Shelter is a fundamental human need, but homelessness in Nigeria is reaching alarming proportions, particularly in urban areas like Lagos. According to data from the World Population Review, Nigeria has the highest number of homeless people in the world, with an estimated 24 million individuals lacking a permanent home.

This staggering figure includes not only those living on the streets but also those residing in informal settlements and other inadequate housing conditions. Many of these dwellings lack access to basic services such as water, electricity, and proper sanitation.

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and largest city, is at the forefront of this homelessness crisis. Research indicates that approximately two-thirds of Lagos residents live in informal settlements, including unapproved developments, abandoned buildings, and partially completed structures.

The situation in Lagos has been exacerbated by the government’s aggressive demolition campaigns, which have displaced thousands of people without providing adequate alternative accommodation. These demolitions are often carried out under the guise of enforcing building regulations and preventing the spread of slums. However, critics argue that they are primarily driven by a desire for urban renewal and gentrification.

The growing homelessness crisis in Nigeria is a reflection of the country’s deep-seated inequality and lack of affordable housing options for low-income earners. It is a humanitarian crisis that requires urgent attention and comprehensive solutions from the government and other stakeholders.

Some residents were discovered recently to be residing under one of the many bridges in the city and were paying rents to a faceless landlord until their “homes” were demolished by the state authorities.

The homeless situation in Lagos is made worse by a combination of factors, including the state’s tenancy laws which tend to favour house owners or landlords, economic situation, forced evictions and the gale of demolition that has become a major item in the state government’s development agenda.

The state government under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s watch has, in the last couple of months, gone on building demolition in a manner that has defied understanding of its real intent and purpose in a city where many find homes in odd places including under the bridge.

The exercise has been so frantic and frenetic that people have begun to attach meanings to it. For instance, a priest at the Celestial Life Ministry has described the state government’s demolition binge as a genocide against non-indigenes of the state. The priest, in a trending video, alleged that the demolition may have been targeted at people who did not vote for the party in power in the last election.

Victims of these demolitions usually accuse government of being insensitive to the plight of the poor and also failing to give them adequate notice before coming with their bulldozer to demolish their houses.

But the state government, on its part, accuses the victims of occupying illegal spaces or erecting illegal structures, breaching the state’s town planning regulations, and generally hurting the environment with their unplanned and unapproved developments, describing such developments as illegal structures.

The government has therefore, gone brutal on these illegal structures and its angry bulldozer, which can visit neighbourhoods at any time of the day or night, is no respecter of persons or locations, leaving on its trail wailings and lamentations as it turns buildings of various configurations into ruins and rubbles.

Across the state, demolition has happened and has affected both the high and low neighbourhoods where the state has seen infractions in its town planning regulations.

The demolition spree in Lagos has affected not only residential areas but also commercial and religious structures. Upscale neighborhoods like Banana Island, Ajao Estate, Ikota in Lekki, and Abule-Ado have all witnessed the destruction of buildings.

Markets and worship centers have also been targeted by local government authorities. Several markets have been demolished, leaving traders without a place to earn a living.

Victims of these demolitions have shared harrowing tales of losing their homes and businesses, as well as the trauma caused by the forceful and often brutal evictions.

“I am homeless now since the government came a few days ago and demolished my house for reasons I don’t understand. None of us living in this neighbourhood can tell you that he or she has any notice from government that they were coming to demolish our houses. I live everything to God; this is a house that I built with my sweat,” a victim, who identified himself simply as Samuel, told this reporter.

Udom is another victim of demolition who was one of the Lagosians that had their “homes” under the bridge where they were said to be paying exaggerated N250,000 rent because, he said his rent was N20,000 and not N250,000.

He told our reporter that he worked as a driver with one of the banks in Ikoyi and so he needed to stay close by so that he could resume work early.

“I felt sad, the day my house was demolished, to see all my property scattered all over the place. I don’t know why the government is treating us like animals. We don’t have money to rent good houses but the one we can afford government will come and destroy it without providing another place for us to live,” Udom said amid sobs.