For close observers of Lagos, Lagos has grown beyond what it used to be in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or even since the year 2000; not only in terms of population, but also in terms of land mass. No wonder the United Nations noted that by the year 2015, Lagos would be the third largest megacity in the world, a city as fast-paced as New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, Berlin, Dubai, and cities so big that they don’t sleep. because night and day simply come together like the eclipse of the sun or the moon.
You don’t have to look far to understand why Lagos is in such a fast lane. First, it was the territory of the Nigerian capital until 1991, when the former military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, moved the seat of power to Abuja. Lagos, even with the transfer of the Nigerian administrative headquarters, has never lost its status as the commercial capital of Nigeria, thus the main Nigerian corporate entities still have a presence in Lagos given its proximity to the ports, among other reasons. The result is that every day, people from all parts of Nigeria flock to Lagos in search of better economic fortunes. Of these people, many are newcomers who have come to stay permanently.
With such a deluge, one can only imagine the strain on available resources, on infrastructure, housing, hospitals, roads, transport and schools, as well as on those who administer and govern Lagos. Imagine the huge number of people looking for any type of accommodation at any given time, in the job market, trying to get from one end of Lagos to the other, seeking medical attention or even trying to get their children to school. The pressures are real.
Lagos no longer consists of just those areas that people used to know as Lagos. The reason is simple. With more and more people arriving in Lagos in such large torrents, Lagos began to lose its ability to withstand the population explosion. People began to flock to areas that did not previously exist on their mental maps. They became explorers and discoverers of new territories, and because of that survival instinct, the expansion of Lagos beyond the territories known as Lagos became a matter of time, which is absolutely normal in a city that lives a continuous explosion of human traffic.
Today, you hear from places like Ajangbadi, Ikotun-Egbe, Okota, Ago, Egbeda, Alimosho, Idimu, Abule-Osun, Abule-Egba, Iyana-Ipaja, Meiran and places so remote that they did not exist before. at least not in the consciousness of Lagos residents.
With this population explosion and exponential growth and development, Lagos now has two types of residents: those who live inside or outside the city center and those who live in the city center.
Obi is one of those residents who reside in the interior of Lagos. Like many of his compatriots, he is like an umbilical cord still attached to the center of the city. Every day, he has to travel from his inner abode to the center of the city to earn a living. Every day he has to get up like a rooster to get to work early, otherwise arriving at his workplace on time will be a mere wish. He has to put up with sweat fighting to get on one of the BRT buses and arrive at work exhausted and exhausted because he didn’t get enough sleep.
In the interior, I’ve been told that the accommodation is quite affordable, but that’s understandable since no one who can avoid the interior would want to live there, even if they have to live in a large house at little or no cost.
But aside from affordable housing, residents of the interior live in appalling conditions. There are no passable roads, and where they are, they are deplorable, which is often the cause of long traffic jams and traffic jams. It’s usually not unheard of for people to be stuck in slow traffic for up to five hours every day, sometimes coming home in the dead of night and still being strong enough to go through the pain over and over again. time.
Transportation is just hellish. The Lagos State government provided some BRT buses, but these are too few to transport the thousands who need to get from point A to B daily. Most of the time, it is a painful struggle to get on these buses.
Obi laments that for him to get to work early; he has to leave home at 5 in the morning, regardless of when he got home the day before. He constantly complains of fatigue and body aches as a result of inadequate sleep and rest. it’s really bad. Inland residents of Lagos enjoy little to no comfort; they provide everything for themselves: water, energy, security, etc. For inland residents whose workplaces are in the city center, they are amazed by what they see and wonder if this is Lagos or somewhere abroad.
Tunde is the other resident of Lagos. He lives on Victoria Island and has never been to places like Ajangbadi or Ikotun-Egbe. So when you tell him that you live in such a place, he wonders if he is in Lagos or somewhere far outside of Lagos. For him, Ikeja, Maryland, Surulere, Ajah, Lekki and Ikoyi are all that exist on his mental map of Lagos. In these places, the roads are relatively well paved with sidewalks for pedestrians; there are street lights as well as traffic lights to control the flow of traffic.
Although Tunde has to get to work early, he doesn’t have to wake up like a rooster because he has no transportation worries. He owns a car and his office is nearby.
Unlike its inland Lagos counterpart, it has access to select restaurants, shopping malls like Shoprite and Palms. You can take a nervous and relaxing walk on the weekends. At least the taps are flowing with water and if you have to provide power or security for yourself, that’s because that’s the challenge of living in a country called Nigeria.
The worries and pains of these two inhabitants of Lagos are different. They are two sides of a coin where one side is heads and the other tails. Of course we know who the boss is.
Now back to Obi, who keeps wondering why there is as great a chasm between his own Lagos and Tunde’s as there is between heaven and hell. In fact, he has gone from wondering to asking anyone who wants to listen why there are two worlds for state residents and who meets their financial obligations to the state regardless of whether they reside in the interior or in the center. Obi believes that the government taxes them and deploys them for the development of “big town” neighborhoods, while he ignores the fact that life is hell for them.
I think we may never achieve a classless or equal society, but the Lagos State government should do more to close this gap and provide better living conditions for those living in the hinterland. The interior of Lagos must be made livable, livable and comfortable. Making life worth living for inland residents must be of the utmost importance and priority.