@ MayorofLagos: You can't effectively coach people with moribund grassroot political engagment. You sef know how Nigerians are. Till change comes, use the system that can't be as exploited or damaged, use covered drainages.

I had a similar experience decades ago. There had been a thunderstorm that morning and parts of the street were flooded. The driver went to drop someone off before coming back to take me to school. He parked outside the compound when he came back.

I went outside the compound, was about to cross to where the car was, put my foot on what I thought was the driveway and down I went. The only thing that saved me was my agility. I went down and somehow came back up immediately. The neighbours were screaming. I pretended that everything was ok, but I could feel the pain in my thigh where it had scraped the edge of the gutter and the bottom of my shorts was wet. That mark stayed on my thigh for many years.

Basically, I couldn't see the gutter (or the driveway) because of the flood.


Now, I've mentioned two things I'd like to see standardised (covered drains and embedded service ducts), I'll mention another.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Lagos Island Local Government was described as the "richest local government in Nigeria". This was because it was home to one of the largest market clusters in Nigeria (Balogun-Idumota-Tinubu-Jankara) and the nations main financial centre (Broad Street/Marina). The LILG decided to maximise revenue from these facilities and also free up the sidewalk and they did this by clamping illegally parked cars, constructing the Marina Car Park and erecting parking meters at specific locations. Organisations reacted by building multi-level car parks and car parks on their first floor.

If you walk down Broad Street and adjacent streets, you'll discover that NECOM House (Nitel), Freeman House (Shell), Kontagora House (FMB), Niger House (UAC), St Nicholas House (St Nicholas Hospital), etc all have car parks on their first floor. This ensures that their staff and visitors do not need to park on the sidewalk.

Victoria Island was originally designed as a residential area, but companies that fled from Marina during its decline in the late 80s erected tall office blocks there. Most of them do not have these designated car parks, so their staff and visitors park on the sidewalk. There was a half-hearted attempt to correct this problem a few years ago (the government posted signs to indicate parking areas and non-parking areas) but it was abused. I think that the government needs to vigorously enforce the "no parking on the sidewalk" rule and ensure that new developments have adequate parking spaces before they are given planning approval.

naptu2: I had a similar experience decades ago. There had been a thunderstorm that morning and parts of the street were flooded. The driver went to drop someone off before coming back to take me to school. He parked outside the compound when he came back.

I went outside the compound, was about to cross to where the car was, put my foot on what I thought was the driveway and down I went. The only thing that saved me was my agility. I went down and somehow came back up immediately. The neighbours were screaming. I pretended that everything was ok, but I could feel the pain in my thigh where it had scraped the edge of the gutter and the bottom of my shorts was wet. That mark stayed on my thigh for many years.

Basically, I couldn't see the gutter (or the driveway) because of the flood.


Now, I've mentioned two things I'd like to see standardised (covered drains and embedded service ducts), I'll mention another.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Lagos Island Local Government was described as the "richest local government in Nigeria". This was because it was home to one of the largest market clusters in Nigeria (Balogun-Idumota-Tinubu-Jankara) and the nations main financial centre (Broad Street/Marina). The LILG decided to maximise revenue from these facilities and also free up the sidewalk and they did this by clamping illegally parked cars, constructing the Marina Car Park and erecting parking meters at specific locations. Organisations reacted by building multi-level car parks and car parks on their first floor.

If you walk down Broad Street and adjacent streets, you'll discover that NECOM House (Nitel), Freeman House (Shell), Kontagora House (FMB), Niger House (UAC), St Nicholas House (St Nicholas Hospital), etc all have car parks on their first floor. This ensures that their staff and visitors do not need to park on the sidewalk.

Victoria Island was originally designed as a residential area, but companies that fled from Marina during its decline in the late 80s erected tall office blocks there. Most of them do not have these designated car parks, so their staff and visitors park on the sidewalk. There was a half-hearted attempt to correct this problem a few years ago (the government posted signs to indicate parking areas and non-parking areas) but it was abused. I think that the government needs to vigorously enforce the "no parking on the sidewalk" rule and ensure that new developments have adequate parking spaces before they are given planning approval.

Enforcement really is needed, and I'm talking about conscious 24/7/365 type of enforcement.

For instance, I was just admiring the pics rossik uploaded with nice sidewalks, but truth be told, if we had that at the moment, it would be a keke maruwa's and psycho driver's deepest wet dream, a paradise for them. Unless it is elevated I guess.

I also would like it if more multilevel parking spots are built in conjested areas, it doesn't even have to be part of a company's building, it could just be independent.

.

Drainage on the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge.

Smh

iterator25: @all, love ur suggestions but unfortunately, it'll all die here lollllllzzz

Hope not!

looks like some of those gutters were originally covered and later became open.

MayorofLagos: In Lagos open gutter is an integrated design for rain water drainage. Lagos State Govt would love to implement a new design with underground drainage and channels, however, two factors make that impossible.

1. War against litters
Numerous campaigns raising awareness to encourage behavioral change towards proper diaposal of waste and recyclables.

2. Sea level.
All cities around the world that are at zero or negative altitude above sea level have somewhat close to an open drainage. On a global level Lagos is not an exception.

I disagree with you, let me not give you examples from other part of the world, Tinubu towards the later part of his administration upgrade the streets of Lagos Island (broad street etc) to high streets, the work was done by Julius Berger you can go and verify it yourself and am talking about the same Lagos not another state. So what are you saying? I know you are the self acclaimed 'Mayor of Lagos' but your defence of the open gutter is weak. There are so many areas of Lagos that the gutters are covered, it's just a matter of creating openings so that rain water can seep through undisturbed, infact in the business district of Lagos island, u don't even see any rain water minutes after it stopped raining.

iterator25: Megacity my arse

Dirty country, dirty people. You need to visit the South Eastern part of Nigeria to truly appreciate how filthy and nasty Nigerians can be.

Kingston Jamaica!