by Chinedu George Nnawetanma

While much has been said about the diversification of Nigeria’s economy from petroleum, very little has been mentioned about its diversification from Lagos.

About one in every eight Nigerians lives in Lagos, a sprawling metropolis near the southwestern extremity of Africa’s most populous country. Not only is Lagos the economic epicenter of Nigeria, but also virtually every sector of the country’s economy is rooted there: commerce, manufacturing, finance, banking, insurance, healthcare, real estate, information technology, entertainment, media, hospitality, tourism, fashion, arts and sports.

Lagos accounts for about 30% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than 50% of its non-oil GDP, according to the Lagos state government, which goes further to claim that the city accounts for over 80%, 70%, 60% and 50% of the country’s international aviation traffic, maritime cargo freight, industrial and commercial activities and energy consumption respectively. Additionally, the Lagos state government was responsible for about 38.44% of the combined internally generated revenue of Nigeria’s 36 states in 2016.

For a country of over 180 million people and numerous other urban centers, these figures are huge and disconcerting. Unsurprisingly, Lagos’ alluring economic climate has seen economic migrants throng to it from all across Nigeria, in pursuit of economic opportunities that are all but lacking elsewhere. Over 600,000 new residents arrive Lagos on an annual basis, that is, over 1.2 million in two years. By contrast, London, which is arguably the world’s premier global city, welcomes only about half of that, despite possessing the caliber of infrastructure that Lagos can only dream of.

This economic asymmetry wherein Lagos wields such a disproportionate influence over the rest of Nigeria has had pronounced repercussions for both. For Lagos, its exploding population puts an enormous strain on its already overstretched infrastructure, encourages the mushrooming of slums in communities at the fringes of public utilities, widens the gulf between the rich and the poor and surges the crime rate.

Its fragile natural environment has also struggled to cope with the pressure of ever-increasing human activity. Indiscriminate urbanization has disrupted the natural equilibrium within and around the city, making it prone to environmental disasters such as flooding, erosion and sea level rise.

It should therefore come as no surprise that the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2016 edition of its Global Livability Index, ranked Lagos as the third worst major city in the world, coming only before the war-ravaged Tripoli and Damascus.

For Nigeria, its Lagos-centric economy has undermined its development everywhere else, leading to the stunted performance of secondary cities like Enugu, Onitsha, Kano, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri, Aba, Jos and Ibadan as their human capital are regularly haemorrhaged and absorbed by Lagos. It has also made the entire economy vulnerable to shocks emanating from Lagos; an economic meltdown there can have catastrophic reverberations countrywide.

The bulk of the blame for Nigeria’s skewed economic architecture must be shouldered by its successive federal governments for a consummate failure in national economic planning and the equitable geographical distribution of the mechanisms of development. By accident or design, almost all federal government investments and development projects in Nigeria are channelled into or through Lagos.

This is at variance with what is obtainable in more successful economies like Germany, the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, China and even South Africa whose secondary cities receive as much attention as their leading economic hubs, enabling them to remain competitive and complement those first cities.

To engineer the accelerated and uniform development of Nigeria, concerted effort must be made by the federal government to promote investments in other parts of the country, especially in the secondary cities. Among other things, adequate hard and soft infrastructure must be provided to boost their investment readiness and pave the way for the birth of stronger local economies that will generate well-paying jobs and curb the need to migrate to Lagos for gainful employment.

Part of the blame also lies with the governments of the other 35 states that make up the country for failing to put enough effort into utilizing their comparative advantages for sustained economic progress.

Finally, the private sector has a role to play too. They must get out of their comfort zone in Lagos and seek out new opportunities in uncharted economic territories that abound in the country. Nigeria is more than just Lagos.

by Chinedu George Nnawetanma

Guestlander:
I think what we are seeing regarding Lagos is true for many other countries, for Germany it is Bavaria, for USA it is California, China the Guangdong region, Canada it is Ontario. Lagos is not underdeveloping the rest of Nigeria it is actually doing the opposite.

Guestlander:
I think what we are seeing regarding Lagos is true for many other countries, for Germany it isb Bavaria, for USA it is California, China the Guangdong region, Canada it is Ontario. Lagos is not underdeveloping the rest of Nigeria it is actually doing the opposite.

darfay:


The article is very correct. in Nigeria even after living in ondo and schooling in Benin you must come to Lagos for ordinary white collar job
Every city in the countries you mentioned have their competitive advantage Chicago is as big a financial centre as NYC while Texas is a good rival to California. In Germany Frankfurt,Berlin,Hamburgetc
The article is spot on no excuse for Lagos dominating a large country like Nigeria

Guestlander:
I think what we are seeing regarding Lagos is true for many other countries, for Germany it is Bavaria, for USA it is California, China the Guangdong region, Canada it is Ontario. Lagos is not underdeveloping the rest of Nigeria it is actually doing the opposite.

Guestlander:


Every country I mentioned had similar experiences in the beginning, it may not look like that now because these countries are now more evenly developed. With time, the gap between Lagos and other states will gradually close.
There's nowhere on the planet where all the regions develop at the same rate.

GrandGarcon:
Another nonsense! We are not taking about all parts developing at the same rate, it is to punnish Biafrans that the country was set up like this, all the sea ports in Nigeria except the lagos one are not functional, where in the east or in the niger delta will you find a true international airport? In those countries, airports are built when you have the means, but in Nigeria it is based on politics. Abegi forget that thing.

GrandGarcon:
mr man stop talking nonsense. In the US you have, New York, California, Texas, Los Angeles. In China you have Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing in the main land, outside mainland you have Hon Kong, Macao, Japan has, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, even Chiba and Shizuoka, Canada has Ontario, Toronto Calgary etc.

Guestlander:


Whatever rocks your boat. When your judgment is clouded with ethnic jingoism you tend to see everything that way.

GrandGarcon:
You are the one who is making a fool of yourself, if a fool at forty is a fool forever what will be said of a fool at 50, 100 years of existence and almost 60 years of independence and this is what you can boast of, yeye people.

Guestlander:


Your ranting has nothing to do with why Lagos is ahead of other states in development. You are just ranting foolishly for the sake of it.

GrandGarcon:
Oh yes, No wonder when Biafra is mentioned, your private part becomes erect.

Guestlander:


Are you this dumb or is it a temporary thing? Your Biafra is just a tiny part of Nigeria not everything revolves around it.

GrandGarcon:
So a grown up like you doesn't know that when you hold somebody down uou are equally holding down yourself.

Guestlander:


Calm yourself down kid. There's no evidence of deliberate or systemic scheme to hold anyone down.

Even the Lagos you are all screaming about was on a downward trend after the Federal government moved to Abuja until the civilian government came in and luckily the governors of Lagos have done remarkably well to rescue the trend.

Tell your own governors to put your states and your people first.

GrandGarcon:
You are calling someone a kid while you reason like Foetus , It won't be well with the brits.

Guestlander:


Your reason like you have no brains at all. Don't you have some Lego blocks to play with rather than making a fool of yourself online?

GrandGarcon:
You see? How can somebody without a brain even play with lego blocks? I will say it again, you reason like a foetus. After you will say you are being insulted, while I am telling you the truth.

Guestlander:


It must be a thing of pride for you to be playing with lego blocks at your age. I have no time to chat with idiotic trolls. If you don't want Lagos to develop faster than your region then work extra hard to overtake it. If not, then STFU.

GrandGarcon:
I now wonder who is rambling? You said I should go and play with lego blocks that I don't have a brain, now how can one play with lego blocks without a brain? How does that point at being proud of lego blocks? I say yes, you have a brain but its reasoning capacity is the same as that of a foetus.

Guestlander:


You need to save your energy for the herculean task ahead of you. You won't overtake Lagos by chatting garbage on the internet. You will not do it by crying and sulking like a child who got his toy taken away. Get off nairaland and start working, put your yam legs to work.