LAGOS, Nigeria \u2014\u00a0Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s commercial capital, is characterized by frenetic energies of survival and the undying resilience of its more than nine million inhabitants.<\/p>\n
A thriving seaport, vibrant culture, and a rapidly emerging tech industry contribute to its global fame. The city is the country\u2019s manufacturing hub and a pan-African financial sector. It has booming music, fashion, and film industries with a global reach.<\/p>\n
Rapid population growth, dire traffic conditions, air pollution, and insecurity have taken a shine off\u00a0Africa\u2019s largest city.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnd the city motorists\u2019 aggressive driving methods worsen the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Another city resident, Richard Okotie, a management consultant, believes the problem in Lagos is simple: too many cars on tiny, degraded, and overused roads.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Lagos, traffic congestion can be so severe that a short commute from any one point of the city to the next that ordinarily would take 20 minutes might take up to an hour,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n Created<\/a>\u00a0in May 1967, Lagos is Nigeria\u2019s smallest state, covering 3,577.28 square kilometers [7, 951, 654 miles], out of which 779.56 square kilometers [377, 615 miles] is a wetland.<\/p>\n The study consists of four broad categories \u2014 governance, city, finance, and citizens\u2019 health \u2014 each made up of individual stress indicators that determine how stressful a city is to live in.<\/p>\n Safety and security, socio-political stability, population density, air, light, noise pollution levels, traffic congestion, and weather conditions are among the factors considered.<\/p>\n \u201cOur objective with this study is to show what cities can achieve for their citizens through effective governance, robust environmental policies, and well-resourced social welfare systems,\u201d Vaay co-founder Finn Age H\u00e4nsel said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Cost of Air Pollution in Lagos\u201d, a recent World Bank\u00a0study<\/a>, estimates that disease and untimely deaths caused by ambient air pollution cost $2.1 billion in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cWith over 5 million cars and 200,000 commercial vehicles on the roads [when the national average is 11 vehicles per kilometer or 0.621 miles], Lagos daily records an average of 227 vehicles per every kilometer of road,\u201d\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the governor\u00a0Babajide Sanwo-Olu\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0office.<\/p>\n Ada Nobi, an asthma patient, said the\u00a0air pollution<\/a>\u00a0in the city worsens her condition.<\/p>\n \u201cI have asthmatic allergies, and during traffic in the evenings on my way home from work, it becomes difficult for me to breathe,\u201d she told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the time I arrive home, I\u2019m still coughing and exhaling soot.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0World Bank<\/a>, air pollution is responsible for about 11,200 premature deaths in Lagos\u2014the highest number in West Africa, making ambient air pollution a pressing challenge.<\/p>\n The director-general of the\u00a0Nigerian Conservation Foundation<\/a>, Muhtari Aminu Kano, said the city\u2019s residents must change their attitudes and behavior, and organizations and enterprises must change the way they do business on an institutional level.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that to sustain a green society and economy, the mindset must adopt changes at all levels,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should engage in smart planning, prudent use of natural resources, increased use of renewable energy, responsible production and consumption, sustainable agriculture, recycling, and habitat conservation to address the issues posed by air pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Lagos State Traffic Management Authority<\/a>\u00a0general manager,\u00a0Olajide Oduyoye<\/a>, told local media that traffic management is tricky because the city relies on traffic personnel instead of electronic control.<\/p>\n While comparing the traffic situation in New York, Chicago, Moscow, and a few other cities with chaotic traffic problems to Lagos,\u00a0Gbenga Omotoso<\/a>, Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, sees no basis for ranking Lagos as the world\u2019s second most stressful city.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day, Lagos roads are clogged with approximately 5.7 million private and commercial vehicles,\u201d Omotoso told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of heavy road usage, many of the state\u2019s 6,000 roads fall into disrepair, and with that, inhabitants are bound to be inconvenienced.\u201d<\/p>\n Several projects are underway to widen existing roads and build new ones. However, Omotoso said the city\u2019s nightmarish traffic could not be controlled overnight.<\/p>\n \u201cResidents are encouraged daily to adopt new attitudes that will address the impunity that makes traffic regulations meaningless in the city. Technology, management skills, and other resources have already been brought in to redress the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, in April 2021, initiated the\u00a0Lagos Rail Mass Transit Red Line Project<\/a>, a 37 -kilometer (18.6 miles) rail transport capable of moving one million commuters daily once it\u2019s complete by October 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Red Line is one of seven rail lines specified in the state\u2019s Strategic Transport Master Plan for mass commuter mobility to alleviate chronic traffic congestion and reduce pollution,\u201d\u00a0Abimbola Akinajo<\/a>, the managing director of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, told Zenger News.<\/p>\n Following a recent spate of insecurity in the state, the Lagos State government teamed up with the Department of State Security to enhance security through the\u00a0Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lagos State Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu also ordered the demolition of shanties and abandoned automobiles.<\/p>\n \u201cThis clean-up exercise would continue even as we seek to assure the creation of jobs and economic possibilities that will remove them off the streets and provide them the means to afford proper housing,\u201d said Sanwo-Olu while addressing a security stakeholders town hall meeting in Ikeja on May 10.<\/p>\n In addition to the rising insecurity levels, Lagos has been rocked by political protests that have attracted international attention in recent years.<\/p>\n During the October 2020\u00a0anti-police brutality protests<\/a>\u2014especially a notorious police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known by its acronym SARS\u2014demonstrators camped around the Lekki Toll Gate located on a major thoroughfare running through an affluent part of the city.<\/p>\n After two weeks of generally peaceful protests dubbed #EndSARS, the state authorities imposed a total curfew on the city on Oct. 20, 2020. Hours later, armed officers fired at the demonstrators at\u00a0Lekki Toll Gate<\/a>, killing at least 12 people, which sparked widespread looting and destruction.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Police Service Commission<\/a>\u00a0promised to investigate suspected police misconduct during the #EndSARS protests after receiving a damning\u00a0report\u00a0<\/a>in May 2021 from the\u00a0Action Group on Free Civic Space in Nigeria<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get a lot of complaints from the public about police personnel all the time,\u201d Musiliu Smith, the chairman of the Police Service Commission, told local media.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe #EndSARS was triggered by substantial wrongdoing on the part of some of our personnel. I recommend that we assess the procedures we\u2019re putting in place to investigate such incidences. We must also ensure that investigations are comprehensive and that whoever is indicted is punished by the law. With this, public complaints will reduce.\u201d<\/p>\n