This is Lagos.

The trouble for Lagos is that it is a city that feeds on endless population growth. It is crowded, nosy and, sometimes, violent. On the other hand, it can be a model for the rest of Nigeria’s cities.

Only a few Nigerians doubt that Lagos needs a lot of improvement. As Nigeria’s commercial center, Lagos has a lousy reputation. Just consider this:  mention the name “Lagos” to any Nigerian and they will immediately conjure images of motionless traffic, crime and corruption. In Lagos, it is not a new thing to see men urinate on don’t urinate signs. Neither do Lagos people look surprised when they see a loiter by no loitering sign or if they see people hawk by don’t hawk signs. Even at the poshest part of Lagos, such as the Victoria Garden City,¹ commuters are sometimes caught in shoot-outs between robbers and policemen.²

On the positive side, Lagos is, to a very large extent, better now than it was two decades ago. When Bola Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos was in charge, Lagos was literally a slum. Tinubu became the governor in 1999 when civilian rule was restored in Nigeria.³ During that time, the traffic in Lagos was chaotic. Not only that, the city’s infrastructure was rapidly disintegrating. Armed robbery was rampant and people were being murdered almost every week. That period was a bad one for Lagos because dead bodies were being picked on the street on average 10 times a week. There were mountainous refuse all over Lagos.⁴ Basically, it was total chaos in Lagos.

Some kind of normal

It is not an exaggeration to say that Lagos was rundown in the late 1990s simply because it was badly run. As rural migrants flock to the city in search of jobs, the high population growth that resulted outstripped the infrastructure.⁵ There is really nobody, including the Lagos State government, who can say how many people live in Lagos. Even though estimates range from 10 million to 21 million,⁶ the bottom line is that the city’s congested roads and bridges can accommodate just a fraction of them.

Lagos was neglected by the central government during the military rule. It is worth bearing in mind that Nigeria’s capital was moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.⁷ Abuja, the current capital, was built in the middle of  the country to symbolize unity. As  the Nigeria’s capital moved to Abuja, public spending followed the politicians there to pay for the new city’s marble-floored palaces and wide boulevards. Lagos still found itself even more neglected after the restoration of democracy in 1999. The main reason this time was not because of the Nigerian politicians’  love affair with Abuja. It was because the then ruling party politicians, the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) politicians, were mad at Lagos’ citizens for voting for the opposition parties. It is important to note here that these opposition parties were the forerunners of the current All Progressives Congress(APC) that earlier this year defeated the incumbent PDP – a party that had almost ran Nigeria to its grave since 1999.⁸

Mr. Tinubu and his successor as governor, Babatunde Fashiola, tried their best for Lagos. Both of them experienced big and similar political challenges when they were the state’s governor: their effort to reform Lagos and improve the lives of the residents were often frustrated by the PDP-led government. For instance, despite their appeals to the PDP-led federal government, it failed to upgrade the main roads in the city that were under federal control. The federal government did not put into consideration the fact that one of the roads in question led to West Africa’s biggest port. The then federal government also delayed approval for an important train line requested by Lagos State government, even though the latter was willing to pay for its construction.⁹

The good thing about these frustrations from the PDP-led federal government at the time was that it made Lagos State government to be more creative. For example, it stopped relying on Abuja for funds. Instead, it started generating its revenue internally. To create room for transparency, it created passable systems to monitor its own spending. Even though Lagos residents are not known for their eager compliance with their tax obligations, the state government devised a strategy that squeezed taxes out of them anyway. As a matter of fact, almost from nothing a few years ago, Lagos’ internally generated revenue  has risen to 23 billion naira(about $115 million) per month.¹⁰ Given the population of Lagos, this amount constitute only a few tax dollars per person. However, the state government has used it as a leverage to borrow enough money to finance laudable projects. Such projects include, among others, the much-needed bridge linking the upmarket areas of Lekki and Ikoyi.¹¹ Moreover, the states newly found independence with respect to federal revenue means that it had to rely more on local tax collection. This has forced it to improve it services so as to attract businesses. And, to a very large extent, it has done well in that regard. In terms of goods and services, the state produces as much as $90 billion a year. This value makes it economy larger than that of most African countries, particularly the economies of Ghana and Kenya.

 It is important to state here that much of Nigeria’s industry once thrived in the northern part of the country. But today, most of the Nigeria’s industries can now be found in the suburban manufacturing estate of Agbara in Lagos State. Cranes hang over many areas of the city of Lagos. In addition, land is being reclaimed from the sea to satisfy the appetites of the city’s developers who were obsessed with acquiring large amount of property.¹²

Studies have found that local elections in Lagos favor candidates who show competence and pragmatism. This is a sharp contrast to what is obtained in Nigeria’s national elections, which are often a squabble over petrodollars. This explains why the opposition party, the APC, won the state’s election: its success in managing Lagos is the source of its sweeping victory in the state election held earlier this year. This equally explains why more Nigerians voted for its candidate, President Buhari, in the national election.¹³ The city now has a chance to do better still, especially now that the APC holds power in Abuja as well as Lagos.

One thing is for certain: Lagos’ experience could teach Nigerian politicians a thing or two. The first lesson is that fostering a broad tax base is very important to the survival of a state. It does not make any sense to just rely on oil, which provides more than 67 percent of Nigeria government’s revenues.¹⁴ Besides, a better tax collection will greatly improve the country’s budget by making it less vulnerable to wild swings in the global oil prices. And because people who pay tax tend to demand better services in return, it might also lead to more accountable governance. The second lessons is that better infrastructure boosts economic growth. So, if a country or a state don’t have the money to pay for it upfront, it can adopt Lagos’ model: get private investors to do the job and allow them to collect tolls until they recover their investment capital and make some profit.

References

¹Victoria Garden City (n.d.): Images of Victoria Garden City. Retrieved August 15, 2015 from https://www.google.com/search?q=victoria+garden+city+lagos&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CB8QsARqFQoTCPLluOSsqscCFcw4Pgodm0UIFg&dpr=1

²Nigeria: Learning From Lagos. (2015, July 4). The Economist. Retrieved August 15, 2015 from http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21656701-nigerias-commercial-capital-crowded-noisy-violentand-model-rest.

³Ibid p. 40

⁴Ibid                                  

        

⁵Walt, V. (2014, June 12). Lagos, Nigeria: Africa’s Big Apple. Fortune. Retrieved August 15, 2015 from http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/lagos-nigeria-big-apple/

⁶Campbell, J. (2012, July 10). This Is Africa's New Biggest City: Lagos, Nigeria, Population 21 Million. The Atlantic. Retrieved August 15, 2015 from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/this-is-africas-new-biggest-city-lagos-nigeria-population-21-million/259611/.

⁷Ogunlesi, T. (2014, May 4). Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital City, Grows and Flourishes. Financial Times. Retrieved August 15, 2015 from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/68c28016-bb16-11e3-948c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3irWnZDx7.

⁸Nigeria: Learning From Lagos, op. cit., p. 41

⁹Ibid

¹⁰Akinsanmiâ, G. (2015, April 16).  Lagos Govt Puts IGR at N23bn Monthly, Drags 686 Tax Defaulters to Court. ThisDay Live. Retrieved August 15, 2015 from http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/lagos-govt-puts-igr-at-n23bn-monthly-drags-686-tax-defaulters-to-court/206948/

¹¹Alao, D. (2015). Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility. Lagos: Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility. Retrieved August 16, 2015 from http://niafng.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Lekki-Ikoyi-link-Project.pdf

¹²Nigeria: Learning From Lagos, op. cit., p. 41

¹³Ibid