Ijora-Badia: ‘Why we can’t continue to raise our kids here’

How did Nigeria’s mega city end up with sordid dwelling places? TUNDE ALAO attempts an answer.

The community is like a mini Kwara State within Lagos State. People from different ethnic groups from the Middle-Belt state call the shots in what is known today as Badia. Everything from political leadership to market and community headship smells Kwara. The history of the community, seen as home to Kwarans in Lagos, whether elite or peasant, is, however, not too known to many. Welcome to the first ‘official’ slum in the commercial nerve-centre of the nation and the ‘grandfather’ of all slums in the state. The story of the 48-year-old community is the story of eight other ‘official’ slums in the state. And as told by the dwellers, it is a story of dashed hope and hopelessness.

In the beginning

Slum settlements began in Lagos State in 1971, when the first military governor of the state, Brigadier-General Mobolaji Johnson, displaced the inhabitants of Ebute-Oniru, Ebute Oloko and part of Ebute-Elefun to Obadiya, now pronounced Badia.The residents then were mainly the Igbominas of Kwara extraction with a few Ilaje and Egun.Recalling the episode that many Lagosians may not be aware of, Chief Timothy Ogundele, a native of Ijomu-Oro, Kwara State, told Saturday Tribune what transpired at that time.“The relocation of many of us from Ebute-Elefun, Ebute-Oloko, among others in the Moloney axis of Lagos Island, was not punitive, but, rather, to allow for better planning of the Lagos Island, because of its proximity to Ikoyi, where Dodan Barracks, the then seat of power, was.“To justify his mission as not being punitive, the elders themselves gave the name ‘Obadiya’ (crudely interpreted ‘government gave succour’), because the governor didn’t want us to suffer.“The only missing link at that time was lack of necessary amenities, apart from road network from Ijora-Olopa to Badia Bus Stop where New Nigerian Newspaper was situated. There was no tarred road to the inner community, but who cared? Because the population was insignificant and we could easily fend for ourselves,” he said with a sense of nostalgia.Besides, the community was also blessed with an educational institution, Gaskiya College, said to have been established through the philanthropic gesture of a few people, particularly from the northern part of the country.Other communities that followed the same trend were Amukoko, where the majority of the residents and landlords were also from Kwara State.“That is why today you see Raimi Igbaja Street, Agbamu Street, all names from Kwara State. Similarly, in Ajegunle, most of the streets bore Igbo names, because before the civil war broke out, it was the Igbo that dominated Ajegunle, while Ijebus dominated Ilaje-Bariga, just as Ilaje people dominated Makoko,” said another source, Pa Jacob Adigun, who lives in Bariga.

‘We can’t keep raising our kids here’

Alhaja Raliat Ajoke (not real name) is a landlord in Ijora Badia, whose fear for the future made her send her children to Kwara State for their secondary education.“It is not a joke, children that are born in this place require close monitoring or else, in your presence, they will turn into other things. If they don’t turn out as drug addicts, they will become area boys or prostitutes. In fact, it was this fear that made us as families – not my family alone, but a couple of us – to send our children back home to continue their education,” she said.

To corroborate Alhaja Ajoke’s claim, another resident, Johnson Edet, a truck driver with a popular construction firm in Lagos, said every responsible parent was mindful of the living condition in slum settlements.“When you mention Mushin or Ajegunle, the impression is a community that thrives in violence. At Nasamu Street here (a street in Ajegunle), we have more than 12 beer parlours, excluding hotels, with many of them having call girls patronising them.“Surprisingly, not many of them are from other states seeking economic refuge in Lagos. Majority of them are our own children born and raised here. Same with the boys who have become a nuisance to the community,” he said.

Apart from violence and other social vices that characterise slum settlements, environmental decay is evident all over as seen by Saturday Tribune. In many homes, particularly in Amukoko, whenever it rains, flood usually takes over many homes.

For example, in places like Alayabiagba, Owodunni and Agbamu streets, where drainage facilities are zero and because they use mostly pit toilets, flood usually forces faeces out of pits and gets the bathrooms, kitchen and sometimes, the corridors filled with human wastes.

“When I visited my sister living in Amukoko some time ago, the state of the house and the living condition were so bad that we quickly relocated the family to Abule-Osun, along the Badagry Expressway, where the condition is fairly better,” said a journalist with a national newspaper who had experienced the situation firsthand.

How we lost it –Parents

In all the slums visited by Saturday Tribune, one dominant issue is the complaint of government neglect. But some of the adults who spoke about the continuous loss of societal values and civil behaviours agreed that the slums have become a haven for all sorts of crime. They expressed divergent opinions on why human lives are degenerating alongside the community environment.

“Actually, two things were responsible: population and official neglect. When our parents came to Ijora, the population was not large. In fact, the number of houses in the first five to 10 years was not up to 500, which were mainly face-me-I-face-you of, say, 10-12 rooms per building.

“But as population of Lagos continued growing, many from up-country who could not afford accommodation in the metropolis saw Badia, Amukoko and other neighbourhoods as a natural attraction,” said Alhaji Lamidi, a native of Igbaja who sells wristwatches in Idumagbo, Lagos Island

Another respondent, Alhaja Rashifat Aderinola, while commenting on the seeming preponderance of vices among the youth, especially in the areas of prostitution and cult-related activities, said most parents are economically disadvantaged and are forced to spend all day seeking to make ends meet.

“If you look around, many parents leave home very early and return late in the process of looking for what to eat and meet other needs like school fees and clothing. So, this creates vacuum in the home, with no proper care for their children and wards,” she said.

Nine slums and plenty shanties

The United Nations Habitat officially puts the number of Lagos slums at nine, namely, Ilaje-Bariga, Ajegunle, Ilaje-Badia, Agege, Orile-Iganmu, Makoko, Ijora, Otto in Ebute Metta and Shomolu.

There is confusion in the classification of what a slum is, or and an informal settlement, which is essentially a shanty, an illegal settlement. These are settlements along the coastal areas set up by fishermen and sand diggers.

Also, such developments exist in open places or areas marked for physical developments where action is yet to commence. However, the slums mentioned are recognised localities where government’s presence is not only required but mandatory.

“Residents in Lagos slums are citizens of the state whose activities help in promoting the socio-economic and political developments of the state.

“Unlike those occupying shanties, slum dwellers are taxpayers, among whom are civil servants, traders, professionals, artisans and others whose contributions to the development of the state are unequalled but who receive little or nothing from the government as far as social infrastructure and amenities are concerned,” said Alhaji Jimoh Adekunle, Vice Chairman, CDC, Ijora-Oloye, who posited that lack of municipal infrastructure, overcrowding and non-durable housing are all common problems in Lagos slums.

Saturday Tribune observed that virtually all the identified slums have one social amenity or the other such as schools, health centres and water supply but the fact is that such amenities are grossly inadequate.

Many respondents attested to the poor conditions of living in these slums with their attendant vices such as cultism, prostitution and drugs which have turned these settlements into hells on earth.

Why slums can’t grow –Experts

Experts are of the view that government, as observed with successive administrations, prefers relocating slum dwellers to other locations whenever there is an interest to develop a district, which is seen as intentional decision not to develop anywhere such dwellers occupy at any given time, because official decisions appear not to favour keeping them permanently in their abode.

This was the pattern in 1990 when Maroko, a sprawling settlement directly opposite Victoria Island, was demolished by the then military administrator of Lagos State, Brigadier-General (then Colonel) Raji Rasaki.

“Instead of government to develop the city with the dwellers, as it happened in Maroko, they keep pushing them to undeveloped places and that is why one will continue to see slums in the cities, especially in Lagos, where land is a scarce commodity,” said Paul Olugbile, an environmentalist based in Lagos.

However, despite the constant movements, many of the slums like Badia and Ajegunle seem to have come to stay permanently and the administrations of former Governor Babatunde Fashola and his successor, Akinwunmi Ambode, may have come to accept that reality.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan, assured the dwellers in a terse statement to Saturday Tribune that they were not forgotten by the government of the day.

“The construction of infrastructures in the semi-formal urban areas of Lagos State clearly demonstrates our strategy of transforming such areas to become better and more habitable in all parts of the state,” the commissioner said.

With the stance of the state government, its policy regarding slums can be said to have passed a crucial test, considering the position of the World Bank that eradicating and relocating slums are a failed response of the 1960s and 1970s.

Demolition, eviction scars

In the last one year, the incidence of eviction and demolition that evoked most emotion across the state and beyond was that of Otodogbame community.

“Till today, things are yet to take any positive shape, almost one year after our nasty experience at the hands of government officials. Where are we to start? In the areas of health, education of our children, businesses and the entire social life, we are in a big strait,” said Pepre Thomas, a 67-year-old victim of forced eviction in Otodogbame, Lekki axis in Eti-Osa Local Government Area.

Many of the community leaders interviewed by Saturday Tribune blamed the local government authorities for doing nothing with their allocations to better the living standard of the inhabitants.

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“Please, whose duty is it to provide drainages? And where the infrastructure is available, who should do the clearing, the state government? Many of our streets have been taken over by flood, resulting in the use of planks as bridges to get to our homes. So, if council administrations cannot see to these little things, what is their relevance?” asked Emmanuel Adeyemi, a resident of Ilaje-Bariga who said he used to park his vehicle at his friend’s house at Iyana Oworo, another neighbourhood, as a result of lack of any access road.

Miss Modinat Adeniyi, who claimed to be a student of Eva Adelaja Secondary School, Bariga, noted that it used to be a tug of war getting to school anytime it rained.

“Residents of Gbagada Phase 1 once closed the access road to Ilaje, which was a better alternative. When the entrance was closed, before the intervention of elders, we had difficulty getting to school,” she lamented.

Professional interventions

Some time ago, architects, engineers, energy innovators and planners came together in the state under the Collaborative Media Advocacy Platform (CMAP) to build the strategic and technical capacity of previously-excluded waterfront communities to articulate their needs to the government and meaningfully participate in the development of their city.

Article 25 of the group speaks of the need to develop designs for a community radio station and media centre that would provide access to the internet. This is to enable residents communicate on a broader international platform and the centre will provide a space where communities can come together to discuss the development issues that they face.

Speaking on how government can address the issue with little hassle, Dr Akin Oguniran, an expert in Urban Renewal and Urban Development, noted that the government needed to identify what was missing in each of the identified communities or what their immediate needs were.

According to Oguniran, while the need of people in Badia or Ijora may be functional drainage, residents of Agege may see provision of water supply as their immediate need.

“Urban renewal, which is generally called urban regeneration that involves rejuvenation of affected parts of the area, rehabilitation of old buildings and structures, upgrading of roads that are not asphalted and the introduction of more roads with a view to opening up the blighted areas.

“It also involves improvement of existing infrastructures as well as provision of new ones. All these are geared towards improving the structural quality and aesthetic of the areas, while it was also suggested that the generation of employment opportunities, otherwise known, as economic revitalisation is highly needed in the area.

“This will help to improve the level of capital base and potential for capital formation among the residents that will enhance the level of provision for basic household facilities and proper maintenance of buildings,” he opined.

Official efforts too little?

The most practical intervention before Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration could be said to be the one embarked upon by the disbanded Lagos Metropolitan Development Governance Project (LMDGP) which spanned the administrations of former Governors Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola.

Officials at the Lagos State Urban Renewal Authority (LASURA) who spoke with Saturday Tribune on the condition of anonymity, cited the ongoing urban regeneration at the Lagos Island which involves three locations, namely, Anikantamo, Aroloya and Onala/Princess axes.

The amenities and infrastructure that attracted action by the LMDGP include drainage facilities, road construction, provision of health centres, installation of boreholes for adequate water supply, where there was no supply from State Water Corporation, provision of market, functional sewage and refuse disposal facilities.

However, the government of the day has started what observers described as “a bold and pragmatic move to give the affected communities a new lease of life.”

Speaking at different fora on the necessity of urban regeneration by his administration, Governor Ambode noted that the government would do everything to ensure that the blighted communities enjoy the same facilities that are at the disposal of other neighbourhoods such as Yaba, Surulere, Ikoyi, Ikeja and other so-called elite communities.

Speaking at a town hall meeting held at Teslim Balogun, Surulere, Ambode promised that another 104 road networks would be constructed across the state, including the rural and semi-urban locations.

“What we are doing is to replicate what we have in the urban centre at the rural and blighted areas. We will ensure that blighted areas are upgraded to a level where those features that qualified them as slum are eliminated,” he said.

Oguniran has an advice for the government before the implementation of the policy.

He said: “Renewal has had both successes and failures, especially as the process has had a major impact on many urban landscapes and has played an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world.

“Urban renewal involves the relocation of businesses, the demolition of structures, the relocation of people, and the use of eminent domain (government purchase of property for public purpose) as a legal instrument to take private property for city-initiated development projects. This process is also carried out in rural areas, referred to as village renewal, though it may not be exactly the same in practice.

“In some cases, renewal may result in urban sprawl and less congestion when areas of cities receive freeways and expressways and this is where something akin to community meeting with government officials becomes imperative.”

Besides, it was noted that urban renewal has been seen by proponents as an economic engine and a reform mechanism and by critics as a mechanism for control that may enhance existing communities and in some cases result in the demolition of neighbourhoods.

Experts are of the view that over time, urban renewal evolved into a policy based less on destruction and more on renovation and investment, and today is an integral part of many local governments, often combined with small and big business incentives and this is where local governments and the local council development areas (LCDA) where these communities are located are expected to be involved.

Chief Babajide Koyejo, a community leader in Ilaje-Bariga, was of the opinion that based on the desire of Governor Ambode to give facelift to blighted communities, government should assess what LMDGP was able to do and how to build on the success.

“For instance, here in Bariga, we want our road network to be improved upon, while we want to be linked to Gbagada Phase 1. From there, we, including our children, especially the students, would not be going through Iyana-Oworo to get to their various schools,” he requested.

Another community leader, Mr Benson Wusu, a resident of Makoko, urged Governor Ambode to provide schools for hundreds of pupils in the settlement.

“During the award ceremony of the ‘Keep our Environment Clean Campaign’, organised by the LMDPG, former Governor Babatunde Fashola promised to provide modern facilities and infrastructure for us but couldn’t do much before he left.

“Here now, see canoes glide through the water and our children run along an overhead maze of precarious walkways. Originally, we, residents of Makoko, are fishermen who were attracted from everywhere in the hope of a better life here.

“I moved here to fish, to set up a business and that is almost 50 years ago. Many Makoko residents have been here for generations, losing touch with family back home. Pride is stopping many from returning to their communities empty-handed,” he said tearfully, urging Ambode to extend the ongoing development to the area.