NIGERIA: EVICTION OF MAKOKO RESIDENTS IN LAGOS

Makoko is a slum neighborhood located in Lagos, Nigeria. At present its population is considered to be 85,840; however, the area was not officially counted as part of the 2007 census and the population today is considered to be much higher. Established in the 18th century primarily as a fishing village, much of Makoko rests in structures constructed on stilts above Lagos Lagoon. Today the area is essentially self-governing with a very limited government presence in the community and local security being provided by area boys. The government of Lagos State commenced the demolition of the shanty settlement on Monday , 16th July 2012 after giving the residents a 72 hour eviction notice. Thousands of the settlers were affected by this government action. This is the end of over 100 years of settlement by this community. (SOURCE: WIKI)

Female hawker paddling canoe and selling garri in the Makoko slums of Lagos which is being demolished by the Lagos State Government after a 72-hour eviction notice to vacate the area.

.Two underage children paddling canoe hawking. The government of Lagos State commenced the demolition of the shanty settlement on Monday , July 16, 2012 after giving the residents a 72 hour eviction notice. Thousands of the settlers were affected by this government action. This is the end of over 100 years of settlement by this community

Lagos-Nigeria: Female hawker paddling canoe and selling garri in the Makoko slums of Lagos which is being demolished by the Lagos State Government after a 72-hour eviction notice to vacate the area.

PHOTO CREDITS: IDOWU ASUMAH/DEMOTIX

Images: Nigerian Jungle Blues

This one here beats me...Getting high on his own supply


10 Dec 2008, LAGOS, Nigeria --- A child washes clothes in Iwaya, one of the poorest areas of Lagos --- Image by Friday Zannu/Handout/Reuters


01 Feb 1999, Finima, Nigeria --- Flooding in the Niger Delta --- Image by George Steinmetz


2005, Lagos, Nigeria --- Cars Passing Checkpoint in Nigeria --- Image by James Marshall


28 Jul 2004, Afiesere town, Delta, Nigeria --- Urohobos Bake Tapioca in the Heat of a Shell Gas Flare Site --- Image by Ed Kashi/Corbis Images

Nigerian Jungle Blues: Ghetto Life Images V

Nigerian Jungle Blues: Ghetto Life Images III

Okada Wagonia "What's his business with overload"? Afterall, man must wack! Source: PUNCH


Is the world really a ghetto? I guess! "Where did she learn that from" though? Source: PUNCH


I like this one which says it loud and clear to hell with westernization and modernity. Seriously they are saying Westernization my ass, "defying the socio-economic problems" of a troubled nation. Source: PUNCH


This one beats me and it's beyond me. Source: The News


Life hard o according to the struggling Calabar man. Typical hard times in a nation that has lost its sense of purpose. Source: The News


Nigerian police and security detail. Na real wah! Source: The News

The Slums and Nigeria Oil Money

No question, the entrapment called Nigeria is well known in the oil business it is one of world's biggest supplier of oil. That image of oil has set up a tone that Nigeria is a very rich country bubbling with life portrayed by the haves, even though when one takes a close look at the changing phases and events of the common man, bogus businessmen and government officials to see how oil has controlled and doomed the country in its entirety, the country is nothing but a jungle despite its oil wealth and its enormous human capital.

With all that oil, the nation seems to be underdeveloped and moving backward by the day, with the above picture of Njemanze Waterfront in Port Harcout, the hub of the nation's oil well taken by Candace Feit of New York Times. In President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's presentation of the 2008 budget he projected a total revenue of N1.96 trillion in which eighty percent of that will come from crude oil sales with a "presumed exchange rate of N117 to the US $1."




So, Mr President, how about the slums in the neck of the wood where oil is produced? What are you going to do about it? Would there be another Fela Anikulapo Kuti to tell it in your face that corruption has eaten the entire nation it is now baked in every Nigerian gene? Apparently, the oil boom is not ending anytime soon since war here and there has catapulted oil sales, once again to the top.

Nevertheless, the poisonous substance called oil has created all sorts of characters in Nigeria which is disturbing and bizarre. Nobody wants to get anything done but to engage in mysterious underground economy, using oil as a tool that fuels bitter conflicts often seen in the Niger-Delta crisis which indeed has destroyed any hope of ordinary development. The above picture speaks for itself.

Images Of The Carnage Along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

The above picture was captured by Emma Osodi for The News magazine. Ill-equipped fire fighters are on the scene where this oil tanker fell and jettisoned its contents on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Sunday night, October 29, 2007.



About 7 vehicles burned beyond recognition of the carnage along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway burning more than 30 people to death.



Passersby and motorists who survived the carnage watch a dead body that had been burned beyond recognition on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.



Another gross scene of a burned body and razed vehicles captured by Emma Osodi of The News.

We Lived Here in Amukoko City

How time flies.

For a city desperately founded and developed by a working class in the 70s without tarred roads, pipe borne water and other basic amenities of life, one should be wondering why the government deliberately abandoned a slum like this where humans dwell and go about their routine businesses and social gatherings. Did humans explore this place and left it that way in this modernity?

Amukoko is a city full of small-town slums and ghettos, where the streets are filthy and not motorable, and where the population can drive you crazy. The buildings are great, ain't it? Nevertheless, Amukoko celebrates the good life in the great outdoors and neigborhoods - Orile-Iganmu, Layinka after the kpako bridge, Ojo Road - with crazy motorists, motels and all kinds of pubs at every spot. Of course, it's a great city, and that's why Naijas are the happiest people on Planet Earth.

But, today, most of us, if not all, in Diaspora, are so proud to proclaim the American dream living in posh neigborhoods with uninterupted electricity, tarred roads to our doorsteps, efficient water system, access to supermarkets, recreation facilities and orderliness as in all civil societies.

The question now is, how many people can afford to live typically of an organized and civilized society in Naija?

Nothing much has changed, and one begins to wonder!