UNJUST DEMOLITION AND FORCED EVICTION OF POOR AND WORKING PEOPLE IN LAGOS STATE
The Babajide Sanwo-olu led Lagos State Government is on a demolition spree of markets, houses and communities. The victims decry losses and self-serving agenda on the part of the government officials, demanding compensation. It is also an irony that many of buildings that later become defective and genuinely required being demolished pass through the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) scrutiny at the point of construction. Rather than doing due diligence to ensure standard, the agency officials prioritize revenue generation and bribe taking. It is this money-making activity in the name of enforcing building codes that partly contributes to defective buildings and the high cost of construction such that some builders end up paying N5,000,000 or more for one permit or the other.
By Sodiq Duro-Orike
In the last few years, residents and business owners in Makoko, Oworonshoki. Owode Onirin, Otodogbami, Otumara, Ajegunle, Bariga, Trade Fair, etc have had their properties demolished without adequate compensation or alternative provisions. Sadly, many community people including babies have been killed in the course of these forced evictions. The government usually cites public safety, order and sanitation as the reason for the demolition and eviction. But in most cases, the objective is land grabbing for the interest of the rich and top government officials at the expense of the poor. A clear example of this is Maroko.
In other words, countless residents of poor communities have been displaced to clear the path for investor-owned properties (real estate businesses) to build beautiful edifices, for the state ambition to live up to its mega city aspiration and hereby causing untold pains and hardship to the common people whose lives and economic realities have been battered. The primitive and corrupt capitalist elite and governments in Nigeria cannot guarantee a properly planned city, where the poor and the rich can live peacefully without the need to displace poor people from their land and homes. And, if there is need for displacement truly for purpose of safety and development, there should be relocation of the displaced people by the government to alternative decent accommodation and environment. Besides, it is unreasonable and callous for a government that refuses to build affordable housing units for the people, to continue to destroy ordinary people’s years of savings to build themselves a home.
Oworonshoki demolition is a terrible example of a large-scale destruction of houses by Lagos authority for so-called “urban renewal”. Demolitions often occurred at midnight with bulldozers, surprising residents and leading to destruction of personal belongings. These attacks on the rights and interests of poor people brutally carried out by Lagos state government have led to several protests by residents and activists demanding adequate compensation.
Residents of Makoko area of Lagos, a floating community close to the Lagos Island, have also suffered inhuman demolition and eviction. The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Task Force first came to the community, promising the youth and community leaders that only structures within 100 meters from high tension power line would be earmarked for demolition. But upon commencement the government agency struck deep into the community extending to as much as 500 meters. One of the community youth leaders, Oluwatobi Aide, mobilizing the youth to protest further destruction beyond the agreed point, was arrested and detained. It was a strident pressure from activists, human rights lawyers and organisations like DSM, CEE-HOPE and CAPPA that forced the government and police to release him and halt his planned arraignment.
All communities affected by unjust demolitions by the Lagos government should come together for a joint campaign including a series of mass actions to demand an immediate stoppage of the exercise and adequate compensation including provision of alternative decent accommodation and relocation for the victims.
Despite the rapid population growth in Lagos, the government has failed to correspondingly increase housing units. Lagos faces a severe housing crisis, marked by a 3.4 million housing unit deficit according to a report from the Punch newspaper of 7th of July, 2025. Over 70-80% of residents are tenants, and spend a large portion of 40-60% of their income on rents, with the same percentage range living in informal settlement with poor living condition. A large section of the population that is pushed into substandard living conditions in shanty areas are the same people that the government is pushing out through sustained demolitions and evictions.
The tenure of the Lateef Jakande government of 1979 to 1983 was the last time that Lagos state witnessed large scale and pro-people affordable housing estate built across the state. Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, the housing estate units that the government have built are so few and priced beyond what ordinary people can afford.
The increasing high cost of construction is largely responsible for the housing deficit coupled with the failure of government to invest in the housing and construction sectors, leaving them to the dominance of private/profit interest. For price of construction to come down and become affordable overtime, cement companies, steel industries and other big industries like Banks need to be nationalized and put under democratic management of the working people. This includes adequate investment in Ajaokuta Steel under a democratic control to make it operational after decades of elite’s sabotage. For public projects, public works departments which are adequately equipped and democratically controlled should be used, not the contract system, which is primarily about drive for super profits. This will ensure that more quality projects are executed at much lesser costs.