The Lagos Conundrum
There’s a convergence of issues beckoning when it comes to the sprawling city called Lagos; rising coastal ocean levels, increase in population density, limited to no inhabitable land, poor road networks and continued environmental degradation and pollution.
Lagos basically exist as a barely functioning entity, occasionally her elected officials make announcements about significant projects that they tout as a succor or solution to the growing myriad problems Lagos regularly faces on an hourly basis. When the hype subsides we all realize there was actually nothing about it.
Do we discuss the Eko Atlantic project?
The City Mono-Rail?
The BRT Buses?
The once touted 4th Mainland bridge?
The Lekki -Epe Express way?
The formation of LAWMA and other bodies?
Practically, these efforts should not be dismissed or looked at as ill thought. In truth they do have their merits by and large, but they do not address the overbearing issues that the metropolis is at risk of confronting, issues I listed in the first paragraph above.
Lagos requires a far more strategic and interventionist solution, a solution on a scale only compared to the development of the city states of the UAE. The issue though is if those in power are visionary enough to see it for what it is. Lagos, in its present format is a ecological, economic, catastrophic disaster simply waiting to happen.
If there is no redevelopment and mass migration away from the coastline the extent of the impact on human lives will be like none we have ever seen in our over 60 year history. In the day to day lives of the inhabitants of the city we see the impact traffic and the surge in criminal activities have. What security agencies will not tell you is how certain parts of the city are out rightly controlled by criminal gangs.
In my bid to change from one who simply criticizes only, I have decided to put on my thinking hat, as a way of not only sitting back, folding my arms and offering nothing but sharp reprimands or sarcastic rebukes. I seek to add my voice to the many other observers who strongly feel the state of Lagos can be way more ambitious than it currently is.
In an ideal world the neighboring states around Lagos would have taken the overwhelming nature the population influx into Lagos has on its infrastructure as an opportunity to attract investors and corporate bodies to use their capital cities and commercial hubs as an alternative, but that is not the case in our reality. Inter-state infrastructure linking states to each other has not been properly developed. A proposal I imagine can be beneficial for all is to have the Lagos state government create an investment vehicle in conjunction with an international lender, preferably one which focuses on infrastructure development, this will be formed alongside a realistic and practical courtship of various upcoming private international companies, encouraging them to seek out the possibility of setting up their headquarters or operational hubs in places they will pledge to develop.
Now, I am no financial expert but I believe there is a workable way to create incentives to do the following;
· Create working relationships with the Federal government to co-finance road networks (tolled) that will link states.
· Encourage new organizations to set up operational hubs in neighboring states with tax incentives and rebates, delayed payments, etc.
· Co-finance the development of both housing and industrial developments that will complement each other in these states.
The idea is for Lagos state to shift its focus of investment from persisting with a crumbling state infrastructure that cannot be developed beyond its current state, and divert it to more realistic ventures outside the state which have almost unlimited potential and have the high possibility to create long term continued revenue streams for the state from outside the state.
Lagos State needs to begin to think beyond itself as the geographical boundaries surrounding it at this point. That point of view is limited when burdened with a limited land mass and a population the size of several nation states put together. Lagos needs to think in terms of its impressive revenue generating potential and the vast human resources it can fully deploy to create a new narrative going forward.
