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Lagos, one of the worst cities to live in

Posted by 9jabook.com webmadam on February 22, 2011 at 8:45pm

jpeg&STREAMOID=zEVW4hAslzmcmOyjezdUpC6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxTfPCZPAxRUhKu2C9hcJ8WEnW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-The 2011 Liveabililty Ranking and Overview has rated Lagos city as the fourth worst city to live in. Last year, the city ranked fifth after an assessment of living conditions in 140 cities around the world using 30 indicators across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

This was revealed in the latest summary of the EIU Liveability survey for the year 2010 where the state depreciated further from the fifth worst city it was ranked in 2009. With sub-indicators for each of factors such as the availability and quality of both private and public health care coupled with general health indicators, while prevalence of petty/violent crimes with threat of civil unrest/militancy are evaluated for the stability indicator.

The incessant rush-hour traffic congestion on major roads of the metropolis; insufficient low-cost housing, and its attendant impact on the housing needs of the rapidly growing population are glaring examples of the strained infrastructure needs of the city under the infrastructure indicators.

Lagos was ranked 137 in the list of 140 countries surveyed. The city with a population of 18million people had an overall rating of 39.0. The state also earned the score of 25 in stability, 33.3 in both education and health care and an above average score of 52.3 for culture and environment. The recent huge investments by the state government in infrastructure earned the state a score of 48.2.

However the deputy state governor, Sarah Sosan, who oversees the Ministry of Education disagreed with last year’s ranking stating that, “I don’t think the standard of education is low.” She said this during a press briefing held to mark the third anniversary of the current administration. “We need to improve on factors and we’ve been doing that through the rehabilitation of science laboratories, provision of libraries, putting of furniture in place, and so on. We are also aggressively putting structures in place to reduce congestion in our schools.”

On the first position of the worst city to live in the world is the Zimbabwean capital; Harare which was closely followed by Dhaka-the Bangladeshi capital which is currently hosting the cricket world cup and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Other cities on the bottom of the table are Algiers, Karachi, Tehran, Dakar and Colombo. The bottom list was populated mainly by African and Asian cities.

Vancouver again

Vancouver in Canada remained at the top of the ranking, as it did last year and according to the EIU; the position was maintained by the “successful hosting of the 2010 winter Olympics and Paralympics, which provided a boost to the infrastructure and culture and environment categories.”

The Australian city of Melbourne rises to become the second highest ranked city with Vienna; the Austrian capital coming third.

Two other Canadian cities; Toronto and Calgary completed the top five cities most suitable to live in the world according to the EIU liveability survey.

NEXT called up the senior special assistant to the Lagos state government on media; Hakeem Bello but he declined comment saying he will have to get across to the Ministry of Economic Planning which will be privy to such statements before the state government can adequately react to it.

Respondents who reacted to the previous ranking of Lagos were unanimous that the city has enjoyed a fairly stable atmosphere despite its peculiar characteristic as a meeting point for diverse ethnic groups. Yoruba residents in the state are particularly known for their goodwill and cheer, which gives rise to the numerous parties that dot the metropolis during weekends, and even, on some cases, work days. “Lagos is like a house of everything; a mix of everything,” said Justyna Kita, a Polish citizen from Krakow who was an intern at the Murtala Muhammed Foundation

“There is the traffic, the generators, and so much noise. But the people are very friendly and open. They shake my hands in the streets, and are always singing and dancing. I have made so many friends here, and I don’t miss my home for now.” A sociologist, Uwadiegwu Otisi, attributed the city’s stability as a factor responsible for its massive population growth. “Despite the aggression displayed by most Lagos residents, the city has won accolades as a peaceful city,” he said. “And I think it has been a major form of attraction to so many people who decided to relocate to Lagos. A lot of southerners have relocated to Lagos due to the incessant religious skirmishes in the north.”..

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Africa warned of 'slum' cities danger as its population passes 1bn

Posted by 9jabook.com on November 24, 2010 at 12:30am
Africa has joined India and China as the third region of the world to reach a population of 1 billion people, and it is expected to double its numbers by 2050, the UN says. By then, there will be three times as many people living in Africa's cities, and the continent that had fewer than 500,000 urban dwellers in 1950 may have 1.3 billion.Crowded-Oshodi-Market-in--007.jpg
photo:Lagos, with a population set to reach 12.4 million, should, by 2015, overtake Cairo as Africa's largest city. Photograph: James Marshall/Corbis
The breakneck transformation of a rural population into a predominantly urban one is neither good nor bad on its own, says UN-Habitat, the Nairobi-based agency that monitors the world's built environment. But in a report it implored African countries to plan their cities better, to avoid mega-slums and vast areas of deprivation developing across the continent. "The pattern is ... oceans of poverty containing islands of wealth. Conditions in African cities are now the most unequal in the world. They are already inundated with slums and a tripling of urban populations could spell disaster, unless urgent action is initiated today. This situation threatens stability and also entire nations," it said.

Cairo is now Africa's largest urban area, with 11 million people, but the UN said that by 2015 it will have been overtaken by Lagos, with around 12.4 million inhabitants. By 2020 Kinshasa is expected to be the continent's second largest city and Luanda the fourth largest, projected to grow to more than 8 million by 2040.

The speed of growth of some cities "defies belief", said the report. Africa is expected to grow by more than 500 million people in the next 17 years, and a further 500 million by 2050. By then more than 60% of its population will live in cities. The population of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, is expected to soar by more than 80%, from 1.9 million in 2010 to 3.4 million in 2020. The populations of nearly all sub-Saharan cities with more than a million people are expected to expand by an average of 32% in the next 10 years....

"Kinshasa is the fastest-growing city in absolute terms, with 4 million extra people expected, a 46% increase for its 2010 population of 8.7 million. Lagos is the second fastest, with a projected 3.5 million extra people, a 33.8% increase. Abuja, Bamako, Luanda, Lubumbashi and Nairobi are all expected to grow by between 47% and 50% in the next decade, while Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Mbuji-Mayi and Niamey are projected to grow between 50% and 57% ."

The report said providing food and water for the billion extra people on the continent by 2050 will be a huge problem, especially because Africa expects to be hit hard by climate change.

The UN urged governments to strike harder bargains with foreign countries eager to buy up land and water. "Governments should heed the warning bells of 2008 and seriously consider the potential effects of future urban food and water shortages. Significant amounts of African land and water resources are being purchased by foreign governments and foreign food processing corporations. Some even bring farm workers into Africa. Governments must bargain harder for better deals, which contribute to Africa's food and water security."

The authors suggested governments move much of their administrative business out of the capital cities. "They should consider relocating to their secondary cities all government departments and agencies that have no overriding reason to be located in the capital. Relocation would spread economic activity, relieve congestion and the pressures on urban land."

The report found many countries struggling to reverse the tide of slums. Egypt, Libya, Morocco have nearly halved their total number of urban slum dwellers, and Tunisia has eradicated them completely. Ghana, Senegal and Uganda have managed to reduce urban slum populations by more than 20%. More than 75% of Nigeria's population lived in slums in 1990, but that is now 61.9%. In South Africa, slum numbers dropped from 46.2% to 28.7% of the population between 1990 and 2010.

However, numbers of people living in slum conditions have grown in many cases because of the population increases. "As the fastest urbanising continent in the world, Africa is not only confronted with the challenge of improving the lives of slum dwellers but also the challenge of preventing the formation of new slums," said Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat. "This will take considerable political will and financial resources. Most of all, it will require a commitment to strategic urban planning so that the needs of the poor will be met."
African population
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Fuel scarcity bites harder - Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Ibadan, other cities worse hit

Posted by 9jabook.com on November 2, 2009 at 11:16pm
MOST of the major highways in Lagos metropolis and other cities on Sunday, recorded an unusually low vehicular traffic, as fuel scarcity bit harder across the country. advertisement In Lagos, most fillings stations closed their gates to customers with the few selling recording long queues of motorists. As usual, illegal petrol hawkers have resurfaced at some strategic locations, some close to the filling stations, where miscreants extort as much as N100 from each motorist before allowing them access to buy fuel. While the illegal hawkers sold the commodity for N1000 for 10 litres, neighbourhood retailers sold a litre for N104. There was pandemonium at the Total retail outlet at Ogba, about 2 p.m. when some motorists tried to resist some boys at the College Bus-stop gate end, who insisted on the being tipped before allowing the customers into the filling station. They eventually had their way as the customers paid the N100. However, most motorists expressed frustration over what they described as an artificial scarcity, alleging that many of the outlets had fuel but refused to open to customers for two days running. There was palpable fear that the scarcity could worsen today, when most workers are expected to resume for duty after the weekend. Nigerian Tribune observed that only one out of the 10 filling stations on the Isolo-Ikotun Road offered skeletal service to customers, who spent more than two hours on the queue. Virtually all the filling stations on Oshodi-Apapa expressway as well as from Anthony to Maryland and Bank-Anthony Way did not open to customers. But it was a rowdy situation at the two stations on Agege Motor Road in Mushin that sold fuel to customers. The current fuel scarcity was triggered by speculations that the Federal Government would make good its plan to deregulate the oil sector from November 1 (Sunday). But the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) have tried to ally public fears on the matter, with the latter warning against the ongoing panic buying of fuel. The spokesman for the Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Paul Osu, told the Nigerian Tribune on Saturady that there was no disruption in supply, as there was fuel in most filling stations. He said, “ I think people are just scared of possible fuel scarcity because of the Federal Government’s former intention to start deregulation tomorrow. People are just involved in panic buying, we are not really foreseeing any scarcity, I think people just want to be prepared in case of possible scarcity. Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune also revealed that some filling stations around Ikorodu took advantage of the situation to sell petrol at N80 and above per litre, while some hoarded the product in anticipation of scarcity tomorrow. People also bought the product in various containers in order to store it in their homes to beat the scarcity. The NNPC said in October that it had enough fuel that could last for six months should marketers refuse to import. The spokesman for NNPC was not available for comments when one of our correspondents called him on the phone on Saturday. As tension continues to mount over the planned deregulation of the downstream of the oil industry by the Federal Government which has led the long queue at filling stations in some part of the country, the Speaker of House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, on Sunday described the government’s position as a challenge Nigerians would have to face. Bankole in a brief interview with airport journalists on arrival from Johannesburg, South Africa, said the challenge posed by the planned deregulation was a bitter pill Nigerians would have to swallow. His words: “Well, whether we like it or not, there are some challenges in the oil industry we must face. If we do not face it today, we will have to face it in the future. And the challenge is raising revenue for government, which by extension is for the country, to enable government to develop its many projects accordingly.” The speaker, who condemned the current panic buying by some people, said it would not bring solution to the problem. He said the National Assembly would continue to work hard to ensure that those that would be adversely affected by the deregulation were looked out for and looked after. The Speaker declared: “We have to sit with labour, sit with the executive arm of government, the minister of petroleum, and civil servants as well as other stakeholders to work out a plan to make sure that things at least go on well.” Asked on how he felt in the two years of his leading the nation’s lower house, the Speaker only said; “we thank God for everything,” as he went straight to board the presidential aircraft which took him to Abuja. Meanwhile, the price of the product has gone up from N65 per litre to between N100 and N150 litre in some filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. According to the Nigerian Tribune’s investigation, black marketers have taken over the distribution and supply of fuel in some places visited by our corespondent. While major marketers are still selling their product at N65 per litre in Abuja metropolis, the Nigerian Tribune investigation showed that some independent marketers sell their product at between N100 and N150 per litre. In all the fuel stations visited by our correspondent, it was apparent that fuel was being hoarded. Instead of them selling fuel from all the selling points, it was observed that fuel was being dispensed in one or two selling points leading to long queues in all the fuel stations. A motorist, who simply identified himself as Mr. John, said he had been at the Conoil filling station located on the Airport road since his return from church but could not get fuel as of 5.30 p.m. when he spoke with the Nigerian Tribune. At Kuje, headquarters of Kuje Local Government Area, black marketers and roadside fuel hawkers were having a field day as only one out of the five fuel stations located in the area had fuel to sell to the people. The manager of the station, Mr. Musa Haruna, told the Nigerian Tribune that the Federal Government had stopped those who used to supply them fuel from fuel importation in anticipation of the proposed deregulation of the downstream oil sector of the economy. Because of the limited supply from the NNPC, Haruna said there was no way there would not be fuel scarcity as demand for fuel was now higher than supply. Though the NNPC is yet to make statement on the latest of scarcity, the Nigerian Tribune source, however, accused the fuel marketers of hoarding, adding that the corporation had enough supply to distribute till the end of the year. Also, hike in the prizes of petroleum products is still biting hard in Enugu the Enugu State capital, investigation by the Nigerian Tribune has revealed. While a litre of fuel sells for as much as N90, kerosene is sold at N150 per litre depending on the consumer’s place of residence. It was learnt that while major marketers are selling a litre of fuel for N65, independent marketers were selling for N80 per litre, making motorists to queue up before can purchasing the product at fuel filling stations owned by independent marketers. Away far from the state capital, the prizes are higher with a litre of fuel selling for between N90 and N100.
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