Still on Lagos special status

Lagos is presently experiencing such phenomenal population explosion that it is being projected to be the 3rd largest megacity in the world by 2015.

Many are of the view that despite the 10 million figure declared by the National Population Commission in the last census exercise, the city’s best possible population is 40 million. Whereas theannual population growth in the developing world is 3% and Nigeria’s is 2.7% thatof Lagos stands at a stunning 8% and is likely to accelerate. The State’slandmass is rather small by Nigerian standard (Kano State which officially hasabout the same population is about four times in landmass). As if to aggravate the situation, a considerable part of the metropolis is covered by water, a situation that complicates its infrastructural needs.

The Lagos transformation project requires an enormous financial force to build and upgrade infrastructural facilities in the State in the next 15 years far beyond the capacity of the state government. This,then, is the significance of the call for the State to be accorded a special status by the federal government.

Lagos, with over 138,000 workers(representing various ethnic groups) in its employment, apart from the Federal Government, remains the greatest employer of labour in the country. Ironically,many of the States in the country with lesser population and infrastructural needs receive same monthly federal allocation as Lagos.

The special position of Lagos as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, and indeed West Africa, has its peculiar infrastructural and other commercial enterprises makes it a very complex state to govern. Being the pane through which the whole world views the country, granting a special status to Lagos remains the best possible way to drive Nigeria’s development as Lagos is the country’s most industrialized city with needs that align with its growth.

No nation grows by treating the needs of its golden geese with discomfiture since the future growth of the country’s economy is tied to the development of Lagos which hosts over 85 per cent of Nigeria’s industrial hub, over 65 per cent of its financial nucleus and over 75 per cent of its active workforce. With each day,the population and needs of Lagos continue to increase to reflect this important role.

As the economic capital of Nigeria, Lagos has been the first port of call for eager millions of youths from all parts of the country who long for means of survival from the uncertainties of a struggling economy like ours. Presently,it is obvious that the monthly allocation it receives from the Federation Account as well as its internally generated revenue is not enough to meet the developmental needs of the state.

Regrettably, the Federal government’s inability to discharge its infrastructural responsibilities to Lagos, over the years, has further worsened the situation.The National Assembly Complex at Tafawa Balewa Square, the National Stadium,Surulere, the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi and the Apapa- Oshodi Expressway, tomention just a few, laid credence to this. When the FCT was moved from Lagos to Abuja, there was asubsisting agreement that the city would not be abandoned. Indeed, the Late General MurtalaMohammed acknowledged the onerous nature of the responsibility of leaving Lagosalone to deal with the burden of infrastructure the FG were leaving behindthen, bearing in mind that if Lagoshadn’t been the federal capital, it probably would not have been having theseproblems. In fact, five cities; Enugu, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan, Kaduna and Lagos were later designated as ‘Centres of Excellence’ by the Murtala Administration as part of a plan to make them cities of pride by the federal government.

However, successive federal governments have refused to take a cue from countries which relocated their national capitals without abandoning infrastructural development of the former capitals. It is now time for Nigeria to imitate Germany, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia andTanzania, which, after relocating their capitals, did not hold backdevelopmental programmes targeted at the former capitals. From 1954 to 1994,the capital of Germany was Bonn.