Well-being and citizenship in urban Nigeria. Urbanisation Research Nigeria (URN) Research Report.
Abstract
Well-being is increasingly used as a criterion to measure development outcomes, in the light of the now established critique of income as a satisfactory measure (UNDP, 1990). The aim of the key development policy document in Nigeria, Nigerian Vision 20:2020, is to improve the well-being of Nigerians.
However, as well-being is an emerging and contested concept, this report explores how the well-being of urban citizens is understood specifically in Nigeria, and identifies the key issues for urban well-being as expressed by a selection of key stakeholders in Nigerian society. This is an important task in the Nigerian context, which is characterised by impressive and sustained growth rates juxtaposed alongside increasing rates of both income poverty and subjective poverty.
This study analyses the discourses and views of 45 urban stakeholders strategically positioned at different levels of Nigerian society, as well as existing literature and documents.
Based on White’s (2010) framework for the analysis of well-being and contemporary conceptualisations of citizenship, the analysis reveals three main trends affecting urban well-being: (i) rapid demographic changes that make it difficult for government to respond with adequate planning and interventions; (ii) a number of governance issues, particularly regarding power distribution, lack of city-level governance and the role of the state; (iii) the existence of stratified citizenship characterised by unequal access to services and rights based on socio-spatial discrimination and notions of indigeneity.
Citation
Rigon, A.; Abah, S.; Dangoji, S.; Walker, J; Frediani, A.A.; Ogunleye, O.; Hirst, L. Well-being and citizenship in urban Nigeria. Urbanisation Research Nigeria (URN) Research Report. ICF International, London, UK (2015) v + 55 pp.
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