Africa's Mega-City: Future MEGAPROJECTS

LAGOS, NIGERIA — population 22 million — is Africa's largest city. This mini-documentary examines the multiple mega-projects under construction, the leadership of state Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, and — briefly — the history of Nigeria.
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Video by Bryce Plank and Robin West

Music:
"The Search" by Matt Stewart-Evans:
https://soundcloud.com/mattstewartevans
https://www.facebook.com/Matthew.Stewart.Evans
"Decisions" and "Heavy Interlude" by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/
"The Stranger" by Glimpse (TDC Remix)
https://soundcloud.com/glimpse_official

Script:
This is Lagos, Nigeria the largest city in Africa.

Home to more than 22 million people, it’s facing a perfect storm of challenges.

So let’s look at how this megacity is trying to modernize.

The biggest challenge Nigeria faces is a population pyramid that’s overwhelmingly bottom heavy. 61% are younger than 25—that’s a lot of jobs to create and houses to build in the coming years.

This problem is made worse by the extremely poor condition of the city’s infrastructure. Badly designed and maintained motorways cause people to endure agonizing commute times, and interrupted access to electricity causes regular blackouts.

Add in the threat of a rising ocean that’s steadily eroding the coastline, and the future of this place looks bleak.

But perspective is relative, so let’s gain some.

165 years ago Lagos was an island fortress and one of the principal roots of the slave trade, until the British navy bombarded it into submission and abolished the practice. But slavery wasn’t outlawed in Northern Nigeria until 1936. That means any Nigerian older than 85 can probably still remember slavery, or was a slave themselves.

In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from the British. But, the country quickly became engulfed in a civil war that killed as many as 3 million people. In the dark aftermath of this bloody conflict the country had one thing going for it: oil, which provided a consistent source of income. But the temptation of controlling all that black gold attracted deeply corrupt men, and Nigeria endured decades of violent struggles between power-mad dictators and military officers.

With just two legitimate presidential elections under its belt, in 2011 and 2015, Nigeria has only had six years of truly peaceful, independent — not completely corrupt — democratic rule in its entire history.

All this upheaval was amplified by strong ethnic and religious divisions throughout the country. So for the federal government to appear legitimate, the capital had to move away from Lagos to a more centralized, neutral part of the country. Following in the footsteps of Brazil’s master-planned capital, Brasilia, the Nigerians built an entire city from scratch during the 1980’s. The relocation of thousands of government workers drove migration to this new capital, Abuja, the fastest growing city in the world from 2000 to 2010.

Unfortunately, while Abuja thrived, Lagos languished. With the city far away now it became even easier for deeply corrupt federal officials to neglect the megacity’s needs.

But the its downward spiral is quickly changing direction thanks — largely — to one man, the current governor of the state of Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode.

Ambode earned his Master’s in accounting from the University of Lagos and studied abroad in England, Switzerland, Singapore, and at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Boston.

[Osoba]: “Everything about this man is outstanding, everything about him… He is someone who does not leave a place without changing it for the better.”

Now 53 — with a long career serving the people of Lagos under his belt — Ambode hit the ground running upon his election in 2015. He immediately began holding regular town hall meetings. This helped him tailor his plans to best affect positive change for citizens that they could see and feel.

He installed a team of competent deputies who’ve helped him implement his mega-master plan of targeted micro projects to drastically improve conditions throughout the city. Lagosians are already feeling the benefits of his less than two years in office.

[Citizen of Lagos]: “Today we are happy because the government have done a perfect job here. Now we can have a good access roads to get to our homes. And you can see business around this area, they are doing very well.”

By making road fixes his first major task, Ambode wisely accomplished several important things that any new leader should immediately set out to do.

The other half of this modernization equation rests largely on the success of two key mega-projects under construction in Lagos and Abuja: Eko Atlantic, a financial hub that’s being built on reclaimed land along the coast; and Centenary City.

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