Planning Implications of the Ethnic Structure Of Residential Areas of Metropolitan Lagos

The study present the ethnic structure of metropolitan Lagos in order to unravel the correlation between ethnic composition of the city and the choice of residential areas by the city dwellers. It investigates the determinants, problems and prospects of this situation. The study makes use of data collected from primary and secondary sources during which the city was divided into identifiable residential districts. A total of 200 questionnaires were administered for information on the views of residents about their residential areas. Among major findings of the study are that ethnic enclaves in the city present a mixed bag of fortunes. In the first place, ethnic enclaves appear to offer residents a psychological sense of security which is simultaneously counter balanced by an equal sense of insecurity especially during any ethnic conflict. Secondly, since most Nigerians tend to vote along ethnic lines, ethnic enclaves may make themselves easy targets for discrimination by a government that is not supported during an election. Thirdly, land use may assume different and discordant colouration based on tribal attitudes and habits irrespective of planning laws. It is therefore common to see neighborhoods in laid-out areas experiencing different dimensions of environmental restructuring in planned residential areas, a phenomenon which is fast resulting into many residential areas developing into unsightly landscape. Based on these findings the study offers suggestions as to how socio-cultural settings of residents can be integrated into the city residential planning. The need to plan in line with the economic realities of the city dwellers is also emphasized in the study.


Introduction
The nature of human socio-cultural patterns and their relationships with the process of urban residential pattern have received the attention of urban researchers since the last millennium.McGree's (1971) discomfort with the application of western standards of urbanization to third world situations, justifies the need for research on the peculiarities of the third world cities.Extensive efforts have been made in this direction in the third world generally and in Nigeria in particular, as can be seen in the works of Mabogunje (1968), Ayeni (1979 ) and Okpala (1981).Other studies on the importance of residential land use in urban areas include those carried out by Onakerhoraye (1984); Okewole (1997), Omirin (1998), Adindu and Ogbonna (1998), Adedibu, Opeloyeru and Ibraheem (1998), Egunjobi (1999) and Olayiwola (2000).Most of these studies show that urban areas are of enormous political, social, economic and cultural importance to the various regions in which they are located.The importance of these cities in societal development derives from their unique roles as centers of innovation, adoption, diffusion and growth.They therefore propel the growth of societies and are able to attract to themselves large numbers of people from the hinterlands.
Lagos is the commercial nerve center of Nigeria and the West African sub region.It therefore attracts people from all parts of Nigeria and West African sub-region countries.Over 300 ethnic groups in the country are all represented in Lagos (Odumosu, 1999).As a result, most of these ethnic group settled in different parts of Lagos, thus traditional ethnic enclaves had developed prior to national independence in 1960.These areas have retained their identities and have grown to be influential in the structure of the city politics, religion and social setting compositions.Despite the abundance of town planning laws and land use policies, the city growth has been heavily influenced by the social-cultural peculiarities of dominant ethnic enclaves.This is however not surprising as it has long been established in urban land use that behaviour setting is a notion that has congruent relationships with milieus and human behaviour.Such relationships are consistent with "synomophy of behaviour and milieus."Barkes, (1968), recommended the need for organized research to determine the causes in order to provide a rational explanation (Okewole, 1998).

Theoretical Context
Various approaches have been used to explain the setting of urban areas.Among these approaches which are both descriptive and quantitative in nature are the Burgess (1925) Concentric Zones Models, Hoyt's (1939) Sector Model; and Ullman's (1945) Multiple Nuclei Model.These three models are described as ecological models.Other models include the Social Area Analysis and Factorial Ecology.Some of the models are not so general but they deal with specific urban features.Wingo's (1961) and Alonso's (1964), land use models are micro-economic models of urban land values.Central to this study are those attempts, which strive to categorize settings according to their capacity to affect the behaviour of their inhabitants.This attempt to unravel "person-environmental fit", according to Rapoport (1977), constitutes the core of the environmental approach to urban form.Caplan (1983) believes that residents will find fulfillment if neighborhoods are planned and built in relation to their expectations as expressed in the social-cultural and physical elements of housing areas.
The line of argument of Caplan (1983) is that such approach is not entirely novel in Nigeria.For example, Mabogunje (1974) argued that four socio-economic indicators namely employment, liveability, manageability (of the environment) and serviceability (of the social services and amenities) will provide good measures of the quality of environment and by extension, the level of satisfaction derivable from it by its inhabitants.These attributes, he stressed have collective and individual effects on consumers' satisfaction with homes.Okewole's (1987) comparative analysis of adaptation of selected residential environment in Ibadan, Nigeria unravelled the importance of socio-cultural elements' roles on residents adaptation to new residential settings.Afon (1997) and Nwanikowe (1998) researched into "environmental quality indicators" and satisfaction level of housing environmental elements" in the core areas of Ogbomoso, and Benin in Nigeria.
Elsewhere outside Nigeria, the users satisfaction theory pioneered by Barker (1968) emphasize that when a congruent relationship exists between two-component milieu and standard pattern of behaviour, situation of synomorphy of behaviour and milieu arises.Unfortunately in arriving at this, Barker did not take into consideration other socio-cultural, political and environmental variables which may equally affect residents' behaviour.The influence of economic variables are stressed by Freeman (1973) as they affect residents response to their environment.Freeman is of the opinion that the satisfaction derived by residents will depend on the amount of valuable services performed by the environment for the economy.Galster and Hessor (1981) classified the influence of variables influencing resident satisfaction into "composition" elements and "contextual" elements.The compositional elements they observed are those attributes which relate to resident characteristics such as social class, stage in the life cycle and economic status.Contextual attributes on the other hand, are the physical characteristics of dwellings and the neighbourhoods.
Studies on the influence of socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the people on the physical fabric of their environment have been approached by scholars in various ways.Good Child (1974) noted that residents' decision on the way they restructure their environment closely relate to efforts to remake their surrounding into a form more like that of their perceived "ideal image".These images vary from person to person.Rapoport, (1977) note individual aspiration to achieve culturally derived satisfaction.
Fried and Gleicher (1961) emphasize the importance of psychological and emotional attachment of residents to their local area.They identified kinship ties, neighbour relationships, localism in close inter-personal relationships, stability of tenure, perception of the local area as a home and sense of identity with local areas as strong factors influencing residents satisfaction.Marris (1920) in the study of the re-housing scheme of residents moved from Lagos Island to Surulere concluded that the newly resettled residents were dissatisfied with the planned environment as it failed to meet the communal living and closely built forms which they were used to in their former Lagos Island location.
From the foregoing literature and conceptual issues, it can be seen that physical planning has a great responsibility to come up with peculiar residential designs that will fulfill specific users' needs in terms of socio-economic and cultural expectations.This will involve constant modification of established principles, concepts and models of residential area planning and will, no doubt, pose a great deal of challenge but will be based on principles of planning with the people.

The Study Area
Metropolitan Lagos is located in the south-western (see Figure 1) part of Nigeria.It is the largest metropolitan area in Nigeria (Ayeni 1979).Framing the southern part of the study area is the Atlantic Ocean.Lekki settlement forms the eastern boundary, while on the northern boundary is the landmass of Ikorodu in Ikorodu and Alagbado towards Abeokuta and Sango-Otta, a satellite town which lies at the boundary of Lagos and Ogun States.Badagry and Republic of Benin land mass defines the western boundary of the study area (see Figure 2).Until 1991 Lagos was the capital city of Nigeria, a country of about 120 million population.The population of Lagos today is estimated to be about 12 million people on a built-up land area of about 18,558 Hectares made up of about 9,669 hectares (52.1%).residential, commercial, 1,021 hectares (5.5%); industrial, 1,448 hectares (7.8%); institutional and special areas, 2,784 hectares (14%); transportation 3,340 hectares (18%), and open spaces 52 hectares (2.8%).The implication of the population on land is that the city average population density per hectare is about 650 persons.Nigeria has about 300 ethnic groups and there is hardly any Nigerian ethnic group without her representation in Lagos.Interestingly traditional ethnic enclaves or residential areas developed prior to the national independence in 1960 and these areas have retained their identities and they have grown to be influential on the structure of the city politics, religion and social setting, However it must be noted that there is preponderance of neighbourhoods of mixed ethnic compositions, in metropolitan Lagos.

Ethnic composition of metropolitan Lagos
Metropolitan Lagos is the most heterogeneous single settlement in Nigeria.Apart from the major indigenous ethnic groups that originally inhabited the area, there has been tremendous influx of people of all ethnic groups from other parts of the country since the colonial period.Being the former capital before the movement of the nation's capital to Abuja, in 1991, it has attracted different people from many parts of the world.The original inhabitants of the city are the Ijebu and Aworis who now occupy respectively the eastern part at Bariga and Somolu while the later group, the Aworis occupy the central part from Lagos Island and eastward to Oshodi, Egbeda, Igando and Ijanikin.Mabogunje (1968) also notes that the diversity of ethnic composition of Lagos favoured massive immigration into the city.Odumosu (1999) notes that of the estimated 9 million population of the city the Yoruba migrants from South-Western Nigeria account for 61.31% while the other ethnic groups in Nigeria constitute 20.96%.Tribal proportions of the Yoruba population can be given as follows Egbas (22.62%),Ijebu (33%), Ondo (13.93%),Oyo (15.4%) and llorin (6.18%).Of the 20.96% non-Yoruba ethnic groups, the Ibos from south-eastern Nigeria constitute (55%), the Edos from the south-middle area, constitute (15%), the Ijaws from the south south constitute (10%), the Hausa-Fulani about 15% and other groups about (10%).Among these ethnic groups are the Isokos, Urhobos, Ukwanis and Igbiras.People of other West African countries such as Ghana, Sierra-Leone, Liberia, Benin, Cameroon and other African countries also reside in Lagos.Citizens of European origin, Russians, Americans, Germans, Japanese, Indians, Lebanese among others are significantly residence in Lagos.

Evolution of major land uses in metropolitan Lagos
According to the Master Plan for Metropolitan Lagos (MPML) urban land use was approximately 1772 square kilometers in 1985.(Master Plan for Metropolitan Lagos, Vol. 1).The major part about, 97.5 per cent, was in the contiguous built-up area which generally falls within a broad triangle having a base of about 30 kilometers along the Bight of Benin extending from Lekki, Maroko and Ikoyi westwards to Ojo Ijanikin.The north-south part of the triangle covers a distance of about 26 kilometers from Lagos Island to Alagbado in the southern and northern ends respectively.A detached portion of the Lagos urban development surrounds Ikorodu.This 2.5 per cent of the total metropolitan area is separated from the contiguous area of the metropolis.The 1976 study by the Master Plan Project Unit in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program shows that the metropolis occupied 17,228 hectares of land and had an estimated population of 3,300,000 estimate.This translates to an overall population density of nearly 200 persons per hectare of developed land area in residential use, which includes abutting streets.Other ancillary units such as schools and churches account for 8939 hectares of all urban land, representing 51.9 percent of total land area.The 2005 masterplan review by the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development shows that in the total built up area of Lagos, 10,341 hectares, representing 52% of the total is residential.
In colonial Lagos, there was a sharp contrast in the morphology and quality of housing between the European, the educated Africans (Saros), the Brazilians and the indigenes.Each social and racial group settled in different quarters.The contrast was typified on the Lagos Island.The Europeans, lived along the Marinas, the educated Africans dwelt mainly on west of the Europeans, the Olowogbowo area, and the Brazilian behind the Europeans.The Brazilian quarters were known as Portuguese Town or Popo Aguda or Popo Saro.The indigenes settled on the rest of the Island behind the three quarters earlier mentioned (Akinsemoyin, 1968).On the mainland were many indigenous settlements then under the former Western Region of Nigeria.For example, Ikeja still retains parts of the indigenous settlements.However, these have been reduced drastically in size and in less than two decades, it is projected that these ethnic enclaves will disappear altogether in the face of massive changes brought about by urbanization, and they will all be transformed into commercial land use.It is not only in Ikeja where such inner core settlements exist.Some are found in Opebi Village, Abule Coker, Ipodo and Abule Egun in the central area.Still others exist in Agege, Isheri, Iwaya, Ketu, Somolu, Bariga and Lawanson among other places.
The population growth rate of Lagos has serious implications for the trend of urban land use development.First, there is high demand for housing, the supply of which has been far short of need.Also there is acute shortage of infrastructure in the area of water supply, waste collection and disposal, road network, and electricity supply.The housing situation is often further complicated by indiscriminate erection of substandard structures by residents who cannot afford standard housing and some of the sub-urban areas most affected include satellite settlements of Amuwo, Abule Egba, Alagbado, Ajegunle and Ibeju Lekki.The pressure on land, it is believed, is caused by lack of town planning integration and with social and economic development, limited supply of land and prohibitive pricing of available land in the fringes.In the central area, the few land areas available are not made available for sale.Also another major cause of lack of land in the market has been land speculation.
The medium-grade residential area, according to Mabogunje's (1974) classification consists of residential areas of Surulere, Yaba, and Ebute-Metta, characterized by houses of grid iron patterns set within a mosaic of small plots of about 300 square metres.Most of the buildings in these areas used to be bungalows but have been pulled down and replaced with storey buildings in response to economic demands.The low-grade residential district in the inner city are in Ebute-Metta West, Ojuelegba, Obalende and inner Ikeja.Though these areas started as slum areas, they have been improved reasonably.The poorest land grade areas are in Mushin, Somolu, Ajegunle, Ajeromi, Agege, and Yaba East.These areas were never planned.The problems of these areas are further compounded by urbanization, which encouraged intensification of land leading to increasing housing density.As stated in the 1985 Metropolitan Lagos Master Plan in terms of spatial distribution of residential districts, seven communities can be identified in Lagos Island Area with population ranging from 13,000 to 113,000.These include Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki and Obalende Areas.In the Lagos Mainland, eleven communities identified, with population ranging from 11,000 to 740,000.In Ikeja area, 10 communities made up of large industrial and institutional area can be identified.The population of these communities varies from 50,000 to 200,000.In Somolu areas ten communities can be identified with population ranging from 120,000 to 179,000.Ikorodu and its three adjacent villages have a population estimated at 92,000.Industrial and storage uses currently account for about 7.8 per cent of the developed area representing a land area of 1448 hectares.87.7 per cent of the industrial and storage land was found in a total of eleven industrial estates.The distribution of commerce and industry throughout the built-up areas appears relatively even.
Institutional and special uses include universities and colleges, hospitals, army cantonments, police college and barracks.These classes of uses occupy about 2784 hectares (or 14 per cent) of the built-up areas.The largest component of this use classification is the Ojo Cantonment along Badagry Expressway.The trend of church and mosque development has tremendous effect on the urban landscape setting of the city.An average of about eight worship centres can be observed per square kilometer of any residential area except in private estates within Lagos Metropolis.Two airports serve Lagos, both of which are located in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State.The airports are the old Local Airport and the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.Two major seaports also serve Lagos, namely the Apapa Wharf and the Tin Can Port.Transportation facilities occupy 3340 hectares (or 18.0%) of the total development area.

Procedure for selecting the studied residential neighbourhoods
The review of literature and personal reconnaissance survey showed that Lagos metropolis has 224 identifiable residential neighbourhoods.Each of these residential densities were used as the basis for residential classification in this study.The type and number of the different categories are shown in table 1.From table 1, there are 32 residential neighbourhoods representing 14.3% of the total as cores areas, high density 152 (67.84%), medium density 20 (8.93%) and low density 20 (8.93%).Twenty percent (i.e.45) of the total number of neighbourhoods in the study area were administered with questionnaire.This means that 7 neighbourhoods were picked in the core areas, 30 out of the high density, and 4 each in the medium and low density areas respectively.A total of 200 questionnaires on which analysis was based were distributed to household heads and recovered.The distribution pattern of the questionnaires and locations where the samples were taken are as follows.In the core area a total of 30 questionnaires were administered covering the following areas.Igbosere, Ajegunle, Itire, Onike, Bariga, Ikeja, Oshodi and Agege.In the high density, medium density and low density areas, 130, 20 and 20 questionnaires were respectively administered.The questionnaires were distributed through systematic random sampling in the neighbourhood sampled, while the neighbourhoods were picked through stratified random sampling.

Data Analysis
Data obtained were analyzed through the principal component analytical method.The responses of respondents base on the determinants of residential choice in metropolitan Lagos namely: location, quality of the environment, custom/tradition, ethnic origin, social status, economic status, cost of land/rent, land tenure system/laws, town planning regulations, and technical infrastructure, were sampled.
Respondents were asked to respond on "Yes" or "No" terms to variables identified as factors which, influence their choice of areas in which they reside.The results obtained are indicated in table 2. While 182 of the respondents, which represent 91% of the total respondents indicated that economic status influenced, their choice of residential area 134 (67%) indicated social status while 120 (60%) said their choice was influenced by custom and traditions of the community they live in.Responses on other variables are cost of land/rent 122 (61%), land laws and tenure system 64 (32%), town planning regulations 77, (38.5%), technical infrastructure 97 (48.5%), quality of environment 106 (53%) and location 110 (55%) response.
On the issue of ethnic structure of residents in Lagos, a detailed analysis was done and the data obtained show that many ethnic immigrants into Lagos prior to independence in 1960 came into Lagos to join their kinsmen and this automatically led to their indoctrination into the communal life system similar to their home of origin.They ultimately settled permanently in these areas, usually through purchase of land.Through this process, the Ibo from the south-east of Nigeria are mostly found in Ajegunle and Festac.The Egbas (Yoruba) in Abule Egba meaning Egba village, Ojokoro, and Agege and the Aworis (Yoruba) at Ipaja, Egbeda, Igando and Mafoluku.The Hausas from northern Nigeria are common at Obalende, Itire and Agege, while the Ijebus are commonly found at Somolu (see figure 3).. Areas with relatively mixed ethnic composition are usually in the government laid out residential neighbourhoods where economic factors solely determine who resides.These areas include the Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki Schemes Government Reservation Areas (GRA), which include Apapa GRA, Surulere, Ogudu GRA, Ikeja GRA, and Adeniyi Jones.All these low-density residential areas are fairly mixed in terms of ethnic compositions.
To further analyse the variables influencing residents choice of neighbourhoods, the study employed the principal component technique to reduce the variables to manageable number The results of the component loading of all variables are shown in table 3 Table 4 shows the result of the extraction process when the ten variables (determinants of residential area choice) were subjected to principal component analysis.The ten factors have been reduced to three, which gives account of all the other factors.The first is economic status, the second social status and the third ethnic origin.It can be observed that in table 4 the first factor has an Eigen value of 4.785, which is the relative magnitude, and proportion of variance accounted for by the first variable.Usually the first Eigen value accounts for the highest variance in the data set.The first component also explains 47.853% of the variance of the data, while the first three components accounts for 71.107%.The first three components, which account for 71 (107%) of the variance in the data are retained.This is based on the criterion that the three factor components have at least 50% of the total variation based on Spence's (1968) specification.
Table 5 reveals the component loading for each primary variable of the three components when they are subjected to varimax rotation.Based on Logan (1970) suggestion that loading of 0.40 and more are considered to be high, the first factor which accounted for 47.853% of the total variance loads highly on economic status, social status and ethnic status whereas the second factor which accounted for 12.185% loads relatively low on all the variables.The same scenario is observed on the third factor which accounted for 11.069%, loads relatively low on all the variables.Economic status, social status and ethnic status load highly on only the first factor.The implication of this is that improvement or otherwise in economic status will have significant implication on respondents' decision on choice of residence in Lagos.

Planning implications of findings and suggestions
As stated in the Lagos Metropolitan Master Plan and observed in this study the spatial pattern of areas predominantly occupied by specific ethnic groups shows that they are located in specific areas in the city.The Egbas are in the northern part of the city and the main reason for this could have been the fact that they originally migrated into Lagos through this direction .The case of the Ijebus bear similar explanation.The Hausas are found mostly around the city center due probably to the historical fact that administratively the Hausas were predominantly in charge of central administration of government when Lagos was the seat of government.Thus they are at Lagos Island (Obalende and Ikoyi) and it is not surprising that the Hausas have firm control of tenure around these locations.Their settlement at Itire may have been due to the resettlement programme of people in Lagos Island to Surulere and Itire.While the Yoruba and Ibo stock occupied the Surulere part, the Hausa resettled at Itire.This scenario where people of different socio-cultural backgrounds are within a metropolis under common planning legislations poses great planning challenges.The problem is highlighted by the response of respondents whose definition of environmental fit variously expressed psychological satisfaction with their environment as they are among their kinsmen.Planning problems are common in the core areas and the high-density neighborhoods.In the medium and low-density areas adjustment to common planning control and standards is by contrast less problematic because of the relative economic prosperity of residents.
It was also discovered that in some of the core areas and high density neighborhoods problems of land titling and tenure are evident.Most dwellers here are actually squatters and they have settled in these areas for over five decades.Government being aware of this, is reluctant to provide basic technical and social infrastructure in some of these areas as a way to discourage people from consolidating their false tenure.Therefore many of these areas have deteriorated into terrible slums and major urban renewal of total clearance might be required.In addition many of these slums are within water catchments areas.This further complicates development as most of the dwellers are unable to muster the resources to develop such a difficult terrain to the standard approved by planning law.It is also a common knowledge that Nigerians do vote along ethnic lines during elections.Political control of Lagos is usually not by the same political party with the government at the center; given the fact that the government in Lagos is traditionally an opposition government.This has been the situation since independence.The State government is usually reluctant to improve the physical condition of areas inhabited by supporters of the opposition, which are usually of non-Yoruba ethnic dominance.As a result these areas are not usually given fair attention in terms of regularization of land title, provision of social and technical infrastructure among others.These areas are also flashpoints during political crisis as they are usually easy to identify.With increasing socio-economic and ethnic mix in the medium and low density areas it is hoped that better understanding will emerge among ethnic groups in the city.This will lead to better understanding of planning problems in these ethnic enclaves as well as greater responsiveness by policy makers.Such understanding will provide a good platform for pragmatic planning policies that will take into consideration specific planning needs and aspirations of different ethnic groups in Lagos.

Conclusion
This paper has been an exploration of the nature of the ethnic structure of one of Africa's most dynamic cities, Lagos.The paper emanates from the theoretical position that socio-economic and cultural variables are major determinants of people's environmental fit.It concludes that there is need for policy makers to take cognizance of the specific nature of problems encountered by various ethnic and residential areas in Lagos when generating planning standards and policies.The central issue in physical development of residential areas being the real needs of different areas, politics should not be the major determinant of land use and provision of public infrastructure.

Table 1 .
Classification of existing residential neighbourhoods in metropolitan lagos

Table 2 .
Responses on variables influencing choice of residential areas in metropolitan lagos

Table 3 .
: Component loading of variables

Table 5 .
components loading for each primary variable