignity. Transportation is further compounded by the collapse of roads across the state. For motorists, this translates into a high cost of maintaining their vehicles; their imported cars having not been configured with the uncertain terrain of Lagos motorways in mind. The long hours spent in traffic jams means that fuel consumption is very high, a point of significant economic consequence given the rising cost of fuel in Nigeria.
One cannot even begin to articulate the insane recklessness that is commonplace on Lagos roads. Doubtless, there are those who will argue that road users in Lagos are no more reckless than they are in Kano or Abuja. I beg to disagree. Lagos is possibly the only place in Nigeria where motorists invert all known traffic codes by driving against traffic and still have the temerity to insult those who dare to correct them. Road rage is a common. Commuters are sure to witness at least three brawls daily in the heat of traffic in the course of their movement to and from work. Motorists have to deal with psychotic bus, trailer and tanker drivers, speed demons on motorcycles known as ‘Okada’ and the highhandedness of LASTMA (Lagos state traffic management authority), which thus far has been the state government’s contribution to the insanity on our roads, to say nothing of the ever present Nigerian police. All told, motoring in Lagos is really quite traumatic.
Visitors to Lagos and residents who have not stayed long enough to have lost all decency are shocked by the heaps of refuse that are liberally dumped on road medians, on bridges and in the water ways. It is fairly common to see individuals either urinating or defecating on streets or in the lagoon without a care thereby creating an environmental and health problem of untold proportions. It seems that Lagos is at the center of a calculated assault on Nigerian humanity that is aimed at stripping us completely of what is left of our civility and reducing our society to an animal kingdom.
Every city in the world has its slums, its spots of decay and neglect. The really disturbing thing about Lagos is that virtually no area is exempt from its urban degradation. The highbrow areas of the Ikoyi/Victoria Island axis are afflicted by poor drainages, which lead to great flooding during the rainy season. Not even the final frontiers of the rich and the well heeled like Victoria Garden City are spared this malaise. And those fleeing from the mainland to the island in search of a semblance of civilization may well be jumping from frying pan to fire given that parts of the island are threatened by the surging waves of the Atlantic Ocean and that traffic even within the island is chaotic.
Finally, to complete the picture of anarchy, burgeoning armies of able-bodied brigands called ‘area boys’ or ‘Agbero’ rule the alleys and streets of Lagos. These latter day incarnations of the motor park touts of yore operate a parallel government on the roads, collecting tolls and taxes from commercial bus drivers, motorcyclists, from street marketers, extorting money from other road users and generally threatening to unleash violence at the least provocation. Because of their utilitarian value as political thugs during election season, the state government turns a blind eye to their acts of suburban terrorism.
Can Lagos still be saved or is she well and truly beyond salvage? Any optimism in this regard has to be measured and realistic. Suffice it to say that it would take a leadership with vision and courage to reverse the state’s downward trajectory. Bola Tinubu’s government is decidedly deficit in both qualities. Apart from virtually ceding the state to area boys, his handling of the key issues of environment and transportation has been suspect. His appointment of a journalist, Tunji Bello, as commissioner for environment was a devious political masterstroke calculated to curtail press criticism of his handling of the state’s environmental crisis. It has worked. The media tends to exhibit a hypocritical understanding and restraint when one of their own is bungling in public office.
In fairness, Lagos didn’t sink to this extent all by itself. Years of being the federal capital, the nexus of political and economic activities in the highly centralized era of military rule contributed to its present condition. Lagos was once the city of gold where economic and political fortune awaited daring adventurers. The movement to Abuja created a new political hub but Lagos remains an overcrowded commercial nerve center.
It is impossible to observe the commuting multitudes in Oshodi during an evening rush hour without a sense of an impending apocalypse. This city is slowly sinking under the weight of an unsustainable population. Lagos is by no means alone in this condition but for its sheer scale, it is a metaphor par excellence of a dying metropolis, a filthy smoggy, overcrowded megaslum that is the antithesis of urban planning; a prototype that other urban centers look set to follow. Experiencing the metropolitan mayhem of Lagos life gives one an understanding of Nasir El Rufai’s zeal in restoring Abuja. Its high stress levels explain the nose diving life expectancy of Nigerians. Truly, avoiding the ‘Lagosification’ of other cities and towns is of utmost importance.
As the nation’s commercial capital, Lagos makes a terrible first impression and honestly is not a worthwhile advertisement of our readiness for an inflow of foreign investment. Muted noises about the state’s tourism potential are laughable as only extreme sadomasochists would find Lagos a tourist attraction.
‘Lagosification’ can be avoided if the federal Government cedes more powers to the states. The end of such decentralization or fiscal federalism must be to make the city-state, a model for sustainable development. Urban areas would become development centers expanding to cover suburbs with an umbrella of economic progress. Governor Donald Duke’s administration in Cross River is an excellent example of this. But the silent revolution in the Canaan city of Calabar has less to do with federal devolution (which is truly needed) than with visionary leadership, which Lagos sorely lacks at the moment.
According to legend, the fabled city of Atlantis sank beneath the Atlantic Ocean because of its inhabitants’ drive for civilization through scientific discovery triggered a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. If (and when) Lagos eventually sinks beneath the cesspool of human misery, it wont be because of too much civilization but for her flagrant rejection of it.
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Last Updated (
Thursday, 24 April 2008 ) |
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Posted by Robot| 12.11.2005 16:50