Lagos
Lagos, or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria., the size of the city's population has been estimated to stand between 17 and 21 million residents, making Lagos the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until the government's December 1991 decision to relocate its capital to Abuja, in the centre of the country. Apart from serving as a major African financial center, Lagos has also played a significant role in the national economy, serving as the economic hub of Lagos State and the entire country of Nigeria. The city has a significant influence on commerce, entertainment, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, and fashion in Africa. Lagos is also among the top ten of the world's fastest-growing cities and urban areas. A megacity, it has the second-highest GDP in Africa, and houses one of the largest and busiest seaports on the continent. Due to the large urban population and port traffic volumes, Lagos is classified as a Medium-Port Megacity.
Lagos emerged as a home to the Awori people, an Ijebu subgroup of the Yoruba of West Africa, in the 15th century, which is contained across the present-day Local Government Areas of Lagos Island, Eti-Osa, Amuwo-Odofin, and Apapa. Before the 15th century, the Awori settled on a farmstead along the coastal line, in and around which they worked and lived. Farmstead translates to Ereko in Yoruba, from which comes the Lagos indigenous name Eko. The lands are separated by creeks, fringing the southwest mouth of Lagos Lagoon, while being protected from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier islands and long sand spits such as Bar Beach, which stretch up to east and west of the mouth. Due to rapid urbanisation, the city expanded to the west of the lagoon to include areas in the present-day Lagos Mainland, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, and Surulere. This led to the classification of Lagos into two main areas: the [|Island], which was the original city of Lagos, and the [|Mainland], which it has since expanded into. This city area was governed directly by the Federal Government through the Lagos City Council until the creation of Lagos State in 1967, which led to the splitting of Lagos city into the present-day seven Local Government Areas, and the addition of other towns from the then Western Region to form the state.
However, in 1976, the state capital was later moved to Ikeja, and, in 1991, the federal capital was moved to Abuja. Even though Lagos is still widely referred to as a city, the present-day Lagos, also known as "Metropolitan Lagos", and officially as "Lagos Metropolitan Area" is an urban agglomeration or conurbation, consisting of 16 LGAs, including Ikeja, the state capital of Lagos State. While this conurbation encompasses 37% of Lagos State's total land area, it accommodates approximately 85% of the state's total population.
The population of Metropolitan Lagos is disputed. In the 2006 federal census data, the conurbation had a population of about 9 million people. However, the figure was disputed by the Lagos State Government, which later released its own population data, putting the population of Lagos Metropolitan Area at approximately 16 million. Daily, the Lagos area is growing by some 3,000 people or around 1.1 million annually, so the true population figure of the greater Lagos area in 2022 is roughly 28 million. Lagos may therefore have overtaken Kinshasa as Africa's most populous city. The Lagos conurbation is part of an emerging transnational megalopolis on the coast of West Africa that includes areas in five sovereign states, the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor.
The University of Lagos is one of the first-generation universities of Nigeria. The business district of Lagos is home to Tinubu Square, named after the aristocrat and slave trader Efunroye Tinubu. Lagos contains Murtala Muhammed International Airport, named after Murtala Muhammad, one of the former Nigerian presidents; the airport is one of the busiest African airports. Lagos National Stadium has hosted various international sports events, such as the 1980 African Cup of Nations.
Etymology
Lagos is derived from the Portuguese word for "lakes". The pronunciation is typically standard in British and Nigerian English. Due to the United States' much higher amount of placenames originating in Spanish - which is closely related to Portuguese - relative to Britain, speakers of American English often use the pronunciation , which is more similar to the original Portuguese pronunciation. The native Yoruba name Èkó is also used by Yoruba people. Lagos was most likely named after Lagos, Portugal, as it was the main centre of Portuguese maritime expeditions down the African coast in the 15th century.History
Administration
Lagos was formerly the capital city of Nigeria, but it has since been replaced by Abuja. Abuja officially became the capital of Nigeria on 12 December 1991, although the decision to move the federal capital had been made fifteen years earlier, in Act No. 6 of 1976. Lagos is also home to the High Court of the Lagos State Judiciary, housed in an old colonial building on Lagos Island.In terms of administration, Lagos is not a single municipality and therefore has no overall city administration. The geographical city limits of Metropolitan Lagos comprise 16 of the 20 Local Government Areas of Lagos State. The latter entity provides overall government for the metropolitan region. The former Municipality of Lagos, which covered Lagos Island, Ikoyi, and Victoria Island as well as some mainland territory, was managed by the Lagos City Council, but it was disbanded in 1976 and divided into several Local Government Areas.
The mainland beyond the Municipality of Lagos, on the other hand, included several separate towns and settlements such as Mushin, Ikeja, and Agege. In the wake of the 1970s Nigerian oil boom, Lagos experienced a population explosion, untamed economic growth, and unmitigated rural migration. This caused the outlying towns and settlements to develop rapidly, thus forming the present-day "Lagos Metropolitan Area", also known as "Metropolitan Lagos". The history of Lagos is still evidenced in the layout of the LGAs that display the unique identities of the cultures that created them.
By 2006, the metro area around Lagos had extended beyond Lagos State's boundaries and attained a megacity status. This much larger area is referred to as "Greater Metropolitan Lagos" or "Lagos Megacity Region", which is a continuously built-up land area of an additional, in LGAs situated next to Lagos's eastern and western city limits in Lagos State, and also beyond its northern limits, spilling into some LGAs in adjoining Ogun State. Ogun State LGAs that have become part of Greater Metropolitan Lagos include Obafemi Owode, Sagamu, Ifo, Ado-Odo/Ota, and part of Ewekoro.
Today, the word Lagos most often refers to the urban area, called "Metropolitan Lagos" in Nigeria, which includes both the islands of the former municipality of Lagos and the mainland suburbs. The Lagos State government is responsible for some of the utilities, including roads and transportation, power, water, health, and education. Metropolitan Lagos extends over 16 of the 20 LGAs of Lagos State and contains about 85% of the population of Lagos State, including some semi-rural areas. Lagos has a considerable number of high-rise buildings that dominate its skyline. Most of the tall buildings are located in the downtown Central Business District.
Demography
Although the 2006 National Population Census of Nigeria credited the metropolitan area with a population figure of 7,937,932, the figure is at variance with some projections by the United Nations and other population agencies and groups worldwide. The population figure of Lagos State given by the Lagos State Government is 17,553,924. That figure was based on claimed conducted enumeration for social planning by the Lagos State Government's "parallel census" and it believes that since the inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Lagos constitute 88% of the Lagos State population, the population of metropolitan Lagos is about 15.5 million.A rejoinder to Lagos State Government views concluded that Lagos State concealed the fact that the UN agencies' population projection for Lagos Urban Agglomeration had been revised downwards substantially as early as 2003. It failed to interpret the two most important and fairly representative and reliable secondary data sets already in the public domain, the National Identity Card Scheme and the 2003 Voters Registration figures from INEC. The figures for 2007 voter registration by INEC were an act sequel to the release of the provisional census results and comprehensively corroborated, vindicated, and validated the population figures.
According to the official results of the 2006 census, there were 8,048,430 inhabitants in Metropolitan Lagos. This figure was lower than anticipated and has created controversy in Nigeria. Lagos Island, the central Local Government Area and historic center of Metropolitan Lagos, had a population of 212,700 at the 2006 Census.
Authorities of Lagos State have disputed the results of the 2006 census, accusing the Nigerian National Population Commission of undercounting the population of the state. This accusation is denied by the National Population Commission. A study found that research carried out by Africapolis, in addition to the cross-referencing of official figures with more scientific independent research, concluded that the 2006 census figures for Lagos State of about 9 million were valid and that the state's own assessments are inflated.
Lagos is indigenous to the Yoruba people, and the Yoruba language is widely spoken. It is, by most estimates, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Lagos is experiencing a population increase of about 275,000 persons per annum due to the influx of people from other regions for economic purposes. In 1999, the United Nations predicted that the city's metropolitan area, which had only about 290,000 inhabitants in 1950, would exceed 20 million by 2010 and thus become one of the ten most populous cities in the world.