RETHINKING URBAN RENEWAL PROGRAMMES FOR PANDEMIC CONTROL IN NIGERIA

S K Alonge,A Wadinga

doi:10.52417/ajhse.v2i1.120

Abstract

Most urban renewal programmes in Africa are conceived as mere urban beautification projects. From Lagos to Dakar, move one or two kilometers away from the city centers and one is faced with filth and squalor that are summed up in two words –urban slums, in which a great majority of city populations reside. In Nigeria, population living in slums as percentage of urban population is put at 50.2 % in 2014, up from 41.0% in 2007. This highlights the rapid growth of urban slums in Africa with rapid urbanization largely fueled by rural-urban migration. Incidentally, lessons from COVID-19 indicate that if the trend in the growth of unplanned slum settlements are not checked, they will become the hotspots for pandemic transmission in Africa, as the slum populations are part and parcel of the entire urban population who indeed are key drivers of city activities in terms of labour supply, as well as their engagements in small scale informal business activities in the cities. In the light of existing knowledge on the potential threat of dense slum settlements to the spread of pandemic, this paper reviews the appropriateness of traditional approach to urban renewal programmes in Africa and makes recommendations for paradigm shift as historical evidences reveal that COVID-19 is neither the first nor the last pandemic.

Highlights

In most of Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, urban renewal is synonymous with beautification of city centers, which involve planting exotic trees and flowers along newly surfaced intra-city roads and roundabouts, creation of parks for recreation, etc
Pieces of empirical evidence suggest that, in view of poor living conditions and the lack of basic facilities that guarantee best practices in personal and community hygiene, dense urban slums settlements could pose the greatest risk for the spread of pandemics across entire urban populations in Nigeria and in Africa in general
Due to fear of political backlash and electoral calculations, as well as lack of funds, political office holders find it difficult to embark on the military style urban renewal that involved forced evictions of slum dwellers

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In most of Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, urban renewal is synonymous with beautification of city centers, which involve planting exotic trees and flowers along newly surfaced intra-city roads and roundabouts, creation of parks for recreation, etc. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHS) defines a slum as a wide range of low-income settlements and/or poor human living conditions, which include the vast informal settlements that are quickly becoming the most visual expression of urban poverty (Olaoluwa, 2018) This is the case in cities in Nigeria, where the growth rate of the urban population is faster than economic growth and increasingly out-paces the ability of the country’s health and social services to provide appropriate and necessary care (Olaoluwa, 2018). According to the Conversation (2019), rapid rate of urban population growth in Nigeria, fueled by massive rural to urban migration, has overwhelmed public sector resources It has hampered the private sector’s ability to provide either housing or jobs. The highest level of defiance to the government’s stay at home order was seen in these slum areas (Business Day, May 5, 2020)

THEORY AND EMPIRICAL REVIEW

EMPIRICAL REVIEW

Findings

CONCLUSION