A REMEDY TO INFRASTRUCTURAL CHALLENGES VIA RENEWAL PROGRAMME, A CASE STUDY OF LAGOS MEGA CITY

A REMEDY TO INFRASTRUCTURAL CHALLENGES VIA RENEWAL PROGRAMME, A CASE STUDY OF LAGOS MEGA CITY

​​​​​​​Background of the study

Lagos now has a population of more than 18 million people. The United Nations grants megacity classification to cities with populations of 10 million or more. Building and preserving a model megacity has significant obstacles. It might be difficult to provide enough infrastructure and other necessary to meet the demands of over 18 million people (Ayeni, 2018). According to a report by Lagos Energy City (2017), officials and population scientists believed that by 2025, the population of the metropolis and adjacent towns, particularly in the Ogun State axis, would have risen to 30 million. Housing, infrastructure, and transportation are among the most pressing issues, particularly in the state's more than ten local government areas (LGAs), excluding local council development zones (LCDAs). Furthermore, legendary traffic congestion, suffocating pollution, insufficient supply of clean water, instability, and the lack or inadequacy of people's social and economic demands offer further obstacles. Apart from the government's efforts through various urban renewal programmes, the uncontrolled influx of people from virtually every state in Nigeria, including neighbouring countries such as Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, and others, is raising concerns that the next few years will present a daunting task for the authority (Brebbia, Mander & Tiezzi 2020). It has been discovered that septics are fed directly into the drain in several Lagos homes. As a result, the government is pushed to invest extensively in environmental protection through urban redevelopment initiatives in order to prevent environmental misuse and its effects. People travel from rural to cities with little grasp of the realities on the ground. Here, culture comes into play, such as open defecation as practised in the village, public clothing distribution, and cooking exercise in any open space, among other things that frustrate the state government's efforts to improve the city through urban redevelopment initiatives. Officials recognise that planned urban regeneration is a significant difficulty in a developing model metropolis like Lagos (Isichei 2019).

Prior to the government's current urban redevelopment initiatives, Lagos was described to as a jungle of diverse growing slums. However, a systematic urban development and slum rehabilitation programme has since been implemented in collaboration with numerous development organisations to reverse the trend, which is a vital cure to counteract the scourge typified by urbanisation. As a result, various model city plans, such as the Ikeja Model City Plan, the Victoria Island/Ikoyi Model City Plan, and the Lekki Comprehensive Land Use and Infrastructure Master Plan, have been completed, while the Mainland Central Model City Plan, Badagry Draft Master Plan, and Alimosho Master Plan are still in the works. However, in order to provide legal support for the urban revitalization effort, the Lagos State Model City Development Law was passed in 2009, and the State Urban and Regional Planning Law was signed on July 7, 2010.

According to Lindan (1993), a megacity requires a stronger financial foundation. The sheer magnitude of the resources necessary to support a megacity exceeds what a government could supply on its own. To that end, Kadiri believes that both the federal and state governments should assist Lagos in meeting the problems that come with becoming a megacity through urban rejuvenation programmes. According to Ogunleye, the fact that many of the former slum neighbourhoods are not in remote regions makes it simpler for the government to include them in urban regeneration programmes. The construction of new slums is forbidden, but the flood of people is uncontrollable in Lagos State, despite the fact that there is no regulation that discourages migration to the metropolis. However, the administration will fare well if it establishes new settlements and puts in place the required infrastructure. Despite this, the government has begun infrastructure renewal projects such as the light rail scheme from Orile to Mile 2, the redevelopment of the Lagos-Badagry expressway into ten lanes incorporating BRT lanes and light rails, the ongoing reconstruction of the Mile 12-Ikorodu road incorporating BRT lanes, the recently commissioned Ejigbo-Ajao Estate link bridge, and the recovery and redevelopment of loops previously used by criminals. Despite the importance of these initiatives, it appears that much more has to be done to address the needs of millions of commuters on a daily basis. The state of the environment also poses a significant difficulty to the Lagos megacity city. Lagos, for example, creates 10,000 tonnes of rubbish each day, about three times more than Ghana as a whole. Furthermore, the level of industrial pollution in Lagos is unparalleled in the country.

Another big difficulty for the Lagos megacity is maintaining law and order. Though a city is granted megacity status as a consequence of population increase, creating and maintaining a model megacity is not easy, as seen by the Lagos experience. In the case of Lagos, however, a key difficulty is coping with the city's ever-increasing population and the ramifications for infrastructure.

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