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Nigeria Urbanization Since Independence
Spurred by the oil boom prosperity of the 1970s and the
massive improvements in roads and the availability of
vehicles,
Nigeria since independence has become an increasingly
urbanized
and urban-oriented society. During the 1970s Nigeria had
possibly
the fastest urbanization growth rate in the world. Because
of the
great influx of people into urban areas, the growth rate
of urban
population in Nigeria in 1986 was estimated to be close to
6
percent per year, more than twice that of the rural
population.
Between 1970 and 1980, the proportion of Nigerians living
in
urban areas was estimated to have grown from 16 to more
than 20
percent, and by 2010, urban population was expected to be
more
than 40 percent of the nation's total. Although Nigeria
did not
have the highest proportion of urban population in
sub-Saharan
Africa (in several of the countries of francophone Central
Africa, for example, close to 50 percent of the population
was in
the major city or cities), it had more large cities and
the
highest total urban population of any sub-Saharan African
country.
In 1990 there were twenty-one state capitals in
Nigeria, each
estimated to have more than 100,000 inhabitants; fifteen
of
these, plus a number of other cities, probably had
populations
exceeding 200,000. Virtually all of these were growing at
a rate
that doubled their size every fifteen years. These
statistics did
not include the new national capital, Abuja, which was
planned to
have more than 1 million inhabitants by early in the
twenty-first
century, although that milestone might be delayed as
construction
there stretched out. In 1990 the government was still in
the
process of moving from Lagos, the historical capital, to
Abuja in
the middle belt, and most sections of the government were
still
operating from Lagos. Since 1976 there had been dual
capitals in
both Lagos and Abuja. If one added the hundreds of smaller
towns
with more than 20,000 inhabitants, which resembled the
larger
centers more than the many smaller villages throughout the
country, the extent of Nigerian urbanization was probably
more
widespread than anywhere else in sub-Saharan Africa.
Many of the major cities had growing manufacturing
sectors,
including, for example, textile mills, steel plants, car
assembly
plants, large construction companies, trading
corporations, and
financial institutions. They also included
government-service
centers, large office and apartment complexes, along with
a great
variety of small business enterprises, many in the
"informal
sector," and vast slum areas. All postsecondary education
installations were in urban centers, and the vast majority
of
salaried jobs remained urban rather than rural.
Although cities varied, there was a typical Third World
urban
approach that distinguished life in the city from that in
the
countryside. It emerged from the density and variety of
housing--enormous poverty and overcrowding for most, and
exorbitantly wealthy suburbs and guarded enclaves for the
upper
classes. It also emerged from the rhythm of life set by
masses of
people going to work each day; the teeming central market
areas;
the large trading and department stores; the traffic,
especially
at rush hours; the filth that resulted from inadequate
housing
and public services; the destitution indicated by myriads
of
beggars and unemployed; the fear of rising crime; and the
excitement of night life that was nonexistent in most
rural
areas. All these factors, plus the increased opportunity
to
connect with the rich and powerful through chains of
patron-client relations, made the city attractive, lively,
and
dangerous. Urban people might farm, indeed many were
trying to do
so as food prices soared in the 1980s, but urban life
differed
vastly from the slow and seasonally defined rhythm of life
in
rural areas. Generally, even with all its drawbacks, it
was seen
as more desirable, especially by young people with more
than a
primary education.
The most notorious example of urban growth in Nigeria
has
undoubtedly been Lagos, its most important commercial
center. The
city has shot up in size since the 1960s; its annual
growth rate
was estimated at almost 14 percent during the 1970s, when
the
massive extent of new construction was exceeded only by
the
influx of migrants attracted by the booming prosperity.
Acknowledged to be the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa
(although an accurate count of its population must await
census
results), Lagos has become legendary for its congestion
and other
urban problems. Essentially built on poorly drained
marshlands,
the city commonly had flooding during the rainy season,
and there
was frequent sewage backup, especially in the poorer
lowland
sections. As in other Nigerian cities, there was a
constant
problem of garbage and waste disposal. Housing
construction had
boomed but rarely seemed to keep pace with demand. The
city's
main fame, however, came from the scale of its traffic
jams.
Spanning several islands as well as a large and expanding
mainland area, the city never seemed to have enough
bridges or
arteries. The profusion of vehicles that came with the
prosperity
of the 1970s seemed often to be arranged in a massive
standstill,
which became the site for urban peddling of an amazing
variety of
goods, as well as for entertainment, exasperation,
innovation,
and occasionally crime. By 1990 Lagos had made some
progress in
managing its traffic problems both through road and bridge
construction and traffic control regulations. This
progress was
aided by the economic downturn of the late 1980s, which
slowed
urban migration and even led some to people return to
rural
areas.
Aside from Lagos, the most rapid recent rates of
urbanization
in the 1980s were around Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta
region,
which was at the heart of the oil boom, and generally
throughout
the Igbo and other areas of the southeast. These regions
historically had few urban centers, but numerous large
cities,
including Onitsha, Owerri, Enugu, Aba, and Calabar, grew
very
rapidly as commercial and administrative centers. The
Yoruba
southwest was by 1990 still the most highly urbanized part
of the
country, while the middle belt was the least urbanized.
The
problems of Lagos, as well as the desire for a more
centrally
located capital that would be more of a force for national
unity,
led to the designation in 1976 of a site for a new
national
capital at Abuja.
Data as of June 1991
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