I want to share a bit of history with you, seeing as the 70% of population of Lagos is under 35 years old. In 1914, Lagos was chosen as the capital of Nigeria by
the British colonial masters and from then onward, the demographic and physical
expansion of the city has been so dramatic that by 1960, it had grown into a
metropolis with well over 1 million inhabitants, by 1990 it had 7 million
inhabitants and the estimate today is between 15-20 million inhabitants. The
inhospitable physical environment and the choice of location by the British
colonial authorities to develop Lagos as Nigeria's capital are largely
accountable for the rapid rate and nature of its land use development. The
predominance of swamps and lagoons makes it necessary for large scale land
reclamations as a precondition for land use development, while the
administrative, industrial, commercial and transport functions in Lagos still
make it function as the capital. The past Lagos Executive Development Board
(LEDB) dominated land use development for many years and in spite of numerous constraints,
the Board succeeded in carrying out extensive swamp reclamations providing
residential and industrial estate development. The decision to transfer the
capital to Abuja was expected to mitigate the rapid land use development in
Lagos, but this has not proved to be the case at all. Above all this is clear
evidence that urban planning alone has failed to tackle the growing population
and housing needs in Lagos. The geometry of land use in Metropolitan Lagos is
gradually changing under the influence of urban renewal and highway development
radiating from the inner-city to the neighbouring towns and cities which have
attracted new industrial and residential estates are springing up in border
areas.
The Lekki Expressway corridor is home to the fastest growing number of construction
sites in the whole of Africa and one of the fastest in the world? The rate of
construction in this area has been so rapid between 1999 to present, that the
whole landscape between Victoria Island and The Lekki Free Trade Zone has been
transformed beyond recognition. A lot of reclaimed land has added to the land
mass and size. Unfortunately much of this development has been unregulated,
giving rise to buildings that have many design faults and will need to be
demolished in the near future for safety purposes. The rainy season is here
again which exposes a lot of problems with construction development and every
year without fail this causes a lot of setbacks to construction works. As I have
mentioned repeatedly, this is a good time to rent and buy as it exposes a lot
of problems with the property and the surrounding areas. Property and road
construction works are usually delayed during the rainy season as sites and
access roads get flooded and always need trailer loads of sand and rubble for
filling again after the rains have subsided. In many areas gutters overflow
into roads, and drains and plumbing in homes get blocked. It must seem like a
lost cause to developers who find that their workers also seem to spend more time
in the rainy season sleeping and taking time off with illnesses, thereby
delaying even further the project completion dates.
Visiting building sites during construction is quite interesting, as you
find works are being undertaken at varying speeds depending on the flow of
funds available for that project. For some, works have either halted or slowed
down considerably. The ones that are continuing are often reviewing their
spending on materials and fittings, which in many cases may mean compromising
the quality of the finished property. At the best of times it is rare to find a
really good finished property, but with frequent cut backs and compromise on
materials it is even rarer to find a fairly well finished property. Developers
are desperate to complete their projects on time and will often take on
artisans through recommendation from a friend, brother or church member without
proper checks, resulting in the finishing in a lot of properties being of poor
quality; something as simple as fitting light switches is a challenge for some
of these artisans they don’t have the right training or tools. Plumbing works
is a major concern if done badly, of which I have had terrible personal
experience. Shoddy and badly finished works can cause damage the property and
cause a life of misery to the inhabitants for many years and possibly forever,
so with the proliferation of building construction going on, it is important to
ensure building works starts and finishes correctly
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