There is a frenzy of urban renewal breezing through one of Nigeria’s most notable urban slums, Ajegunle, in Lagos.
It’s gradual, almost silent, yet so conspicuous it cannot be glossed over.
One block at a time, Ajegunle, in the heart of Lagos, is gradually undergoing gentrification, as the tell-tale footprints dot the area in a scattered, unorganised fashion.
Gentrification occurs mostly in residential areas and involves rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings into condominia. It is currently taking place in many countries in both developed and developing ones in different forms and directions.
In Nigeria, it has been observed to be largely occurring in Lagos State.
In Ajegunle, old buildings – where the cries of babies hitherto sprung out as a result of poor ventilation plan and human congestion; where using the restroom was consent to witness others’ mess, and where cooking was a contest of conflicting aromas – have now transformed into skylines to behold.
With a brilliant touch of Plaster of Paris designs, they wear colourful paints that set them apart in a crowd of dilapidated buildings under brown rusted roofs.
While many have been remoulded to serve multifunctional purposes of hotel, event hosting and bar spots, some others have been simply rebuilt as storeys of multiple flats, completely unlike what used to be.
The development in Ajegunle, which appears typical of low-cost areas in recent times, is characterised by pulling down existing structures for the new to claim a stand.
Less than two years ago, Number 251 Ojo Road was a local motel where sex workers plied their trade.
Before the inheriting owners leased it for motel business, the 10-room ‘face-me-I-face-you’ bungalow was home to far more tenants/inhabitants than a decent space should accommodate.
Today, a twin set of two-storeys flats, styled in modern theme, and a spacious veranda that allows healthy vehicle parking, as well as a playground now sit in that space.
About five buildings away, towards Itire Bus Stop, City Point Hotel, a four-storey building, now occupies the same space where a humble storey-structure stood before 2015.
Few steps further from City Point, ‘Entertainment’, a terrific hotel fast becoming the darling of Ajegunle inhabitants, sits majestically on three plots of land, the centre brimming with fun-thirsty youths.
It is the brainchild of a dogged businessman simply known by many as Ndokwa, reputed for his interest in real estate investment.
A trend BusinessDay discovers to be common with most of these redevelopments is that private capital from investors like Ndokwa is not only heading in the direction of Victoria Island or Ibeju-Lekki on Lekki-Epe Expressway, it is also settling in some slum communities such as Ajegunle, Mushin, Agege, Orile and even suburbs of Ikeja, the state capital.
In diversifying their investment portfolios, people with good level of liquidity continue to hold faith in real estate as a safe haven, directly contributing to the expansion of urban renewal.
What urban renewal does, as a transformative process, is to give way to demolition, rebuilding, renovation or installation of infrastructures that redefine neighbourhoods.
It also comes with relocation of businesses, people and, perhaps, in cases where necessary, state capture of private property for city-initiated development projects.
The impression of some city management experts is that such renewal was long overdue, particularly in a city like Lagos where urbanisation has peaked and demand for non-existent land remains at very high levels.
“It is natural that there will be a gradual increase in urban renewal either through the government pushing it or through a private public sector initiative or strictly through the private sector,” Olurogba Orimalade, chairman, Lagos chapter of Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), said.
“There are very few virgin landed properties available for development, which is almost unique to Lagos,” he said.
In a state fraught with the challenge of housing provision for over 23 million residents, Dotun Bamigbola, chief executive officer, Bamigbola Consulting, said the private-capital-led urban regeneration is a good initiative capable of addressing part of the state’s 2.5 million shortfall in housing.
However, government needs to understand the infrastructure demands for these new developments.
“This is to ensure the appropriate infrastructure is put in place such as roads, water supply, electricity and others. It is all about vision and the plan for that area,” Bamigbola said.
Departing glorified slums
As much as experts welcome the redevelopment sprouting around state slums, they are also concerned about the unorganised pattern in which it is taking place, rather than an organised template that fits strategically into the state’s master plan.
Gbenga Onabanjo, a partner at GYB Consults Ltd, who described Lagos as one of the most expensive urban slums in the world, decried the lack of harmony in these developments.
Citing the case of Apongbon, one of the first urban renewal projects carried out in Surulere, Lagos, Onabanjo said to give way to structured redevelopment, government could move people from low-income neighbourhood with organised layout.
In the absence of that, however, he says sight and servicing was a way to go.
“If government cannot develop housing schemes, it may as well have layouts in terms of drainages, streetlights, roads and allow people to develop property around there. That is called sight and servicing. There has to be a template,” Onabanjo said.
“You don’t leave these things to the private sector. You will see lovely buildings rising but what makes a place good is actually infrastructure,” he said.
According to the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) in a recommendation to the Lagos State government on building control, it is imperative that the state revisits and reviews the entire Lagos Master Plan, with a view to commencing an urban renewal programme for its inner cities that are presently suffering degradation, dilapidation and ruin.
The Guild laid specific emphasis on Lagos Island, Mushin, Ajegunle, Somolu, Bariga, Iwaya, Makoko, Ebute-Meta, Surulere, Ipaja, Iyana-Ipaja, Abule Egba and Ketu, among others.
Renewal baggage
Studies, however, show that urban renewal hardly occurs without the company of some baggage. Since it involves the demolition of slum housing and construction of appropriate ones tending to be costlier, what follows is the displacement of low-income residents, a 2014 research on urban renewal in Lagos by Chima Njoku and Okoru G. says.
The cost of improvements alone translates into higher rental rate which original residents could be unable to afford.
Similarly, UN Habitat opines that the unplanned rapid expansion of towns and cities implies that an increasing number of vulnerable people are living in poor conditions, without adequate living space or access to basic services.
Often, opportunities for decent work elude them; and they become vulnerable to forced evictions and homelessness.
“The urbanisation of Africa will be one of the most significant economic and social transformations in the next decades, changing the way of life of millions of people,” Joan Clos, UN-Habitat’s executive director, said in a monitored report.
Consequently, government cannot be quiet while such redevelopments take place.
In addressing the challenges with urbanisation and structural transformation, the African Union Commission (AUC), for instance, proffers that countries adopt a model that would enable urbanisation to facilitate the reality of structural transformation, including the creation of employment opportunities, addressing socio-inequality, pervasive poverty and creating habitable settlements.
Without this, there is the likelihood of urban renewal only leading to resurgence of new slums in the country.
Temitayo Ayetoto
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