Resistance from the residents of informal settlements against housing evictions is not a new thing in Lagos, Nigeria.
THE CONVERSATION
In Lagos, a megacity with a population estimated at 21 million, the state government has been building a satellite city, known as Eko Atlantic. At the same time is has been destroying informal settlements, where as much as 60%-70% of Lagos’s population may live.
Makoko, a community on the mainland of Lagos, is one of the places threatened with demolition. Its residents, who originated from coastal communities in the Niger Delta, Benin, Togo and Ghana, claim to have occupied the area since the early 1900s. Half of the population resides in houses constructed on stilts over the Lagos Lagoon. Makoko faces significant challenges, including a lack of infrastructure like roads and water supply. In 2012, the state government served an eviction notice to Makoko residents, claiming that the area represented a security risk and interfered with its planning agenda.
However, the struggles between residents of low-income areas and government planners are not new in Lagos. They are embedded in the city’s history. These historical instances, as well as the current fight around Eko Atlantic, raise questions about what type of city the government wants to create and whose visions will determine the planning policies.
Lagos State launched the Eko Atlantic City project in 2013 to reclaim about 10 million square metres of land from the sea to build a 21st-century skyline. The construction proceeded after the removal of 80,000 people living alongside Victoria Island and the Bar Beach area. The creation of Eko Atlantic and the eviction facing Makoko people reflect the exclusionary planning that has shaped Lagos urban development.
Resistance to Lagos demolitions
As a social historian, I conducted a study of how a loose coalition of residents resisted the demolition of Central Lagos in the 1950s. The coalition included female traders, homeowners and tenants. At the time, Lagos Island was colonised and governed by the British, who were devolving power to Nigerians.
My research showed how ordinary urban residents – whose voices are often drowned out by elite politicians – experienced the end of colonial rule and proposed alternative laws to make the city more liveable. I demonstrated how their agitation forced the planners to amend their original plan but not to permanently suspend the destruction of Central Lagos. Instead, the planners made slum clearance part of urban planning in postcolonial Nigeria.
To foreground residents’ voices and show the different phases of protest, I reviewed hundreds of letters to the editor of three daily newspapers from 1951 to 1956. I also examined official correspondence in Nigerian and British archives. These sources recorded Lagosians’ voices from diverse class, gender, and ethnic backgrounds. I argue that these competing civilian voices should be considered “popular planners” because their interests centred on transforming the state’s vision for Lagos.
Demolition announcement
In 1951, the British planning agency announced the rebuilding of 28 hectares of land inhabited by an estimated 25,000 people over six years. Before the demolition commenced, the planners intended to resettle the displaced in Surulere, a newly developed residential area, 8km north-west of the island on the Lagos mainland. Although considered a “slum,” Central Lagos had been occupied for generations. Residential areas were nestled among schools, businesses, mosques and churches. The area’s destruction raised questions about whether indigenous, Yoruba-speaking Lagosians, working-class, and poor residents belonged in the British and Nigerian government’s vision of a modern city.
