By Paul Okunlola
Barely two years after Nigeria emerged from a decade-long military dictatorship, fresh vistas in democratic governance are opening up for Africa's most populous nation, which has teamed up with the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS). The Global Campaign on Urban Governance is a strategic new advocacy project to promote sustainable human settlements development worldwide, as specified under the Habitat Agenda. A separate Global Campaign on Secure Tenure is already under way to address the second major goal of the Agenda-to secure adequate shelter for all.
On 10 April, the President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, officially launched the campaign in Abuja, in the presence of UNCHS Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka, Nigeria's Speaker of the House of Representatives Ghali Umar Na'Abba, and several cabinet ministers. Participants numbering over a thousand were drawn from the country's public, private and civil society sectors and several non-governmental organizations from sister African countries.
The Global Campaign for Urban Governance supports the commitment of Governments in entrenching democratic rule through decentralization and good governance, thereby promoting the objectives of the Habitat Agenda. "Nigeria can ill-afford to ignore good governance in her cities, if only because of the size and pace of urbanization in the country", President Obasanjo said. With an estimated population of 110 million, the country accounts for 1 in every 4 to 5 Africans, and its annual urbanization rate of 5 per cent places it among the highest worldwide. Lagos, currently ranked as the sixth largest city worldwide, is projected to peak at 23.4 million by the year 2015 and become the third largest city in the world. In 1991, 359 urban centres in Nigeria recorded populations of 200,000 people or more. Current estimates put today's figure at 450. By 2010, more people will live in the country's cities than in the rural areas. Already, the urban population is about 43 per cent of national figures.
Poverty reduction is also a key benefit expected from the Campaign. The United Nations Development Programme, in its 1998 Human Development Report, put the level of urban poverty in Nigeria at 77 per cent, while rural poverty reached 68 per cent. "The inevitable outcome of Nigeria's population explosion", the Report states, "is the aggravation of urban blight and squalor, resulting in the majority of urban dwellers living under subhuman conditions in slums and squatter settlements without employment and any visible legitimate means of livelihood".
Indeed, "the urgency for action cannot be more underscored", warned Ms. Tibaijuka. "In a democratic society, the rate at which people move from rural areas to towns can only be influenced by providing appropriate incentives, such as better income and services to rural dwellers and those in small towns", she said. The urban challenge therefore also has a rural dimension. Good urban governance, she stressed, would ensure that democracy becomes sustainable by encouraging democratic practices to become rooted in the actions of governor and governed alike.
The Urban Governance Campaign will seek specifically to:
strengthen decentralization, which in turn will mean strengthening the constitutional position of local authorities as a key sphere of Government;
promote transparency and accountability to build partnerships and secure commitments for positive change;
engage city residents in governance of their cities through participatory planning and budgeting;
bring to the fore the importance of women in urban governance as well as poverty reduction and sustainable development; and
further discussion on the burning problem of urban safety and security.
It is expected that the campaign launch in Nigeria will lay the framework for sustainable urban management practices in one of the most rapidly urbanizing regions of the world. Also, the campaign could establish a basis for replication in other cities in the region, while at the same time boosting Nigeria's current democratic efforts.
Today, with an urban population estimated at 37.9 per cent of its total population, Africa ranks with Asia among the least urbanized regions in the world. However, the two regions are currently recording the highest urban growth rates worldwide and, over the next three decades, the greatest increases in urban growth will occur in the least developed countries, most of which are in Africa and Asia.
The experience from around the world, said Ms. Tibaijuka, is that "decentralized decision-making and participatory processes are the best means for ensuring the effective use of scarce resources for the benefit of all, but particularly the poor". In other words, "inclusive democratic processes produce inclusive cities".
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| Paul Okunlola is a writer on human settlements issues for The Guardian in Lagos, Nigeria. |
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