id21 viewpoints

Stopping the destruction of squatter settlements in Nigerian cities

Slums are a distinctive feature of Nigerian cities which the government is always trying to clear. But is simply evicting squatters the solution?

In market-driven countries like Nigeria, land allocation is inequitable. Low-income urban poor people have to solve their shelter and livelihood problems themselves. The spread of squatter settlements and slums are hardly surprising given the large numbers of poor people, increasing rural-urban migration, and lack of government concern.

City growth is increasingly the result of migration. People move to the city from rural areas because of both ‘push’ factors (including poverty, low incomes and low productivity) and ‘pull’ factors (the glamour of urban areas, higher incomes, services, clean water, electricity and so on).

Most migrants to developing country cities lack skills and are often employed in irregular, low-income employment. They are often poor, live in sub-standard housing, with precarious nutrition and health conditions, and low levels of education and consumption.

Housing is a major problem. Urban land is valuable, and land and housing markets constrain access to housing for the majority of urban dwellers. For many urban poor migrants (about 65 percent of the urban population) the only options are:

• self-constructed shelters using available materials
• squatting on vacant land, usually on the outskirts of the city, or its core, but often on highly unsuitable land, such as swamps, areas prone to flooding, and other waste lands.
• Squatter settlements are a distinctive feature of cities in Nigeria. They are both the product of and vehicle for modernising activities. Governments, however, constantly try to evict squatters and clear slums (for example, the 1990 demolition of Maroko community in Lagos State). Such efforts are largely undertaken to improve the city’s international public image, or justified for health reasons or as maintaining standards.

Slum clearance is also justified in market terms, when a settlement is located on prime development land. Clearing squatter settlements does not solve the problem of slums and it does not prevent the deterioration of currently acceptable dwelling areas into slums.

• Squatter settlements help meet national housing needs. Squatters’ rights should be upheld and services such as water, sewers, schools, and electricity provided to settlements.
• Land use policies should allow governments to intervene directly in land distribution and land prices. This will control urban land prices and reduce speculation and unproductive land ownership.
• Policies to reduce incentives for rural-urban migration, including improved economic conditions, good governance, access to health and education, and social welfare safety nets are needed in rural areas.
• &Banks, industries, oil companies, telecommunications companies and other corporate groups should be motivated to assist with the problems of slum areas.
• A Comprehensive Planning Framework is needed, in which a policy on squatter settlements is a significant part of broader urban planning.
• Squatter residents must be involved in all efforts to improve their living environment.

Oladayo Ramon Ibrahim
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
School of Environmental Studies
Lagos State Polytechnic
Ikorodu, Nigeria

T +232 8023239147 / 8053014897
oladayoibrahim@yahoo.com

July 2009

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