Physical environment, decision-making and land use development in Metropolitan Lagos

Abstract

In 1914, Lagos was chosen as the capital of Nigeria and from then onward, the demographic and physical expansion of the city has been so dramatic that by 1960, it has grown into a metropolis covering about 70 sq. km with well over 1 million inhabitants. The inhospitable physical environment, and the locational decision by the British colonial authorities to develop Lagos as Nigeria's capital are largely accountable for the rate and nature of land use development. The predominance of swamps imposes large scale land reclamations as a precondition for land use development, while the administrative, industrial, commercial and transport functions devolving on Lagos as the federal capital and primate city attract massive in-migration at a much faster rate than the pace of providing urban social services. The lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) dominated land use development for many years. In spite of numerous constrainst, the Board succeeded in carrying out extensive swamp reclamations, residential and industrial estate development. The decision to transfer the capital to Abuja will certainly reflect on future land use development in Lagos. Above all, it is a clear evidence that urban planning alone has failed to tackle the problems meaningfully.