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James Ojo Adakole
In the good old days, surviving in Lagos was a lot easier for the horde of residents who were unfortunate to fall into the low income category. These days, low income Lagosians have to fight a far tougher battle to keep body and soul together as the cost of living in the state spirals every day. If it were possible for late Afrobeat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, to do a remix of his hit song, Suffering and Smiling, one wonders what the lyrics would be, even as residents brace the odds in a daily struggle to survive the prohibitive high cost of living in the state.
Take the case of 26-year-old Opara Charity, 26, who wakes up around 5:30 am everyday to prepare for work. She lives in Ojodu area of the metropolis Lagos and works at the General Hospital, Lagos Island. Rising early has been a routine exercise for her, but these days she is now filled with frustration as she often gets to work late because of the crippling gridlock that often happens during the morning rush on Lagos roads.
Her anger goes beyond that. She spends huge chunk of her monthly salary (N50,000) on transportation. Every day, she spends N500, which amounts to N15,000 in a month- which is 30 per cent of her monthly income. But for the fact that she is still living with her parents, her situation would have been worse.
“It has not been easy. I have to wake up early to get a bus or Keke to where I work. The experience is even worse whenever it rains, because you have to pay higher than on a normal day. Even when the weather is normal, you have to struggle to get a bus to where you work. The same thing happens when you are returning home from work, because by then, the bus-stops would be packed with people already. In a day, I spend nothing less than N500 naira on transportation alone. So, it is really not easy,” she told Sunday Sun.
Linda’s experience is a fragment of what many low-income earners go through in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub. Lagos is one of the most sought-after cities in the country. It is the largest commercial city in Africa, and the seventh fastest growing city in the world according to a Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung (HBS) Foundation research. The state currently has a population of about 22million people with the figure expected to hit 35 million in 2020. Its population is estimated to be growing at 10 times faster than that of New York and Los Angeles, and more than the population of 32 African nations combined.
The increasing population has put more burdens on the city’s low-income earners, chief among which is the high cost of living in the state, especially accommodation and transportation.
The Mercer 2019 Cost of Living Survey found that Lagos is the fourth costliest city in Africa and 25th in the in the world. The Mercer report stated that factors such as currency fluctuation, cost of inflation for goods and services and volatility in accommodation prices contribute to the overall cost of expatriate packages for employees on international assignments.
Again, a 2018 Global Liveability Index report released by The Economist Intelligence Unit and World Bank, ranked Lagos as the third worst city to live in the world, only better than Syria and Bangladesh – two cities which have been grappling with several unrests. Five key indicators taken into consideration by the ranking included: political and social stability, education, culture, environment, infrastructure and access to healthcare.
Accommodation problem is rife in Lagos, a situation caused by the small land mass. The state has the least land mass in Nigeria, despite its huge population, leading to a high demand for accommodation. The resultant effect has been high cost of rent.
Some low-income earners who spoke with Sunday Sun chronicled how they struggle to survive. Genevieve Aningo said: “Well I don’t know if Lagos State is the fourth costliest city in Africa and 25th globally. All I can say is that Lagos is very expensive. And why it is so expensive is what bothers people like me. The roads are nothing to write home about. We are not getting anything qualitative. The only good thing about Lagos is because of the job opportunities that we have here and even at that, most of these jobs underpay. So, why then is it so unnecessarily expensive?
The cost of transportation keeps rising. Where we used to pay N100 before, it is now N150. Housing is another issue in Lagos. For you to get a rent flat for N300,000 in Lagos, it has to be in one of the outskirts of the city; shops are very expensive too. Like in Trade Fair Complex for instance, people pay up to N1 million to secure a shop. Food is expensive. There is one restaurant where I regularly eat, the woman who runs the place said she won’t sell food for less than N300. So, yes, Lagos State is really expensive. And it still bothers me why things are that expensive. The production companies are cited here, so this is where most goods are produced and it costs little to transport them to the end users.
The environment is even unhealthy and yet things are expensive.”
Agreeing with Genevieve’s claim, Mr. Amadi Ikenna lamented about the pressure cooker life in Lagos. “Lagos is a noisy and fast-paced state. You have to be under intense pressure to meet up. The cost of living is very high,” he said.
Mrs Damilola Agbejule chipped in: “The cost of living in Lagos is really expensive when compared to other states. There was a time I traveled to Ibadan for an event. One of my brothers living there got a three-bedroom flat for about N180,000; meanwhile are paying N500,000 or N800,000 for a similar flat in Lagos. The electricity bill is outrageous. My family pays huge amounts of money for various bills every month. To eat is another problem. Things are so expensive. People are just struggling to survive.
I pity people who work in places that are far away from the places where they live. Aside the stress one undergoes due to traffic, one also has to spend huge amount on transportation. For instance, when I was going to Yaba College, I normally paid N250 as bus fare from Iyana Ipaja to Yaba. But sometimes when it rains or drivers learn of slow traffic ahead, they can suddenly raise the fare to N400 or even N500, to cover for the time they waste in slow traffic. I once paid N600 from Iyana Ipaja to Yaba. I just had no choice. Lagos is really stressful, if I have my way, I will rather live in another state that is not as expensive as Lagos.”
Lukpata James, another resident of Lagos, observed that he State is gradually becoming elitist in nature, noting that low-income earners are pushed to live in places that are not sanitary, all in a bid to eke out a living.
“The recent ranking of Lagos is just a reflection of things on ground. Things are really expensive in this part of the country. The annual rent on a mini-flat goes for as high as N450,000 in some areas. How do you expect the low-income earners to survive in such environment? Even makeshift shanties are not affordable in Lagos,” he told Sunday Sun.
In the same vein, Mr. Igiri Israel who commented on the ranking about Lagos said: “I am not surprised at all. One would always expect Lagos to be amongst the costliest cities in Africa. The cost of living in Lagos is very expensive. And that is why a lot of persons come to the city and then leave after spending four to five years. Talking about transportation, you could spend up to N2000 on transportation to get to work and go home, daily, depending on where you reside. For example, people who work in places like Apapa, the Island and the rest, and live in Ikorodu, would spend at least N2000 daily on transportation alone. Whether you are using a car, bus or a motorcycle, you have to be loaded financially before going out. Most times, transportation takes over 55 percent of their monthly salaries and that is outrageous.”
Israel explained further: “With just N1,000 naira I believe one can tour round Enugu City or even Calabar. But you can’t try that in Lagos, even N10,000 naira will not be enough for you to tour around the city of Lagos. Housing is another expensive thing in Lagos. You need to have millions of naira to get a good apartment at the Island even if it is a flat. While the cost of housing at the Mainland is cheaper than that of the Island, the truth still remains that you still need a huge sum of money to get a good apartment there. Places like Festac, Ikeja, Ogba, Yaba, Surulere, Magodo, Satellite Town, and the rest are very expensive too. To get a place which is a bit fair in cost, you have to go to the outskirts of the city. The truth is that even to get a good self-contained apartment (mini-flat), you need a huge amount of money. To rent a shop too, you have to be loaded with cash. Even at the mainland, you cannot rent a shop with N100,000 naira these days.
The bills you pay for electricity bills are outrageous in the city because a lot of households do not have pre-paid meters. Sometimes, you find a bungalow of about four or five rooms being charged up to N10,000 for a month. The sad thing is that the debt keeps accumulating when you do not redeem them. It is a sad situation.
Feeding is another to consider. To feed well, you need to spend much. Go to the streets to buy fresh tomato for example, you will be surprised to see the number of tomato pieces that would be given to you for N200 naira. To cook a good pot of soup, you need to spend much because the prices of food ingredients have really increased.
Lagosians are already used to the expensive nature of the city and that is why anyone who can survive in Lagos can survive in any other part of the world. Like Lagosians would always say: “Lagos no easy.” I am a testament to that fact because I have spent all my life in Lagos. So, if you see anyone living in Lagos, be it Mainland or Island, you have to commend that person because indeed, Lagos is not easy.”
Ngozi, a businesswoman, when requested to comment on survey ranking of Lagos, said: “Life in Lagos, I will agree is very expensive. You know as a typical Nigerian, we suffer and smile. We have taken it in our stride that it is an everyday thing that we must survive. Even when you come in and you don’t have anything to eat, you still have to step out the next day. A situation where you spend money to throw your garbage away, you use money to buy things in the market and also use money to dispose those that are not useful, basically everything you do in Lagos is money.
Take for instance, a situation where the landlord will lay the financial burden of his family on you. My neighbor was recently embarrassed when her rent expired and she was not able to renew it after one week. She appealed to the landlord to allow her pay for six months while making arrangement to leave, but the man said no and insisted that she must pay for the one year and maybe get a refund when she wants to leave. These are some of things we see every day in Lagos. This city should be made to serve everybody equally.
So, it is really expensive but we don’t have choice, you have to struggle to survive, somehow. Transport compared to other places is high too. I have been to Ibadan and Aba among others. The cost of transportation is not as prohibitive as what you have in Lagos.
The only thing we can do is to try to adapt to the situation. If you don’t have transport money, you trek, that is why you see people trekking every morning. You may think they are going to somewhere near, but they are not. Most of them are going a long distance but have to cover some part on foot to reduce the cost of transportation. Most people’s take home pay doesn’t take them home anymore.”
Stressing the need for government to implement measures capable of making things easy for low-come earners in the state, another woman, Chiamaka, said: “I have experiences with transportation and I must confess that it is very costly. In Abuja, transportation is very cheap when compared with Lagos. A place that is N100 in Abuja is very far but here in Lagos, that distance will be like N250. Then, when it comes to taking taxi or cab, I can comfortably take a cab of N500 or less to a far distance in Abuja but in Lagos if I don’t have at least N1,500 to pay for a short distance, I should not even bother to board one. Food is also quite cheap in Abuja when compared to Lagos. So, to me, everything is expensive in Lagos while in Abuja it is just accommodation that is expensive.”
On her part, Charity Orokpo urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to look into the plight of low-income earners in the Lagos. “We are only surviving by the grace of God in this state. You can imagine whenever it rains, the bus drivers would be charging N300 from Ikeja to Berger, which ordinarily should be N100. The government should address the situation because people are really enduring a lot in the state. How much is even the salary? Something should be done about it as soon as possible now that a new government is in charge.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Okpe David, expressed reservation about the recent ranking of Lagos, noting that when compared to other cities in the country, cost of living in Lagos remains low.
His words: “I don’t agree with that ranking because in Nigeria for instance, the cost of living in Abuja and Port Harcourt is higher than that of Lagos. In the first place, there is a high rate of competition in Lagos. We have the highest manufacturing companies here in Lagos. In fact, all producing companies in Nigeria have their headquarters in Lagos. So, Lagos in that regard is very competitive and that makes things cheap. Majority of the foods consumed are manufactured in Lagos, so I don’t agree with the ranking.
In terms of transportation, the reason for the high rate is not because Lagos is not competitive in terms of mobility, but because of the traffic situation and the dearth of feeder roads that are accessible, to make traffic flow easy. So, if we are using transportation as a yardstick for that ranking, I can agree.
From a positive angle, Lagos is a fertile land for opportunities because a lot of industrial enterprises. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) grow up here because the market is huge. There are lots of businesses which lead to lots of jobs opportunities, because of how centralized the state is too.”
