Making Over Lagos - Intelligent Cities

[Kilgore_Trout_Redux]

I seem to recall a post by a black South African on MyBroadband (I think it was Viva?) who was lamenting the fact that Africa could never be like one of the Nordic countries in terms of prosperity. EDIT : Found it.

Tonight I came across the following article about Lagos in the Time magazine which I hope can be read as an optimistic view of what can happen when intelligent leaders put aside mad grabs for wealth and focus on fixing something huge that is massively broken.


Making Over Lagos - Intelligent Cities

It is essentially a Time article about what a handful of leaders are doing to turn the complete literal and figurative cesspit of Lagos into a functioning city again.

The article is at times horribly over-optimistic but it can't be denied that in an incredibly short space of time the city has undergone a radical and positive transformation. Here are some quotes :

Fashola is not your usual politician. Rather than barging his way across town with sirens blaring and lights flashing like other Nigerian leaders, he chooses to endure Lagos' traffic with his fellow citizens. Also, Fashola reads economic theory for fun. On his bedside table: books by development economists who see potential in poverty, people like the late C.K. Prahalad of the University of Michigan or Hernando de Soto of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima. They argue that the poor may lack money as individuals but together, in their tens of millions, they represent a massive untapped resource.

New state skills centers trained an additional 250,000 people in new trades, then offered them microloans to set up their own businesses.

The city was too big to transform overnight, but improvements were soon marked. Traffic slackened, garbage dumps were replaced with green parks, the proportion of Lagosians with access to clean water rose (from 30% to 59%)...

"This is what Europe was doing from the 15th to the 19th centuries," he says. "Even at the end of that period, you had these Dickensian cities." But, he says, "once they got that rule of law in place, they became productive."

For Fashola, the law is key. The changes he is overseeing improve infrastructure, create jobs, make money, even build him a soaring political career. But ultimately, the aim is to end the anarchy, he says. A city that does not function "creates desperate conditions for people and reduces their ability to resist temptation." Lapses can be minor, like driving on sidewalks or into oncoming traffic, or major, like violent crime. Fashola sees both as symptoms of Lagos' dysfunction, and he is tackling them by, in one approach, setting up a series of driver-improvement schools as well as, in another tack, employing area boys as cleaners and gardeners to beautify their neighborhoods. It's working. Orderly lanes are becoming the norm on the roads. And crime is down. From 2007 to 2008, armed robberies in Lagos fell 89%. From 2008 to 2009, car theft fell 54%. And murder more than halved, from 221 cases in 2007 to 94 in 2010.

"At the beginning, there was uncertainty about whether or not any of this was even possible. [But what we did] was suggest in very practical terms — in ways that are touchable and can be seen — that things can be changed, no matter how bad they are. We restored hope. We restored belief." Lagos, city of hope. How's that for vision?

So, yeah. I don't want to turn this into an ANC bashing thread but what this country really lacks are leaders of vision and intelligence.

 

[stricken]

agreed. once you grow tired of shiny cars and mahogany desks, you realize that legacy is all that matters.

 

[murraybiscuit]

nice article.
interesting point about rule of law.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Yeah my initial perception of Lagos was a more chaotic version of downtown Jhb:

But I've also come across some really good pictures of the city:

It shows what can be accomplished if the motivation is there. Thanks for the article.

 

[intel8080]

I don't know about you chaps but my dad had to go to Lagos last year (work related) and when he got back he said "Lagos was the biggest chaotic damp he has ever been to", and he has been to quite a few places, all over the world. Mind you - Lagos was probably even worse to begin with.I am happy to see they are improving though. Let's hope this will spread to other cities too.