2. Urban development in Nigeria

Prior to the colonial era, Nigeria had several cities of different sizes and importance. Examples of such cities are Lagos, Ibadan and Ilorin, in the south western region, Kano and Zaria, in the northern part, and Onitsha and Aba, in the eastern area, as well as Port Harcourt and Calabar in the south. The aforementioned are all with their distinctive socio-cultural identities even as they are locations occupied by the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, plus the southern subethnic group, respectively. The rate of movements of the people from rural areas to the cities during this era was low, as majority concentrated on agricultural occupation. In the post independence era, starting from 1960, people in Nigeria kept migrating at an increasing rate from the rural areas to the urban centres in pursuit of better living conditions. Like every other nation of the world, the migration has been causing rapid and extensive growth in the urban centres. The urban population in Nigeria has grown from 6.9 million, 15.4% of the total

Figure 1. Percentage change in population from 1960 to 2018. Source: adapted from Worldometer.info [5].

the gradual increase in the number of people living in urban areas, with subsequent decrease

Urbanization is a fundamental phenomenon of multidimensional transformation which rural societies go through in order to evolve into modernized societies from sparsely populated areas to densely concentrated urban cities. Urbanization is an ongoing trend in both developed and developing countries, including Nigeria which is the main focus of this chapter. Nigeria is the largest country in West Africa; classified as a low-middle income country despite the fact that it is the biggest oil exporter in Africa with the largest natural gas reserve in the continent. The Nigeria Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is \$405.10 billion in 2016 [4]. However, the huge revenue derivable from oil and allied products have not positively impacted an average low income earners in the country, as they live below 1 dollar per day. The impoverishment of the citizens has also been largely worsened by the corrupt and wasteful handling of petrol dollars by successive governments in the country. Simply put, the huge money made from oil remains a noticeable paradoxical contradiction when viewed against prevailing endemic infrastruc-

Prior to the colonial era, Nigeria had several cities of different sizes and importance. Examples of such cities are Lagos, Ibadan and Ilorin, in the south western region, Kano and Zaria, in the northern part, and Onitsha and Aba, in the eastern area, as well as Port Harcourt and Calabar in the south. The aforementioned are all with their distinctive socio-cultural identities even as they are locations occupied by the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, plus the southern subethnic group, respectively. The rate of movements of the people from rural areas to the cities during this era was low, as majority concentrated on agricultural occupation. In the post independence era, starting from 1960, people in Nigeria kept migrating at an increasing rate from the rural areas to the urban centres in pursuit of better living conditions. Like every other nation of the world, the migration has been causing rapid and extensive growth in the urban centres. The urban population in Nigeria has grown from 6.9 million, 15.4% of the total

Figure 1. Percentage change in population from 1960 to 2018. Source: adapted from Worldometer.info [5].

in those living in rural areas [3].

74 Housing

tural deficit and abject poverty in the country.

2. Urban development in Nigeria

Figure 2. Percentage growth of urban population from 1960 to 2014. Source: adapted from Worldometer.info [5].

population of 45 million in 1960 to 99.9 million, which is 48.9% of the total population of 195.8 million today [5] (Figures 1 and 2).

Consequently, many more towns such as Akure, Osogbo, Bauchi and Sokoto have emerged, and they are fast turning into urban centres due to explosion induced by migration, both in numbers and sizes. There are 26 urban centres in the country, with a populations of approx. 500,000 in each urban centre (Table 1) [6]. Lagos, the former capital city, still remains the most urbanized city despite the movement of the country's capital to Abuja. This may not be unconnected to the fact that Lagos still remains the commercial capital for Nigeria.


Table 1. Largest built-up urban centres in Nigeria with population of 500,000 and above (source: adapted from Demographia world urban areas [6]).
