Welcome to the Lagos Debate

Monday, 28 June 2010 NEXT News 9 Welcome to the Lagos debate“Imagine a city with its own DISCUSSION independent service island Enthusiasts gather to supply round-the-clock electricity, clean water and in London to discuss sewage distribution. Imagine the future of one of a safe city where there are the world’s fastest no street vendors, no noisy motorcycles and no traffic growing megacities chaos...” the website promises. But, efficient infrastructure By Tolu ogunlesi aside, that is not exactly the n the last few years, kind of Lagos that Mr Gusah Lagos has captured the envisages. In his remarks he Iimagination of foreigners cautioned against the escapism in an unprecedented manner, of what he termed the “Abuja with a slew of documentaries mentality” (the thinking that and articles on the city “there’s too much of a problem appearing everywhere from here, let’s create a new space”). the New Yorker to German “There is a place in fact for state television. Only two public trading,” he said, a fact months ago, the BBC released apparently not lost on Durban a documentary, ‘Welcome to city managers who during the Lagos’, focusing on the lives clean-up process in preparation of a number of characters for the World Cup devised a eking a living amidst the city’s means of formalising street sprawling slums. The Nigerian trading by designating spaces authorities did not hide their and issuing permits. For Mr. displeasure. The Nigerian High Gusah, Abuja is a veritable Commission in London wrote a demonstration of the urban protest letter to the BBC. So did sterility that is a consequence the Lagos State government. of attempting to get rid of the Even Nobel Laureate, Wole informal economy. “This sort Soyinka, weighed in, accusing of sanitised city is not very the BBC of being “patronising exciting,” he said. motoso and condescending”. o From the plan of the 4th It was against this backdrop Mainland Bridge it is clear that Bukka, a UK-based that the architects themselves educational trust which Abiodun by Photo have realised that they cannot organises events, “centred on Lagos combines the chaotic with incredible opportunities but take into consideration the architecture and urbanism informal aspects of Lagos life. in the developing world”, held at the Brunei Gallery the inefficient; the colonial alright”, and that postcolonial something about Lagos that Mr Adeyemi explained that the decided to host, on June 18 in Lecture Theatre of the School versus the traditional.” It was Lagos governments have merely works,” Mr. Gusah said. Mr. bridge is envisioned as a “two- London, a discussion “on the of Oriental and African Studies also a city that stood out for succeeded in perpetuating the Adeyemi highlighted Lagos’ level bridge” - an upper level for future of Lagos”, to provide an (SOAS), kicked off with an the “precarious quality of [its] cluelessness that the British relatively efficient taxation vehicular traffic, the lower one opportunity for the Lagos State introduction by Giles Omezi, public space.” exhibited in their dealings with system, Klaarenbeek pointed to for pedestrian traffic (based government and the producers Executive Director of Bukka. “Basically the whole of Lagos - what he described as “an the relative stability of the city on the realisation that Lagos is of Welcome to Lagos to meet He traced the development Lagos is a market; everybody is inability to understand what - in political and military terms a “very pedestrianised” city), and defend their positions. of Lagos’ as an urban centre, selling,” said Klaarenbeek. The [makes] Lagos tick”. For him - over the last decade. a tram line, organised street- Other speakers scheduled for from the beginning of the 20th “market” analogy perhaps best the real crisis that Lagos faces Suggested solutions came in trading, cafes, nightlife and a the discussion, (titled “Lagos - century, revealing a history refers to what is known as Lagos’ lies not in its nature but in its droves. Mr. Gusah suggested luxury-store precinct. In sharing Mega City or Crisis City”) were of detailed plans that were “informal economy” - the mass nurture; the tragic fact that “the incentivisation (“something an abridged history of Lagos Mr Kunle Adeyemi, architect with never fulfilled by successive of “squatters” whose activity policy attention span of Nigeria for everyone”) at all levels of Whiteman quoted Bob Marley: the Holland-based international governments. George Packer describes in his is about 1 - 2 years” and that the the service pyramid, especially “In this great future you can’t architecture practice OMA (the Mr. Whiteman, who 2006 New Yorker article as the government has perfected the at the bottom. “Any sustainable forget the past.” The discussion firm designing the proposed moderated the event, continued “furious activity of people who art of making sure “the people solutions have to make business on Lagos revealed a rather Lagos 4th Mainland bridge); the historical expose on Lagos, a live in a globalized economy and get forgotten very quickly.” The sense lower down in the disturbing truth: Lagos is a Simon Gusah, a Planning city he described as “one of the have no safety net and virtually presentations were followed pyramid,” he said. “If there’s city weighed down by its past; Consultant who divides his time best kept secrets of the African no hope of moving upward” by a question-and-answer cum money to be made in cleaning struggling as it is to exist on between Abuja and London; continent.” He highlighted the but who arguably contribute discussion session. One of the gutters and collecting rubbish, infrastructure built when it was Kaye Whiteman, former editor turbulent roots of modern Lagos more (collectively) to the city’s more fascinating contributions gutters will be cleaned and a fraction of its current size and of West Africa magazine and - the decade-long 19th century economy than the formal, delved into Yoruba mythology rubbish will be collected.” Mr. population. “No rail project author of a forthcoming book on military assault (including the organised business sector. (the belief that “life is a Adeyemi’s pictorial comparison has been done in Lagos since Lagos; and Urban Detectives, a bombardment by two British For Mr. Adeyemi, who lived marketplace”) in a bid to explain of Lagos to Manhattan revealed I was born,” the Lagos State Holland-based partnership gunboats) on the city led by the and worked in Lagos for years the growth pattern of an urban one fact: the potential of Lagos governor, Babatunde Fashola that recently organised a series “apostle of gunboat diplomacy”, before relocating to Holland area like Lagos. There were (with its current “flat, pancake admitted last year in a television of “City Space Investigations Britain’s Lord Palmerston; (he remains a regular visitor to questions and observations on shape”) to develop upwards, as interview. (CSI)” workshops in Lagos. culminating in the overthrow the city), the defining quality of the possibilities of stimulating opposed to outwards, remains The Lagos condition is aptly Everyone showed up, save - of Oba Kosoko and the signing Lagos is its ability to combine migration out of Lagos as a grossly underexploited. summarised by the Urban puzzlingly - the producers of by Oba Dosunmu, of a Treaty the “chaotic” with “incredibly way to decongest the city; on Mr Adeyemi also shared Detectives: “Lagos is not a city ‘Welcome to Lagos’, and the ceding the city to the colonial great opportunities.” He noted the security situation in the the blueprint of the proposed in crisis, but the rapid growth Lagos State government. The invaders. the “incredible amount of city; on the efficiency of the 4th Mainland bridge (coming poses serious questions that email from the organisers the Jaap Klaarenbeek and Jasper organisation” and “incredible city’s planning bureaucracy; more than two decades after need intelligent answers day before the event carried the Moelker, the Urban Detectives amount of resourcefulness” and on the overwhelming the 3rd Mainland bridge) and responsive, responsible following message: “We have duo, spent three weeks in Lagos in the city; and its fluidity - advantages of having which will link Ikorodu, Lekki and flexible governing.” been advised by the Lagos State in April. They came away with its ability to “converge” and the private sector take the lead and the Eko Atlantic city, “[an] The challenge is therefore government representative the impression of a city marked “dissolve” instantly and in a in developing the city (rendering island which will become a unambiguous: Wanted - Dayo Mobereola [MD by “polarities” and “dualities” cyclical manner. the government “redundant” in new city centre, [to] take the Urgently: Innovative managers LAMATA] that he is not able - “the planned versus the Simon Gusah argued that left the process). pressure off Lagos Island.” for the world’s fastest growing to participate, due to delays unplanned; the urban versus to itself Lagos - a “fairly stable On the whole, the panellists The project’s website says it mega-city. Candidates without in travel approval from the the rural; the dynamic versus system in its own chaotic way; were all convinced that Lagos will be ‘the biggest and fastest ability to think long-term need Governor’s Office.” The event, the static; the efficient versus with its own logic” - would “be was not a basket case. “There’s growing city in West Africa.’ not apply..

Load more