Tobias Sylvester
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, has once again made it into the record books for the wrong reasons as it has been ranked as the world’s most dangerous city.
In a newly released report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Lagos is ranked as the world’s most dangerous city to live in.
Tokyo, Japan’s capital city, was ranked the world’s safest city. While Singapore, Osaka, Amsterdam and Sydney occupy the second to fifth spots on the ranking.
According to TheCables, the report named “Safe Cities Index” ranked 60 cities across the world based on digital security, health, infrastructure and personal security; and Lagos scored the least on most of these parameters.
Lagos occupied the 56th spot on the digital security ranking and placed 58th on the infrastructure security ranking.
Nigeria’s most populous city ranked the least on the health and personal security tables.
“Urban management will play a fundamental role in defining the quality of life of most human beings in the coming years. A key element of this will be the ability of cities to provide security for their residents, businesses and visitors.
“A look at the top five cities in each pillar—digital, health, infrastructure and personal security—yields a similar message. In each area, leading cities got the basics right, be it easy access to high-quality healthcare, dedicated cyber-security teams, community-based police patrolling or disaster continuity planning”, the report stated.
The cities were ranked on the following explained parameters:
Digital security: Privacy policy, citizen awareness of digital threats, public-private partnerships, level of technology employed, dedicated cyber-security teams, percentage of computers infected, percentage with internet access.
Infrastructure security: Enforcement of transport safety, pedestrian friendliness, disaster management/business continuity plan, road network, power network, rail network, the percentage living in slums, air transport facilities.
Health security: Environmental policies, access to healthcare, number of beds per 1,000 population, number of doctors per 1,000 population, access to safe and quality food, quality of health services, air quality, water quality, emergency services in the city.
Personal security: Level of police engagement, community-based patrolling, available street-level crime data, use of data-driven techniques for crime, the prevalence of petty crime, gender safety (female homicide), level of corruption, rate of drug use.
The report also estimated that more than half of Lagos’ population live in slums; a development that Alioune Badiane, president of the Urban-Think Tank Africa (TUTTA), says is due to poor or insufficient planning.
“The main driver of insecurity is the extent of informal settlements. This arises not from a growing population per se, but poor or insufficient planning. It is not acceptable,” he says.
“We have a lot to do, but the number one priority is improved urban planning and better city management.”
This is the first time Lagos is featuring on the index.
