Can any numbers be believed? Experts Africa Check spoke with believe the best way to arrive at reasonable estimates is to cross-reference official figures with more scientific independent studies.

For example, research carried out by Africapolis – the African arm of e-Geopolis, a global study of urban populations, which is supported by the Agence Française de Développement – provided population estimates for settlements of over 10,000 people in West Africa.

The study used a combination of satellite imagery, geographic information systems, and the largest collection of documentation on the region ever collated to come up with its figures. It is “easily the best and most detailed source” on regional urban population, according to Dr Potts.

The organisation believes that 2006 census numbers for Lagos of around 9 million were reasonable and that the state’s own estimates are overblown.

Population growth in the city appears to have been slowed in the 1980s by an IMF-inspired structural adjustment programme, with rising unemployment and higher costs of living driving many back to their cheaper towns and villages, and this has affected the figures, it says.

However the group also found the 2006 census figure for Kano city, at 2.8 million, was inflated, suggesting officials had found about half a million more people than Africapolis estimated in 2010

https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-nigerias-population-figures/


So there you go lol. Lagos and state authorities lying to the public and making up stories. There is misreporting everywhere in Nigeria--but the scope is small. For example, in the North--Kano City figure was inflated by 500,000 people...which is nothing compared to the inflation of a 9 MILLION people by Lagos.

Bump.