Human Settlement

A nationwide economic downturn that emerged over a decade ago – and appears to persist even as we speak – spelt a depression in the manufacturing sector, and forcing a considerable number of industrialists out of business. Some relocated to neighbouring West African countries. Worsened by the trademark erratic power supply, more industrial spaces became vacant, leading to a glut ...

Lagos. What a place! With a population of over 20 million people, the bustling city remains the centre of attraction to not only Nigerians but also to West Africans. It holds about 12 percent of country’s 167 million people. Despite its rather limited landmass, the city for several decades served as the administrative capital for the Federal and Lagos State ...

As a way of improving the quality of education in a sustainable way, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is constructing a group of floating schools in Makoko coastal community of Lagos. The school, whose prototype design was unveiled during a ceremony a week ago, is a two-storey building standing on silt and would be powered by solar energy. Country ...

With less than two years to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline in 2015, the United Nations, state parties and partners have been collaborating towards the development of a successor framework, taking into consideration lessons from the MDGs and the present development realities. Consequently, Nigeria a week ago in Abuja hosted a round of National and Thematic Consultations, apparently to ...

Makoko is a slum settlement that is home to fishermen and other low income earners, which the authorities see as a blot on the cityscape, one that would have to go if Lagos is to attain its much-vaunted mega city status. Last July, government agents moved in to demolish portions of the sprawling lagoon slum, amid claims that the residents ...

Makoko community is a clustered community of mainly fishermen and artisans that live on the shores of the Lagos Lagoon. With population explosion in Lagos, Nigeria’s megacity of about 18 million people, the residents of the community have been faced with threats of forced eviction and demolition of their homes. The recent eviction which took place in July 2012, according ...

The prospects of two urban centres came under focus recently as human settlement practitioners gathered for the umpteenth time to take stock of the fortunes of cities on the African continent. At the Sixth Edition of “Africities” held several weeks ago in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, local administrators from Burkina Faso and South Africa highlighted challenges facing the cities of ...

As the flood that ravaged the entire Bayelsa State finally recedes, many of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were contemplating on how to live their lives after the flood. While many of them left voluntarily for fishing and farming activities, others waited for government support for proper resettlement. This, however, was not the case as the Bayelsa State Government, through ...

Close to tears, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), last week in Lagos recalled how his warning on the impending flood disaster was handled with a pinch of salt by 15 state governors. Anuforom told a bewildered audience at the Eight Annual Meeting of the African Science Academies (AMASA 8) that, drawing from a NIMET prediction ...

No fewer than 5,000 volunteers are being mobilised by Passion House International (PHI), a Lagos-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), towards the “Clean-up Oshodi Project”, scheduled for Friday, December 1, 2012. The initiative entails the cleaning of major dirty streets in Oshodi Local Government in Lagos to promote health and well-being.  Drains, gutters and streets will be cleaned, towards fostering a healthy ...