The politics of architecture and urbanism in postcolonial Lagos, 1960–1986

Abstract

After independence, the Nigerian government faced a number of choices about how to manage its urban environment, particularly in Lagos, Nigeria's capital. By favouring a programme of tropical modernist architecture for its prestige buildings in Lagos and British New Town style for its housing estates there, the government sought to demonstrate both its independence from European culture and its ability to perform the functions of a modern state. And yet, the hopes of government officials and elites for Lagos were frustrated as Lagosians, in response to new economic and demographic forces, shaped a very different sort of city from below. The Nigerian government's retreat to Abuja and its abandonment of Lagos mark the failures of urban policymaking in Nigeria.