Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 02/2015

Governing Lagos: Unlocking the Politics of Reform

Diane De Gramont

January 2015

The Brookings Institution

Abstract

In fifteen years, Lagos has gone from being a symbol of urban disorder to a widely cited example of effective African governance. The Lagos State government has succeeded in multiplying its tax revenues and using these resources to restore basic infrastructure and expand public services and law enforcement. Extensive field research indicates that reform commitment in Lagos was driven by electoral pressures as well as elite ambitions to construct an orderly and prosperous megacity.