POVERTY CHALLENGE TO GOVERNMENT MEGACITY PROJECT: ASSESSMENT OF WORKER’S WELL BEING IN LAGOS STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

In order to make Lagos state a clean and habitable environment, successive democratic governments since 1999 have introduced ‘megacity policy’. The most important of government initiatives of the megacity agenda are constructions of all major and access roads, provision of beautiful surroundings and landscapes and the building of the Lagoon city in the sand-filled areas along the Atlantic Ocean and Lagos lagoon. Government official have consistently claimed that Lagos Megacity project isto provide infrastructure and make the city habitable for low, medium and high income workers and the elites. However big projects were mainly provided in selected areas in the Lagos Island, mainland and other areas where the elites and the rich live. Shanty towns, ghettoes and slums where most Lagos workers live have not really beneffited. This paper examines the challenge which increasing povertyposes to the megacity project. Descriptive method is employed to assess poverty among the Lagos workers. Residential areas were randomly selected and official records were used. Worker’s income is assessed based on prevailing inflation and average earned wages, 672 households’ headsin VIP areas and 1537 in ghettoes, slums and shanty towns were interviewed for the study for two days in week for 24 months between 2015-2017. Affordability of foods, housing, access roads, hospital, schools, sewage system, toilet facilities, waste and refuse disposal and others were used formulate questions directed to measure the wellbeing of individual households of Lagos workers. Findings reveal that governments Lagos megacity projects have led to the provisions of many infrastructures and social services such as roads, schools, hospitals, housing and beautiful landscapes in few areas in the main city, but government efforts to provide the same in all identified ghettoes, slums and shanty towns that dotted many areas in the suburbs where most of the low income workers live have not been quite effective. The paper concludes that megacity projects have not really improved the wellbeing of the Lagos workers. The paper recommends that government should implement megacity policy to improve the wellbeing of large section of its increasing population most especially poor workers in order to reduce the present and future ugly effect of poverty in Lagos state.