LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Victor Ahansu was just waking up with his wife and twin children before the grinding sound of a bulldozer woke them up. Before fleeing the mass eviction in the historic community of Makoko in Lagos, he said, the family had all the warning. Their home was demolished on January 11, one of thousands removed by the ongoing operation.
Now the 5-month-old twins and their parents live in a wooden canoe with a woven plastic sack for shelter from the rain. The sound of hammer blows fills the air as other residents of Nigeria’s largest city begin to demolish homes and save what they can.
“I haven’t even been able to go to work to earn money, because I don’t want to leave my wife and children, and the government comes again,” Ahansu, a fisherman, told The Associated Press.
For decades, thousands of people have lived in houses on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.
For many Nigerians, Makoko has long been distinctive. For nonprofits, it has become a testing ground for ideas like floating schools. But for some developers and officials, it’s valuable waterfront property in the hands of some of the megacity’s poorest people.
More than 3,000 homes have been destroyed and 10,000 people displaced in this latest wave of demolitions, which began in late December, according to a coalition of local advocacy groups. Residents of Makoko live here legally, but Nigeria’s land laws allow the government to take any land it deems suitable for public purposes.
The rapidly developing city of an estimated 20 million people on the Gulf of Guinea has a long history of such mass evictions. Advocacy groups estimate that millions of people could lose their homes by 2023 when the current state government takes office.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people protested mass evictions in Lagos. The police fired tear gas and dispersed them.
Population pressure
As Lagos’ population continues to grow, people from low-income communities like Makoko are in the line of fire amid government efforts to develop the megacity.
Residents told the AP that the Lagos state government had asked people to move 100 meters from the power lines in the case, but demolitions continued after that.
Officials at the state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development refused to answer questions about the demolition of Mako and residents’ allegations that they were given little or no warning before it began on December 23.
Officials, however, pointed to recent comments by Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who advocated evictions and cited security risks as communities spread closer to critical infrastructure.
Residents say the space in the Mako area was allocated to a private construction company, one of many in the city where waterfront space is often prized for luxury and other properties. AP could not prove that allegation.
“I think when (the government) is looking for centrally located land and other places are filled, there’s the idea that you can come in and remove communities because they’re less privileged and you can bring some justification,” said Megan Chapman, co-director of the Justice and Empowerment Initiative, an advocacy group for displaced communities in LA.
high rent
Makoko, founded in the 19th century, has survived demolition attempts in the past, usually when there was public outcry. Outsiders nicknamed the “Venice of Africa” as life passed through the narrow lanes and waterways. Public services such as electricity or waste management are scarce.
Those displaced said they had few options. Lagos has some of the highest rents in Africa. A room in a tenement house where dozens of people share a bathroom can go for 700,000 naira (about $500) a year in a city where the minimum wage is 77,000 naira ($55).
Basirat Kepetosi sat in the ruins of her waterfront home in Makoko, frying dough in hot oil to sell. He resigned to his loss.
Kepetosi said she woke up to the sound of bulldozers when her house was demolished on January 9. Now she and her five children have no shelter.
Kepetosi, who hails from a fishing family, said she built a two-room house on stilts made of bamboo and aluminum sheets in the lagoon last year.
He said they had received no compensation for its destruction, and the government had made no plans for their rehabilitation, even though the law required it. In a 2017 ruling by the Lagos High Court seen by AP, the judge ruled that mass evictions without resettlement violated the “fundamental right to protection from cruel and degrading treatment.”
“We sleep in the open,” Kepetosi said. “When it rained, it rained on my children and me.”
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