Is Lagos leaning towards Singapore housing system?

Dachi Maduako, Lagos
View of Marina, Lagos

Is Lagos Mega City being influenced by the physical development structure of Singapore, one of the Asian nations? The answer might not be far from yes. At least, revelations from presentations made by the Director, RSP Architect Planners and Engineers (Pte) Ltd, Singapore, Dr. Liu Thia ker and the Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Francisco Bolaji Abosede, at the recently concluded 4th Lagos Economic Summit seemed to have suggested so in many perspectives.

The summit had gone all out to seek how to transform Lagos into Africa’s model city. And the State Governor had not minced words when he said at the opening ceremony that the summit was all “about our city Lagos and its place in Africa and the world. Our vision is to create Africa’s model mega city. This will entail building a more competitive, globally-integrated city and economy.”

He listed intimidating statistics that give reasons transformations are required to make the mega city become such that meet global standards. For instance, Lagos remains the nation’s most populous city and state with a population growth rate of 5 per cent and an expected 20 million population by 2005.

The governor noted that Africa has the fastest rate of urbanization in the world and that slums abound with only 20 per cent having access to electricity while in sub-Saharan Africa only 48 per cent urban household, having water connection and 31 per cent connected to the sewerage system. Fashola bemoaned the fact that Lagos ranks low on the global liveability index, notwithstanding its mega city rating. “We cannot divorce the city of Lagos from these dire figures. Yet, ironically, Lagos has retained its attraction as a cultural, economic and political hub in Africa. How can we, therefore, stand by and watch Lagos, the capital of the black race regress into a dysfunctional state?” he asked.

But making a key presentation at the technical session of the housing and urban development group, Dr. Ker, an architect and planner, who had handled a lot of planning schemes in both Singapore and other Asian nations including China, said theirs was planning towards a healthy and beautiful cities which has transformed Singapore to one of the most beautiful places to live in.

Reflecting on what Singapore used to be way back in 1960, he said the country was lagging behind in Asia with very dirty environment and slums but had now been transformed through good planning aided by good governance. With a population of 4.6 million and land mass that is five times less than the size of Lagos, the Singaporean said that the country boasts of having one of the best airports and largest sea ports in the world with quality buses and rail services that about 70 per cent of their people now travel by either buses or metroline.

“Despite the fact that land is scarce, we make efforts to create greenery around the public housing. We have improved environment, space for everybody and harmonious urbanscapes,” he said. He stated that with the new Singapore they had created, the country now has ubiquitous public housing, industrial estates, arts and educational venues, modern business centres and parkways among others.

His presentation had great lessons for the state as he stated that slums of yesterday can be turned to today’s cities. He called for good master plan, which will ensure right things are done at the right time, adding that the state should try to create healthy city first before beauty. He pointed out that Singapore was planned in five regions with each region having small cities to trap people within the same region. This, he called urban cells. To have enduring cities, he advised that such plans should be big and for long term so as to be able to accommodate growth and growth associated problems. For the mega city, he suggested that this should be organised in cities that would take between 2.5million and 3 million populations. These in turn should be made up of towns and new towns to be able to distribute the population.

“We have a problem on population control. Plan for higher population. If the city is to grow and you plan small, it will not work. Don’t plan for small cities,” Ker said. In his presentation, the commissioner for physical planning and urban development said that without consultation with the Singaporean planner, one could see the relationship with what the state physical planning ministry had at the drawing table. Abosede said that the state was going ahead with planning and redevelopment in preparation for the Mega City status. This, he pointed out was being organised by dividing Lagos into smaller cities.

He pointed out that the state had a master plan in 1980 but that things went wrong under the military era leading to its being abandoned until the last administration. He however, promised that the state would be transformed in the next 10 years. He stated that the state has 100 slum areas out of which 40 are very bad while work had commenced on seven others. The state is collaborating with the World Bank which has contributed $200 million (US dollars). The total cost is put at N2 billion out of which the state is to contribute N47 million.