At least, there are 1,194,525 houses in Lagos State, South West Nigeria
housing the over 17 million population, the Lagos State Geographic
Information System, GIS has revealed.*The GIS/Digital Mapping of project was commissioned by Governor
Babatunde Fashola yesterday as the first in Nigeria and third in Africa
behind South Africa and Kenya.Through the GIS, the entire landmass of Lagos State, all industries and
factories, roads, individual houses, among others have been captured
while it makes it easy to transact businesses without necessarily
leaving one’s house.A GIS integrates hardware, software and data for capturing, managing,
analysing and displaying all forum of geographically referenced
information. It allows for viewing, understanding, questioning,
interpreting and visualising data in many ways that review
relationships, pattern and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports
and charts.source: click here to read full story
If there are 1.2million houses in Lagos State and there are 17-million people, therefore there are at least an average of 14-people living inside a single house.
While I don’t believe the GIS result to be the solid truth, there are indeed more than 1.2-million houses in Lagos. Does the researching body take note of the number of “houses” that don’t even have addresses, where you might walk around for about 5-10-minutes with no street name / sign anywhere in view? the many parts of Ikorodu, mushin, even all the way to inside inside Ajah; and does the many makeshift abodes (under-bridge, stadium dwellers, petrol station wander abouts, waka-waka, those who sleep in cars and buses fullt-eimeetc) count for houses? definitely not.
What exactly is a house in Lagos state? Is it the one defined by the Federal government as a house or the one that people define as a house? About a year ago, I got information about some yellow-bus drivers who made their 14-seater buses their official residences. These men come from / live in Ogun state , Ibadan, even as far as Osun state , yet they get a life in Lagos by driving commercial buses, and since they cant afford an accommodation, their boot is their wardrobe, their stearing -wheel is their parlour and at night, wherever they park is their home. I was so surprised when I was told that these folks even travel to their villages for vacation. I wondered “what would these drivers tell their village-people back home about their life in Lagos, where would they say they live?” I wondered if they would be able to invite a relative from home to come and visit them in Lagos.
If you have an accomodation in Lagos, you berra thank God o. The kin harsh life wey some people dey live for Lagos, no be small.
April 3rd, 2011 → 3:30 am
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