Abeg, no vex but Guardian liveblog don finish!
... and that’s it from the Guardian Cities and Africa Network teams as well. It’s been an amazing start to Lagos Week. In eight short hours we’ve learned:
- That nobody knows how many people live in Lagos
- Not to mess with Annie Idibia
- To beat the traffic by leaving the house at 5am and sleeping in your car before work
- That the good people who’ve been evicted at Badia East may in fact get a chance to return to their homes, thanks to some strong community activism and the hard work of Chief Ilawole
- How to curse the energy companies in perfect Yoruba
Plenty more to come tomorrow, including our very special immersive interactive on Makoko, the waterworld of Lagos and the planet’s largest floating slum. Stay tuned, and thanks for joining us so far.
Updated
I’m ending my hectic day at Jazzhole, on Ikoyi, a quiet part of Lagos Island. This beautiful record shop opened in 1991, and moved here in 1995. It has since branched out into selling books and has a cafe in the far end – it’s a quiet, much loved spot in Lagos, and holds book readings, talks and small concerts.
Sitting in @JazzholeLagos feeling like a helium balloon. It's, almost empty, and basically perfect #GuardianLagos pic.twitter.com/0t3OKqjac5
— Emmanuel Akinwotu (@ea_akin) February 22, 2016
I asked Olakunle Tejuoso, who co-owns Jazzhole with his wife, Olatundun, what makes people come here.
This is a place where you come and take a breath from everything outside. Lagos is so fast and rowdy at times, but you can come here and hear yourself think.
On that lovely note, let me thank you for following me through the city today and sharing all your questions and comments.
Tour de Lagos
Few Lagosians commute to work by bike. There was some talk from the city authorities back in 2013 about cycle lanes, but they never got built.
Ladipo Soetan, the road captain of cycle club Cycology, believes more people would travel to work by bike if companies provided facilities for cycle commuters to shower and change. “We have a few people in the club who ride to work but there are really not that many,” he says. “I suspect if companies provided showers, more people would take it up.”
But the city has a thriving weekend cycle scene. Members of clubs like Cycology and Cyclotron meet up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to make the most of quieter streets and the cooler start to the day.
Ladipo adds: “We have the occasional incident but we generally feel safe. Although some motorists get impatient, the public are getting used to seeing us on the roads.”
Do you cycle in Lagos? If so, share your experiences with us on Twitter or Instagram using #GuardianLagos
Updated
‘It’s like money lying in the streets’: out and about with the WeCyclers
Hello again – I’m standing in the centre of a large recycling plant in Lagos, surrounded by massive amounts of waste being organised and crushed. From this vantage point, the potential to produce money and energy from waste in Lagos seems huge.
In a 🚚 with @realwecyclers , a social enterprise that collects recyclable🗑in return for points #GuardianLagos pic.twitter.com/CIYf8TzxrZ
— Emmanuel Akinwotu (@ea_akin) February 22, 2016
As my tweet suggests, I am indeed with the WeCyclers, a social enterprise that does indeed collect recyclable waste in Lagos. Residents donate the waste; in return, they get points, which can be exchanged for cash or household items such as kettles.
“We have three plants like this now,” Bilikis Adebiyi-Abiola tells me. “And we’re still growing. I targeted it to lower-income areas because there is a lot more waste there and people can benefit more. One lady saved her points for a whole year and redeemed N60,000 (about £200). It helps a huge deal – people can save who otherwise don’t have the means or ability.”
Live panel: How does the western media get Nigeria wrong?
The western media has long been criticised for oversimplifying modern Africa – a continent of more than 1 billion people. With a narrative dominated by poverty and famine, corruption and conflict, the complexity is often lost.
But resources are stretched and our correspondents are few, so what are the options for an international news organisation such as the Guardian?
We’ve curated a panel at Social Media Week – where a sizable chunk of Lagos’ Twitterati have gathered today, alongside events in Jakarta, New York and Hamburg – to discuss just that.
The panel
For Wana Udobang, who is chairing the panel, it comes down to polarised reporting: on the one hand you have poverty porn, on the other a sort of rich-shaming. There is no middle ground.
And she notices a sort of “emotional reticence” apparent in people who report from afar. “They are not here so they don’t understand the cultural nuances,” she says. There is also this sense of “otherness”: people are not regarded as human beings but as quotes to move on the story.
Kicking off from Monday 22nd you can share your Lagos stories with @guardiancities use the hashtag #GuardianLagos
— Wana Udobang (@MissWanaWana) February 21, 2016
“Western media often report along the extremes – good or bad,” says Yomi Kazeem, another panelist and reporter for Quartz Africa. “In doing so they miss out on the grey area in the middle, which is crucial for context and perspective.”
And Isime Esene, panelist and editor of Y Naija, says:
I think the western media gets Nigeria wrong because they don’t have enough correspondents on ground who are willing to dig deep... making it easy to their audience to label it a stereotype. Most do stories that mainly appeal to foreign audiences, who I’m not sure are willing to change their notion of the Africa they grew up watching on TV: the one filled with war, famine, hunger, and despotic leaders.
But how do we solve the problem? And can social media help? Here’s the best of the debate as tweeted by the audience:
"We can't blame the western media for amplifying existing problems. There are political realities we can't ignore."#SMWGuardianAfrica
— Yemisi Adegoke (@briticoyemo) February 22, 2016
It's important for us to banish the impression that everything that's best is western @YeleSowore #smwguardianafrica pic.twitter.com/p4mbkbQqyP
— Stanbic IBTC (@StanbicIBTC) February 22, 2016
We need to write our own story, build our brand in Africa. The Western media will never do this for us. #SMWGuardianAfrica
— Martin Ekpeke (@ekpeke1) February 22, 2016
"The online currency is traffic; editors sometimes run certain stories cos they know what their readers want" - @iDOVA #SMWGuardianAfrica
— Chioma Agwuegbo (@ChiomaChuka) February 22, 2016
Audience + citizen journalism + social media helps keep journos accountable and ensure facts. #SMWGuardianAfrica
— Yemisi Adegoke (@briticoyemo) February 22, 2016
Updated
Want to beat the traffic? Drive in at 5am and sleep outside the office …
While it may be unclear how many people live in Lagos, everyone agrees that the transport infrastructure to get them where they need to go is inadequate.
Every morning, hundreds of thousands of Lagos residents must cross from the mainland, where most live, to the one of the islands, where most work - and they must do so across just three traffic-choked bridges.
Lagos is one of the biggest cities in the world not to have a metro system. Most people get around in yellow minibuses called Danfos, in private cars, or on the back of motorbike taxis called Okadas, (which the government continually clamps down on, but which are still a popular way of getting around). The Bus Rapid Transport system is limited, there are no cycle lanes, and ambitious plans for light-rail and a cable car crossing have been delayed for years.
The end result is that many Lagosians waste many hours every day sitting in the city’s “go-slows”. One estimate had the average city resident spending a cumulative five years of their lives in traffic.
Broadcaster Wana Udobang – better known by her on-air monicker Wana Wana, and who will report later this week for us on Lagos’s generation gap – says that when she hosted a radio show, during rush-hour phone-ins people would be in tears.
The traffic is so bad that if you leave the mainland for work at 6am you could be stuck in a ‘go slow’ for three hours or more trying to get across one of the bridges. So, many people leave for work at 5am – drive in quickly – and then sleep in their cars outside the office before work. They have the same problem in the evening. If you leave straight after work it could take three or four hours to get home, so people stay out for dinner on the island and leave for home at 9 or 10pm. If you have a family you will hardly see them.
What are your experiences of traffic in Lagos? Share your thoughts and photos on Twitter/Instagram using #GuardianLagos or tell us in the comments below.
Updated
What's in the Lagos papers?
Here’s a brief look at the top news stories in the city today.
Trader faints
A trader at the popular Daleko market in Mushin, Lagos, has fainted after seeing a group of people who were planning to have it demolished.
Alhaji Baba Chori was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital. He later told the News Agency of Nigeria he’d previously thought that talk of the demolition was a rumour.
The other traders have been talking about it, but I did not believe – until I saw the Iyaloja of Lagos, in company of other government officials. I have been in this market in the last 25 years. Where do they want me and other poor traders to make a living?”
Polo tournament wraps up
The city’s star-studed polo tournament, held in the centre of Ikoyi, wrapped up on Sunday with a match between Lagos Zippy and Lagos Aerovot. Hosted by the Lagos Polo Club, the “elite, stylish and extravagant” event has a social scene that’s just as important as the sport, reports AFP:
Improvising the horses carriage to enjoy vantage view of Polo match in #Ikoyi #Lagos #Nigeria #andrewesiebo pic.twitter.com/0F8IuLBEGi
— Everyday Africa (@EverydayAfrica) February 20, 2016
“Big-name politicians and businessmen hobnob with tribal kings and queens, while imported professional players from Argentina, Syria and South Africa up the stakes on the field.”
Sexual violence
Sahara Reporters, one of our partners in the Guardian African Network, writes this morning about a new campaign by the Lagos state government to respond to sexual and domestic violence by training officials and educating students on legal services available to them.
The trainings, which are already being rolled out, will also emphasise victim support, including housing and legal redress, as well as “the role the community can play in halting the violence, and the criminal implications of attempts to cover up domestic violence related offences”.
Social Media Week
Thousands are expected to descend on the Landmark centre for Lagos Social Media Week (including the Guardian’s Africa Network partners). It is the only event of its kind to be held on African soil.
The theme is the “networked African”, and the summit will focus on how mobile technology and internet connectivity are radically changing industries and communities across Africa.
NOW: Reading Culture, Book Publishing & Social Media panel! #SMWLagos pic.twitter.com/d81w7FJl3u
— Circumspecte (@Circumspecte_) February 22, 2016
The Guardian will convene a panel session at 3pm, discussing: How does the western media get Nigeria wrong? More on that later.
Home-made Ferrari?
One man’s homemade car is being touted on Twitter as a contender for picture of the day. “This man is said to have gone to church somewhere in Ikotun driving his custom-made Ferrari,” wrote Pboyud Oye on his blog.
How do you rate his efforts? Let us us know in the comments or on Twitter using #GuardianLagos
Updated
Back in Badia
Hi, I’ve just returned for a visit to Badia East, a settlement that was recently demolished in order to make way for some slick (and possibly illegal) new high-rises.
The forced eviction of more than 30,000 people here over the years – yes! – has been one of the largest in Lagos history. Many of the residents were moved to the area by the federal government decades ago, and have lived here since ... but the homes were demolished by the Oba of Ijora, a local king whose family claim to have owned the land in colonial times. Here’s what I wrote last year:
Returning to Badia East five months after the last evictions, a lot has changed.
Badia East, where over 10,000 were forcibly evicted in the last few yrs & their homes demolished #guardianlagos pic.twitter.com/5rEUKvjb7y
— Emmanuel Akinwotu (@ea_akin) February 22, 2016
The site remains demolished. Residents still live in makeshift shelters. But some of those shelters are better built now, and there are new businesses: salons, barbershops and a community hall. There is a greater sense of permanence than when I last visited.
Chief Ilawole, who I spoke to last year, showed me his home and told me about their ongoing case.
After many obstacles, the federal government confirmed to us a few weeks ago that the land doesn’t belong to Ojora or the Lagos state government but to them – and that we have legal right to be there. We’ll know very soon what will happen and whether we can move back, but now we are very hopeful.”
The acute housing shortage in Lagos means evictions are a depressing regularity – but in part thanks to the efforts of campaigners like the JEI human rights organisation, today at least some of the former residents of Badia East have a real prospect of reclaiming their homes.
Tell us: how is Lagos changing?
As Guardian Lagos Week continues, we want to hear from those of you who live or work in Lagos. What’s improving and what’s getting worse? Is population growth a real danger, as Booker nominee Chigozie Obioma suggests? And what does the future hold? Share your photos, stories and thoughts via our GuardianWitness assignment or on Twitter and Instagram using #GuardianLagos.
A couple of your contributions so far:
Where else in the world do you see a total stranger smile at you from his car in the snail-paced traffic snarl on 3rd Mainland Bridge and bellow, seeing the creases of worry as you sit in your own car running late to work, “Ol’ boy, no worry, e go better”? The sheer shared humanity of Lagos is incomparable. Beyond the chaos, there is a real human bond. Beyond the facade of class, every body eats’ boli’ and ground nuts in Lagos. It is a beautiful city. E go better. (Babatunde Esan)
The expansion of Lagos is much more than just a question of the Atlantic City project. Whilst the government engages in silly artificial projects such as that, individuals are developing new areas of Lagos rapidly ... The infrastructure to cope with this is certainly not there, but it’s intriguing how Lagos continues to organically develop. Lagos was originally small in size (even if big in population), it’s now getting much bigger. If only the government(s) would focus on job creation plans instead of silly gimmicks... (ShangoDan)
Lagos Street Vendors
Street vending constitutes a significant proportion of the informal economy of the State of Lagos. Vendors of all ages line the busy streets of Lagos selling litearlly everything to drivers: fruit, vegetables, nuts, soft drinks, chewing gum, brushes, CD's, soccer jerseys, windscreen wipers, shoes, etc, many of them carrying the merchandise on their heads.
Twitter feuds and party snubs: the weekend’s Lagos gossip
West Africa’s entertainment powerhouse would not be complete without celeb goss, political birthdays and social media feuds. Oreoluwa Peters, from Y Naija, the online newspaper for young Nigerians and one of the Guardian Africa Network partners, rounds up a lively weekend:
Wizkid v Linda Ikeji
We know these two aren’t cool with each other, especially after popular blogger Linda Ikeji shared a photo of Wizkid’s alleged second child.
So when Wizkid saw an opinion piece by Lagos lawyer Olajide Akinola deriding Ikeji, the young rapper jumped at the chance to share it on Twitter and Snapchat.
"Nice read" 🌪https://t.co/JMWYULZyqd
— Wizkid Ayo Balogun (@wizkidayo) February 21, 2016
Akinola had called Ikeji out for arguing with fans who’d said that two luxury bags she posted on Instagram were fake. The sentence Wizkid particularly enjoyed was: “A major symptom of poverty mentality is money and material fixation.”
Don Jazzy ‘didn’t snub’ D’banj
Senator Ben Murray Bruce celebrated his 60th birthday in style in Lagos on Friday – but the talking point of the party was when Mavin Records founder Don Jazzy left his former Mo’Hits label mate, D’banj, hanging on stage.
I already announced that i am taking a break from being an artist. Hence why i didn’t perform Surulere with Dr sid and concur with Timaya
— DON JAZZY (@DONJAZZY) February 19, 2016
Bruce had requested a duet ... Don Jazzy was nowhere to be seen. Don Jazzy later took to Twitter to explain why he was a no-show.
Nollywood wedding
On Saturday, Nollywood actor Monalisa Chinda got married to Victor Tonye in the Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt.
@Monalisacode Chinda holds traditional wedding(Photos) - https://t.co/9MfSJcK7E9 pic.twitter.com/irpmGD66hg
— Naij.com (@naijcom) February 21, 2016
The traditional ceremony was attended by a cast of Nollywood colleagues from Lagos, including the president of the actors guild of Nigeria, Ibinabo Fiberesima, Ebube Nwagbo and Oge Okoye. Sources hint that the couple are planning a more exclusive wedding ceremony in Greece later this year.
‘Home wrecker’
Annie Idibia, Nollywood actor and wife of 2face, went all out on Instagram yesterday, shaming an unnamed woman for harassing her family. Idibia posted a picture of her rival with a stern warning: “she needs to stop bugging my family [and] stay away”. The post was deleted soon after.
Updated
'We iron at the office': the ingenious ways Lagos copes with blackouts – video
For individuals it can mean cooking by torchlight, or sleeping in your car with the air-conditioning on. For companies it can mean an astounding 70% (yes) of operating expenditure wasted on diesel. And some communities in Lagos have no power at all. How did Africa’s largest oil-producing nation let its electricity nightmare get so bad?
We hit the streets with the hilarious video team at BattaBox to ask Lagosians their techniques for coping with the blackout blues.
If you live in Lagos, tell us how blackouts affect you and what you do to get electricity on Twitter using #GuardianLagos or in the comments below.
Updated
Morning! Emmanuel Akinwotu here in Lagos. How now? How body? Erytin dey function well this morning shey?
I’m out and about on the streets of the city today, visiting some of my favourite places, reporting, tweeting and answering your questions.
First, a quick word about every Lagosian’s favourite subject: the traffic, which ranges from challenging to insane. The unfortunate thing is how much it’s a constraint drain on time and social activity. That said, transport and all its live-wire craziness is a fact of life here in Lagos. That, plus the amazing food, places and entrepreneurial culture, make Lagos a uniquely dynamic and special place.
My local 📰 stand, no one buys and everyone debates #guardianlagos pic.twitter.com/vfvlEy0Krt
— Emmanuel Akinwotu (@ea_akin) February 22, 2016
I’ll be visiting Badia East, the site of some of the worst evictions in Lagos history, as residents are being kicked out summarily to make way for slick high-rises. I’ll also ride along with the WeCyclers, the women turning trash into gold, and later I’ll grab a bite with Picnickers Anonymous, the er, guerrila picnic group. In a city with as little public space as Lagos, they’re practically radicals.
Hit me up at #GuardianLagos with any questions, tips or dares! And I’ll do my best to respond.
No one knows how many people live in Lagos
Estimates of the population of Nigeria’s commercial capital range from 12 million to more than 21 million. The later estimate – from the Lagos Bureau of Statistics – would place Lagos above Cairo as Africa’s largest city, and among the top five in the world.
There is no dispute that the city’s population growth has been staggering. In 1970, the United Nations estimated the city’s population at 1.4 million. By 1990 that had more than tripled to 4.8 million. The latest UN World Urbanisation Prospects report reckons the population of Lagos will double over the next 15 years – from 12.6 million in 2014, to 24.2 million in 2030.
One problem with Lagos’s population statistics is that 70% of Nigerian new-borns are not officially registered at birth. “The value of birth registration as a fundamental human right is often overlooked due to the continuing lack of awareness that registration is a critical measure to secure the recognition of any person before the law, to safeguard his or her rights and to ensure that any violation of these rights does not go unnoticed,” Unicef says. Many deaths go unregistered too.
The UN says Lagos is the fastest growing megacity in the world in absolute terms – adding 730,000 people a year. That’s 2,000 new people a day. Many are migrants from other parts of the country looking for better prospects in the big city, and most end up living in slums.
One of the best known of these is Makoko, a floating slum in the Lagos lagoon which may be home to anywhere between 40,000 and 300,000 people, according to the Heinrich Böll Foundation, an NGO active in the area. Look out for Tolu Ogunlesi’s in-depth report from Makoko tomorrow.
So Lagos Week is ... what exactly?
As the world urbanises with unprecedented speed, Africa’s cities are at the forefront – and led, as in so many other ways, by the great megapolis of west Africa, Lagos. With the UN predicting that the Nigerian megacity could double in size in just 15 years, the Guardian is spending a week exploring the realities of life in this legendarily bustling, ambitious and chaotic place.
For five days, we’ll be looking at how Lagos is coping with its transportation and electricity nightmares, facing up to climate change and thriving as a cultural and economic powerhouse. From “dialectical rap” in Yoruba, Igbo and pidgin, to the young women leaping across the city’s generation gap, we’ll be celebrating life here by hearing from locals who know it best.
Two opposing visions of the urban future stand out – Makoko, the world’s biggest floating slum, and Eko Atlantic, billed as Nigeria’s Manhattan and set to be protected against rising waters by a towering seawall. As celebrated Lagosian architect Kunlé Adeyeni tells our writer Tolu Ogunlesi for our interactive feature on Makoko: “Eko Atlantic is about fighting the water; [here in Makoko] we’re saying – live in the water!”
Corruption remains a big issue in Lagos, so we’re shedding some light on the “area boys” who extort drivers, and running an open Q+A with the activists who exposed former Lagos governor Babatunde Fashola for embezzling public money. Social media has come into its own over the past year as a force for political change, including the mass #NoToSocialMediaBill movement that helped overturn an oppressive media law. Every wedding couple now has a hashtag – and we’ll go inside those weddings, as well as asking Lagosians to pick the city’s 21 most influential entertainers, campaigners and opinion-makers. We’ve also got exclusive photographs by Andrew Esiebo from inside the city’s must-be-seen-to-be-believed pentecostal megachurches, and will be saluting Lagos’s best Instagrammers.
Lagos Week is a collaboration between Guardian Cities and the Guardian’s Africa Network, with whose local partners – including Sahara Reporters, a citizen journalism network focusing on corruption, and Y Naija, the home for all things young and Nigeria – we’ve worked closely. We’ve also timed our focus to coincide with Social Media Week, also kicking off in Lagos today, a gathering which reminds us that cities are more connected than ever – yet also exposes the lack of in-depth coverage by international media of this crucial west African megacity.
Above all, we want to hear from you – if you live or work in Lagos, tell us what you love and what needs to change. Booker prize nominee Chigozie Obioma has gotten the conversation started: do you think he’s right that Lagos is about to “spoil”?
Let us know – join the discussion at #GuardianLagos on Twitter and Facebook, or contribute to our special GuardianWitness callout.
... and be vocal! In Lagos, it’s the best way to be heard.
Updated
