Victor Ahansu was barely awake with his wife and baby twins before the grinding sound of bulldozers woke them. It was all the warning the family had, he said, before fleeing mass evictions in their historic community of Makoko in Lagos. Their house was demolished on Jan. 11, one of thousands taken down 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 thump of hammers fills the air as other residents of Nigeria ’s largest city break down homes and salvage what they can.
“I have not even been able to go to work to make 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, tens of thousands of people have lived in homes on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.
To many Nigerians, Makoko has long been distinctive. To nonprofit organizations, it has been a testing ground for ideas like floating schools. But to some developers and authorities, it’s valuable waterfront property in the hands of some of the megacity’s poorest people.
More than 3,000 homes have been torn down and 10,000 people displaced in this latest wave of demolitions that began in late December, according to a coalition of local advocacy groups. Makoko’s residents have lived here legally, but Nigeria’s Land Law allows the government to take any land it deems fit for public purpose.
There is a long history of such mass evictions in the rapidly developing city of an estimated 20 million people on the Gulf of Guinea. Advocacy groups estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes since 2023, when the current state government took office.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people protested the mass evictions across Lagos. Police dispersed them with tear gas.
Population pressures
As Lagos’ population increases, people in low-income communities like Makoko have been caught in the line of fire amid government efforts to develop the megacity.
Residents told the AP that the Lagos state government in this case asked people to move 100 meters from an electricity line, but then the demolitions just kept going.
Officials at the state’s Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development declined to answer questions about the Makoko demolitions and residents’ allegations that there had been little or no warning before they began on Dec. 23.
The officials, however, pointed to recent comments by Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who defended the evictions and cited safety risks, saying communities had spread close to critical infrastructure.
Residents say that space in the Makoko area had been allotted to a private construction company, one of many in a city where waterfront space is often prized for luxury and other properties. The AP couldn’t verify that allegation.
“I think that when (the government) is looking for centrally located land and since other places are filled up, there is the idea that you can come and clear away communities because they are less privileged and you can come up with some justification,” said Megan Chapman, co-director for the Justice and Empowerment Initiatives, an advocacy group for displaced communities in Lagos.
High rents
Makoko, established in the 19th century, has survived past attempts at demolition, usually when there’s a public outcry. Life meanders through narrow streets and waterways in the community nicknamed the “Venice of Africa” by outsiders. There are few public services like electricity or waste management.
Those being displaced say they have few options. Lagos has some of Africa’s highest rents. A room in a tenement house where dozens of people share bathrooms can go for 700 thousand naira annually (around $500) in a city where the minimum wage is 77,000 naira ($55).
Basirat Kpetosi sat atop the ruins of her waterfront home in Makoko, frying dough in sizzling oil for sale. She was resigned to her loss.
Kpetosi said that she woke to the sound of bulldozers on Jan. 9, when her house was torn down. Now she and her five children are left with no shelter.
Kpetosi, from a family of fishermen, said that she built the home on the lagoon — two rooms on stilts made of bamboo and aluminium sheets — last year.
She said they received no compensation for its destruction, and the government is making no plans for their resettlement, even though the law requires it. In a 2017 ruling by the Lagos High Court seen by the AP, the judge ruled that mass eviction without resettlement violated the “fundamental right to protection from cruel and degrading treatment.”
“We sleep in the open,” Kpetosi said. “When it rained, it rained on my children and me.”
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