Making Lagos a conducive city

Sir: Lagos is a city that is home to over 20 million people.

With the smallest landmass of only 3,345 square kilometers, the city keeps retaining its place as the most preferred destination for millions of Nigerians and foreigners, making it the most populated in the country. 

While the state serves as a place of choice for the majority of Nigerians, year in, and year out, it ranks poorly in the list of livable cities in the world and is gloomily tagged as the worst in the continent of Africa. The state is dotted with micro and macro slum developments, congestion, poor waste management, horrible traffic congestion and air pollution.
 
According to data from the Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU), the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, the sister company to The Economist, “The concept of liveability is simple, it assesses which locations around the world provide the best and worst living conditions.
  
Assessing livability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. City officials and urban policymakers can use the rankings to benchmark target cities against the top-ranked cities. The ratings can help them to understand the gap between target cities and the best-ranked cities across different categories. This, in turn, should help to frame policies and target investors.”

Not only that, we must work to ensure the regenerating of the state by setting aside notable areas along the Lagos Island axis by creating public and pedestrian spaces which are interwoven, reviving ancient buildings for posterity and re-using abandoned buildings, among several other urban designs and regeneration concepts. 

David Majekodunmi is the chairman of the Lagos Chapter, Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA).