Africa and UN Population Fund’s Self-Evident Prediction

The UN Population Fund’s report, which was just released yesterday may sound newsy particularly with the prediction that a stupendous proportion—3.3 billion people—of the world’s growing population will, for the first time live in cities and towns by next year. As is often the case with such reports that are ritually-authored by renowned academic-experts—yesterday’s was written by Canadian sociologist and demographer, George Martine—and released by major international outfits, the aspects of its contents that will eventually make news may not reflect the more dire issues and challenges that it may contain.

For anyone who may be conversant with Africa, every city on the continent is already immersed in the blights of unplanned and unchecked urban growth. Are you talking about infrastructural decay and its manifestations by way of crime, pollution, etc. and the threats that they pose to people who reside in them, cities in South Africa and Nigeria will equally come to mind. Although, the differences in the dire condition of cities in South Africa and Nigeria are still in terms of day and night, they still threaten the existence of people who live in them all the same. The decay evident in South Africa’s downtown Johannesburg for instance ought to catch the attention of the ruling African National Congress, ANC for the particular reason that the victims are still poor blacks whose situation hasn’t improved in meaningful terms in the post-apartheid era.

However, hopes cannot be lost in the case of South Africa for the reason that, in spite of the ANC’s sluggish bearings in the expectations by many that it should rise up to the challenges of delivering the dividends of victory in the anti-apartheid struggle to the victims, indeed all South Africans, most of the elements and ingredients required to meet such challenges in a democratic society are already in place in South Africa. Such elements and ingredients include an ever-expanding democratic culture, which seems to show the capacity to hold political leaders to the obligation to conduct public business with responsiveness. One is talking about popular participation in the direction of the affairs of society.

Much to the contrary, Nigerian cities are in an endless precariousness altogether. The prospects of achieving the sort of democratic culture already in existent in South Africa in Nigeria are increasingly disappearing by the day. The increasing decay evident in every Nigerian city is reflective of the degeneration and decay that plagues Nigeria’s politics and the conduct of public affairs in Nigeria. In Nigeria, everyone’s obsession is the proceeds from the sale of the hydrocarbons being drilled with unparalleled recklessness in the Niger delta. Typically, impunity, and high-handedness in their worst varieties constitute the norms that characterize the conduct of public affairs in Nigeria. Corruption and the attendant cynicism that result manifest in such huge proportions that seem like they will nullify the chances of turning things around towards a healthy path in the conduct of public affairs in the Nigerian society.

The scare therefore is that for an indefinite period, every Nigerian city will continue to epitomize the worst indices cited in the just-released report by the UN Population Fund—lack of water and sanitation, terrible housing, etc.—that threaten “the environmental quality of the city” and those that dwell in it!