Rural-Urban migration explains why Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital was ranked poorly in the 2018 Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking released yesterday.
According to the survey, Lagos was ranked 138th position out of the 140 cities that was analysed. This ranking improved by one place in its initial position of 139th in 2017.
Ayodeji Ebo, MD, Afrinvest Securities Limited said, “I think based on the indicators that was used, we have not seen any major improvement and rural urban migration has increased significantly which has put more pressure on the available resources in terms of infrastructure, health , education and social amenities.”
“Though we have seen some development, but we cannot compare the rate of development that we have seen relative to the rate of the infrastructure spending or the rate of population that we are seeing. Population pressure is affecting social amenities which is why we are still lagging behind,” Ebo also added
National Population Commission of Nigeria, Lagos state has a population of over 21 million as at 2016, according to National Population Commission ( NPC ). By 2050, Lagos’ population is expected to double, which will make it the 3rd largest city in the world but with less infrastructure than any other large cities of the world.
The indictors used for the ranking index was Stability, Healthcare, Culture & Environment ,Education and Infrastructure in which Lagos, Nigeria fairly scored 20.0, 37.5, 53.5, 33.3 and 46.4 respectively which dragged its score to 38.5 from a total of 100.
Countries like Vienna, Austria which ranked 1st scored 99.1, Melbourne, Australia was ranked 2nd scored 98.4, Osaka, Japan ranked 3rd scored 97.7, Calgary, Canada ranked,4thscored 97.5 and Sydney, Australia ranked 5th scoring 97.4 were the best five liveable cities in the world.
The least liveable cities were Port Moresby, PNG which ranked 136th scored 41.0, Karachi, Pakistan ranked 137th scored 40.9 , Lagos, Nigeria ranked 138th scoring 38.5 , Dhaka, Bangladesh ranked 139th scored 38.0 and Damascus Syria ranked 140th scored 30.7.
Over the past five years, Lagos had always ranked poorly. In 2014, it ranked 138th, in 2015, it netted 137th, in 2016 it had 138th, and in 2017, it graded 139th
“Lagos is not a place you can consider liveable due to the poor infrastructure, insufficient water supply, standard of living, poor quality of live, unstable electricity ,traffic congestion, insecurity etc,”Dolapo Ashiru, a stokebroker said“Every city is assigned a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure,” the report read.
“Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. For qualitative indicators, a rating is awarded based on the judgment of in-house analysts and in-city contributors.”
In the Stability category, the following were considered: prevalence of petty crime, the prevalence of violent crime, the threat of terror, threat of military conflict and the threat of civil unrest.
For Health rating, the following were considered: availability of private healthcare, quality of private healthcare, availability of public healthcare, quality of public healthcare and availability of over-the-counter drugs.
Humidity/temperature rating, discomfort of climate to travellers, level of corruption, social or religious restrictions, level of censorship, sporting availability, cultural availability, food & drink and consumer goods & services were considered for the Culture and Environment rating.
Availability of private education, quality of private education, public education indicators were used for the Education rating.
For Infrastructure, the quality of road network, quality of public transport, quality of international links, availability of good quality housing, quality of energy provision, quality of water provision and quality of telecommunications were considered.
Nigeria could borrow a leaf from Vienna’s Strategy Plan which is aims at safeguarding and enhancing the country’s rich and manifold qualities in all areas of urban life, the city’s economy, labour market, sciences, culture and education, its natural environment and urban landscape.
