While we're considering Nigera...
Will Conners writes in the New York Times about the paradoxes of Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city. The realities he describes provide some grassroots context for discussions of politics and governance in Nigeria.Opulence and Chaos Meet in an African Boomtown
"Already a city of superlatives on the continent (it has variously been deemed Africa’s most traffic-plagued, most populous and fastest-growing megacity), Lagos has a new title to add to its mantel: most expensive...
"Even European cities like Stockholm and Barcelona, Spain, were found to be more affordable — and in Lagos the high prices are that much more eye-popping because the average Nigerian survives on less than $2 a day..."Apartment rents... start at $3,000 a month, but rents of $6,000 to $7,000 a month are common here, and renters are required to pay two or three years of rent in advance.
"But high prices do not always mean high quality... no matter what your station in life is, it is impossible to avoid the city’s traffic or its lack of reliable water and electricity. Most homes and businesses... run on diesel-powered generators nearly 24 hours a day, resulting in thousands of dollars in energy bills...
"More than 70 percent of the city’s residents live in informal housing, crammed into slums with no electricity or water, according to Felix Morka, the executive director of the Social and Economic Rights Action Center, a local economic rights group..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:31 AM
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