The British mosquito eradication campaign in colonial Lagos, 1902-1950

The impact of malaria on the demography of European settlers in Lagos from the mid-nineteenth century posed a serious threat to British imperialism in Nigeria. This prompted the British administration to take vigorous measures to address the unsanitary conditions within Lagos, a major causation of the disease. This paper examines the colonial programmes on the eradication of mosquitos in Lagos, the colonial capital of Nigeria. It highlights the political and economic implications of this programme, and the responses of African colonial subjects to the initiative. The government adopted divergent solutions, ranging from racial segregation to swamp reclamation. However, each of these had a downside. Segregation policies, at a time of growing nationalism among an increasingly politically conscious African educated class, would breed political unrest. Swamp reclamation, on the other hand, would require seizing privately owned land and depriving fishermen and wood collectors who earned a living by exploiting the resources of these swamps, critical for their survival and for the colony’s coffers. When the colonial administration finally settled on swamp reclamation, it faced the problem of cost that needed to be balanced with the sacrosanct principle that colonies should be self-sustaining economies and not be a burden to the metropolis. Existing studies have overlooked the resistance or reaction of Lagosians to swamp clearance and forest ordinance. The paper relies on a combination of primary, secondary and oral sources, including a body of archival documents and some interviews.     

Documents

Its command structure notwithstanding, police forces are composed of men whose actions and reactions are influenced by prevailing circumstances. Even when their responses could negate the norms and mores of the organisation, the management of such responses is essential to the protection and promotion of the corporate integrity of the police force, on the one hand, and social wellbeing, on the other. Given the centrality and the continued relevance of the economy to tenure, productivity and welfare of workers – including policemen – this article discusses grievance management strategies employed by the police high command in the case of the Lagos Colony Police mutiny of 1933. The article situates the mutiny in the context of the economic depression of the 1920s and 1930s and assesses the effectiveness of the measures adopted to control it vis-à-vis the nature of the police grievances, the nature of the police force and the prevailing economic situation. The study concludes that its grave dangers to the police force and the country notwithstanding, a mutiny in the police force, like any other segment of the armed forces, could not really be stopped (as seen in contemporary Nigeria) but the manner of its management could make a significant difference (hence the need for the force to be more proactive, responsible and responsive).     

Omo onile and Violence in Real Estate Development in Lagos,Nigeria

This study examines the influence of omo onile (literally meaning “the child of the landowner”) on real estate development in Lagos, Nigeria. the land sale-associated violence is one significant challenge to estate development in Lagos. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected, which were analysed at three levels, and content analysed respectively. Logistic regression results indicated that respondents who admitted that omo onile had a negative impact on real estate were five times more likely to disengage in real estate investment, relative to those who noted no significant effects. The study concludes that unfair access to land adversely impacts on real estate development. therefore, the government should dismantle legislative impediments, control omo onile and strengthen community frameworks for access to land in Lagos.     

Reasons for Victims’ Nonreporting Practices in Lagos,Nigeria: A Qualitative Study

Nonreporting practices have significant effects on public safety, yet the scientific community knows little about the reasons that predispose victims towards nonreporting in Lagos, Nigeria. The author examined the reasons using qualitative methods, and used a purposive sampling technique to select participants. Data were content analyzed. The findings indicated that economic and sociocultural considerations account for nonreporting among victims. The study concluded that numerous economic and sociocultural reasons including poverty, police extortion, and taboos explain nonreporting among victims, and suggests that the government should strengthen families and schools to transmit reporting values to children for safer communities in Lagos, Nigeria.     

Local Council Development Areas and Local Service Delivery: How a Fourth-tier Government Unit is Improving Access to Primary Health Care and Education Services in Lagos,Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Emerging accidentally from an array of political and legal contestations is a fourth-tier government unit in Lagos state – Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs). The LCDAs have survived almost two decades of existence without the ’traditional’ monthly federal allocation, which has been the mainstay of the existing 774 LGAs in Nigeria. This study attempts an explanation of this apparent survival by examining the institutional structure of the LCDAs vis-à-vis their service delivery performance. Different from earlier studies that have examined service delivery using final outcomes, the study examines accessibility as an intermediate output; dimensioned as availability, adequacy and affordability. Using a mixed-methods research design, the study shows that Lagos LCDAs’ inclusive operational structure is significantly improving access to primary health care and education services. Thus, the study finds evidence within the operational structure of Lagos LCDAs for Acemoglu and Robinson’s theory of inclusive and extractive institutions.     

Capital and the Lagos Presidency: Business as Usual?

Business-state relations in Chile's new democracy had been relatively tension-free for the first two governments of the centre-left Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia. However, during the first two years of the third Concertación administration, under the presidency of Ricardo Lagos, the relationship soured dramatically. At first glance, an ideological shift in the ruling coalition's centre of gravity would seem to explain the change in business-state relations. During the first two governments more conservative factions of the centrist Christian Democratic party had controlled the Concertación. Lagos, on the other hand, represented the left pole of the coalition and his socialist credentials brought the long shadow of the past on his presidency. This, however is an insufficient cause, three additional conditions must also be taken into account. The first one considers changes in the institutional and economic context that eroded the private sector's confidence in the Concertación's commitment to maintain the free-market socioeconomic model imposed under military rule. The second and third conditions are a decline in the electoral fortunes of the Concertación in favour of conservative parties and a shift in power relations among employers' associations towards more confrontational factions.