Conceptualising megacities and megaslums in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Burgeoning megacities is one of the fascinating realities of the 21st century global development. A huge chunk of individuals across the cosmos continue to crave for expansion of megacity space. Thus, living in a megacity is nothing short of psychosocial nirvana of many in the 21st century. With the growing appetite for increase in the number of megacities emanates issues of conterminous slumhood, gentrification, poverty, increasing crime rate and general hazards for lives and property. It is pertinent not to view megacity as an isolated phenomenon without considering its indelible flipside – megaslum. This article is devoted to intense analysis of pros and cons of the emergence of megacities using secondary data that were analysed in a triangulated manner. Pictorial data further complemented both theoretical and statistical information related in the work. Thus, using Lagos as an example, this article engaged the use of sociological imagination to x-ray how survival of megacities depends on a number of factors without which megacity becomes unsustainable. It is from this standpoint that the authors made useful recommendations to stakeholders in order to make Lagos megacity, and the likes, sustainable.