It’s no longer news that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s 2023 Global Liveability report has ranked Lagos as the fourth worst city to live in the world. Taking a critical look at the criteria deployed in the report, settlement experts are calling the attention of the government and private sector to the provision of elements of liveability in Lagos . DAYO AYEYEMI, reports.
It was not a cheering news that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s 2023 Global Liveability report has ranked Lagos as the fourth worst city to live in the world.
The report, which surveyed 173 cities, used 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure to arrive at its conclusion
The report ranked Lagos above Algiers, the capital of Algeria; Tripoli, Libya’s capital; and Damascus, the capital of war-torn Syria.
According to EIU’s report, Lagos moved up the ranks after seeing improvements in healthcare and education but added that corruption is still a problem.
In 2022, Lagos was the second worst liveable city after holding the position for two consecutive years and was only behind Damascus which has been held down on the list by social unrest, terrorism, and conflict
“Even at the bottom of our rankings, cities such as Lagos (Nigeria) and Algiers (Algeria) have gained ground, with some improvements in their healthcare and education systems. Both are in countries that are energy exporters and have to some extent benefited from higher global oil and gas prices,” the report reads.
Commenting on whether the report was a fair assessment of Lagos when interviewed by the Nigerian Tribune, many urban planners answered in the affirmative.
They cited challenges of security, lawlessness, dirtiness, slums and squatter settlements, high social and numerical occupancy ratio, insufficient water supply, shortage of recreational facilities, traffic problems, insufficient public facilities such as educational, health, socio-cultural amenities, poor infrastructure (roads, drainages and epileptic power supply) as some of the glaring factors.
Experts’ views
President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Mr Nathaniel Atebije, described Lagos as “a city of survival of the fittest,” stating that ranking it as the fourth worst city using indices of liveability might not be too far from the truth.
“Lagos is a city I personally dread because of its structure, security challenges and clumsiness, though some parts are good to live,” he said
Explaining livability, he said it started with physical planning of a town.This, according to him, will give the town a sustainable structure for distribution of land uses, their linkages and functional economic base, followed by logical implementation including control of development to ensure that the plan is developed rationally via enabled strong political will, capital outlay by both public and private developers and technical servicing.
“Lagos is already making some efforts along this line as it has been engaging planners and related professionals to prepare plans for sections of the city, installation of infrastructure to ease public transport, provision of social infrastructure as well as creating investment opportunities to boost the economic base of the city.
“However, the rate of population growth cannot be sufficiently matched by provision of the elements of liveability. There are hopes of improvement to move Lagos up the ladder of liveable cities if the tempo towards it is maintained and increased,” he said.
For a city to be regarded as liveable, immediate past president of NITP, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, said there must be access to fresh or potable water, housing, transport, healthcare, education, security of life and property, as well as the upholding of the rule of law.
“Lagos still has a long way to go in making all of the above elements abundantly available. For Lagos to improve, it must continue to work towards good governance, without which liveability will remain a dream,” he said.
According to him, government and people will need to invest in planning cities and communities, and possess the courage to implement the plans to make these settlements sustainable.
In addition, he explained that government needed to take leadership in the provision of amenities like water, electricity, parks and gardens, public transportation, public housing, “which should not be surrendered to informality as we have now.”
Talking about the fairness of the report, Ayinde, said:” I do not think it is fair to rank Lagos with other cities of the world in terms of global liveability.
“This is because cities are exposed to different cultures, governance systems and social norms. There are enabling factors that make some of the elements of liveability achievable, and the availability of these factors would differ from place to place, and country to country. “
According to him, some systems have been perfected over centuries while some are still struggling to hold themselves in place.
These differences, he said accounted for the types of results to get, pointing out that building of cities would respond to the type governance generally being experienced irrespective of democracy or any other form of government.
“Take for instance, in climes where government has taken charge of the management of land and natural resources and there is public driven provision of essentials like water, electricity, housing, education healthcare, there is more likely to be an environment that portrays order, beauty, uniformity, similarity, and rhythm, which are all characteristics of a functional governance system.
“In other areas like ours where public-led provision of the above amenities is not guaranteed, the self-help approach seems to take over and this introduces a lot of informality into the system. This makes it difficult to control or manage.
“When you have a circumstance like that and you put it against a more experienced and older system, it is like comparing apples and oranges; they are not the same, hence there’s no basis for comparison,” he said.
Liveability factors
Managing Director, MOA Planners Ltd,. Dr. Moses Ogunleye, said that main factors in liveability analysis for any city included the quality and quantity of physical infrastructure like roads, water supply, power supply and solid waste management; and quality and quantity of social and economic infrastructure, particularly healthcare and education, work places like industrial estates and markets.
Others, he said encompassed the affordability and efficiency of public transport system ; adequacy or functionality of town planning structure for the settlement; security and safety system, as well the resilience of the city; the quality and demand/supply matrix of the housing market ;and the overall cost of living.
Considering the above factors, Ogunleye stated that Lagos has not done well, the efforts of governments, the state notwithstanding.
He called on the state authority to intensify efforts on the liveability factors as areas of improvement.
Generally, Ogunleye explained that for a city to be very liveable, its urban management framework must be very efficient.
“That is why I tell people that no matter how decent and organised your community or estate is , if a large proportion of other parts of the city is run down or degraded , you live in a run down or degraded city .
“So, one of the quick fixes for making Lagos very liveable is to clean it up. A large part of the city in unclean : right- of – ways , wet lands , road median, flyover bridges, under the bridges , roundabouts, clover leaves , etc
“The efforts put in greening Lagos, which commenced about 15 years ago have dwindled. Let there be substantial efforts at enforcement of the regulations on street trading, parking on the carriage ways, street hawking and begging, as well as erection of structures on the right of ways and drainage alignment,” he said
President, Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOCON), Mr. Muyiwa Adelu, said it was unfortunate that Lagos kept getting low ranking in the comity of world cities.
Looking the liveability’s criteria,he said it would be difficult for Lagos to move up the ranking ladder.
“Let’s look at the issues. Lagos remains below a few cities in Nigeria when you look at ease of doing business. There is huge infrastructural deficit. Touting and official harassment isn’t well checked. Getting your official documentation is a herculean task.
“In the past you could go through Lagos anytime night or day. That’s difficult to do now. Majority of neighbourhoods are dark at night, making night movement unattractive.
“Traffic is beyond management. People use four to six hours commuting each day. Just too many issues. This is why the city attracts a very low ranking,” the ATOPCON president said.
Way forward
To move forward, Adelu stated that the local governments should be fully independent and empowered, adding the the government should stop lip service to ease of doing business in this state.
He urged the Federal Government to give Lagos a special status and allocate more resources to its development.
“The state government should be encouraged to continue with its giant strands of providing central infrastructures like the ongoing rail system, expansion and rehabilitation of major routes while not forgetting neighbourhoids.
“Street lighting should be recommenced as done during Governor Fashola which was the only thing GovAmbode maintained.” Government should be people friendly. “People should be encouraged to participate and not harrassed, he said urging the state government to obey its own laws and policies.
“Current efforts of upgrading of facilities should be maintained. The goal should be to make Lagos better. Make Lagosians live well and make Nigerians prosperous,” he said
According to him, any liveable city must be properly connected, pointing out that Lekkisubregion is facing hyperactive development in housing and industries, yet it has only one highway, not even wide enough.
“A liveable city must have adequate security to protect life and properties. A liveable city must be clean, consider greenery and cut energy wastes.
“A liveable city must have have minimal response time to disasters. Lagos seems to be doing well on this. In fact remains the best in Nigeria. A liveable city must have portable water. A livable city must continue to develop its suburbs to make city life worthwhile,” Adelu said.
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