Beyond Demolition: What Makoko Reveals About the Gaps in Urban Governance
In December 2025, the Lagos State Government demolished parts of Makoko, a waterfront settlement in Lagos where many residents live in stilt houses and depend on fishing and informal trade for their livelihoods. The demolition affected homes, schools, and businesses, leaving many families without shelter or a source of income. Beyond the immediate destruction, it also disrupted children’s education and raised broader questions about how urban development decisions are planned and implemented.
Makoko is not alone. Across Africa, displacement is driven primarily by conflict and climate-related disasters, while development projects have also displaced communities in many urban and rural settings.
According to the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, shelter, education, and social security are not acts of goodwill but entitlements owed to displaced people. The same Principles prohibit arbitrary displacement and require that authorities explore all feasible alternatives before displacement occurs. These principles provide a standard for assessing whether urban development is implemented in ways that protect both people and infrastructure.
A Costly Toll on Children’s Education
When we visited the demolition site, the government had filled parts of the waterway with sand, while many residents still had nowhere to go. Some had nailed wooden sticks together, laid planks as a foundation, and used sacks to cover the four sides of makeshift shelters. We spoke with women in the fishing trade, community leaders, and teachers who were still around the demolition site. We heard their stories.
Rukayat, a mother of three whose home and fishing business were affected, said: “The rain fell on us yesterday because of the demolition of the houses here. If you can, help us talk to the governor to come to our aid with shelter and our children’s education.” Her appeal reflects how displacement rarely results in the loss of housing alone. Losing a home can also compromise economic security, personal safety, and children’s access to education.
A French school owner who has reportedly lived and operated in Makoko for 25 years shared: “I own a primary school (Grades 1–6) with up to 352 pupils. Immediately after the demolition, my work was halted. Before the demolition, the school was on the water, and we had to pick up our pupils from different points by canoe. We would like the government to assist in rebuilding the school.”
That single phrase, “my work was halted,” captures the sudden disruption of education and the loss of access to learning. By this account, the 352 pupils enrolled in that school experienced immediate disruption to their education. Vanguard reported that more than 1,000 children across the wider Makoko community reportedly had their education disrupted because their homes or schools were affected.
An intriguing and distinguishing feature of Makoko is its multilingualism and cultural diversity. The community includes Nigerians from the Egun ethnic group, as well as migrant communities from Togo and the Benin Republic. Although English is Nigeria’s official language, some schools adopted French as a primary language of instruction to support migrant children. These children are now at risk of facing language barriers in accessing education within a new community.
This presents an important equity concern. Any response to the demolition that does not account for linguistic diversity risks leaving migrant children with a double layer of displacement: first from their homes and then from a classroom where they can fully participate and learn.
The challenges remain significant. Children’s education has been disrupted, and families risk their lives living in unsafe conditions, exposed to rain and harsh weather.
What People-Centred Urban Governance Should Look Like
The government justified the December 2025 Makoko demolition as a public safety measure, stating that stilt homes, schools, and businesses located beneath high-tension power lines posed serious risks to residents (Channels Television, 2026). However, residents and civil society organisations alleged that the demolition extended beyond the designated safety corridor, resulting in the destruction of additional homes and livelihoods. If confirmed, this would place the demolition in tension with the UN Guiding Principles’ prohibition on displacement that exceeds what is strictly required to address the safety risk it is intended to remedy. It represents the kind of gap that inclusive governance is designed to address.
The experiences of Makoko residents reveal an underlying reality: there is still significant progress to be made in prioritising and effectively implementing urban governance decisions in ways that minimise their adverse impacts on residents. According to Premium Times, there was no publicly available evidence that temporary shelter, emergency housing, or education-in-emergencies support was provided for displaced residents. There is also no public evidence that residents had access to legal remedies to challenge the eviction, both of which the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-Based Evictions and Displacement (2007) identify as minimum procedural safeguards.
At the heart of every nation should be its people, and policies need to reflect this in practice, not just in writing. Beyond addressing power-line risks, provisions should have been made for shelter, education support, and social security. Government agencies cannot achieve this by operating in silos. The Ministry of Education, social protection agencies, and housing authorities should have been fully involved in the planning and decision-making process. Traditional rulers, community leaders, and local stakeholders deserve a formal seat at the decision-making table before demolition orders are issued, not afterwards. The same UN Guidelines require full consultation and participation of all affected groups throughout the eviction process, not merely after decisions have been finalised.
Decisions should be supported by evidence, including assessments of the homes, schools, and businesses likely to be affected, as well as education impact assessments conducted before implementation. Systems should also be designed to ensure inclusive education for displaced and mobile populations, including bilingual or minority-language learners and children with disabilities.
When governance systems function effectively, the negative impacts of urban development decisions on displaced families, children’s welfare, and access to education can be significantly reduced. This is one step towards building a future where evidence-informed policies guide present-day actions and where development does not come at the expense of children’s right to education.
Evidence-informed decision-making standards call for more than gathering evidence before acting. They require that equity be treated as a priority from the outset and that decisions be followed by monitoring and evaluation to ensure affected populations are not left in a worse situation. In Makoko’s case, this would mean tracking whether displaced children return to school and whether resettled families regain stable housing and livelihoods, not simply issuing a demolition order.
Inclusive urban governance is not only about building safer cities; it is about integrating evidence with equity, participation, and accountability to ensure that no community is left behind in the process.
The views expressed in this article are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations she is affiliated with.
