By Bashir Banjoko
Can Ikorodu be the model for metropolitan development in Lagos and beyond?
-Focusing on issues in the forthcoming elections
With last weekend’s announcement by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), the 2025 elections into the 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs have officially been set in motion. I have my idea of how I would like the elections to be conducted, focusing on transparency and inclusive participation, though that may seem far-fetched in this round. What is then the alternative? Provide some sort of contribution to the discourse on what the next LGA/LCDA administration should look like.
As we consider the future of local governance in Lagos, it’s worth examining the unique potential of Ikorodu Division specifically. Ikorodu LGA is comprised of six distinct areas: Ikorodu Central LCDA, Igbogbo/Bayeiku LCDA, Ikorodu West LCDA, Ikorodu North LCDA, Imota LCDA, and Ijede LCDA. A pertinent question emerges: Can the next administration across these six LCDAs work in synergy as a bloc without jeopardizing the independence and uniqueness of each area?
While chairmanship aspirants have been lobbying various stakeholders for their blessings, one critical element missing in that arrangement is each aspirant providing details of how their administration would be different from the current ones. One thing I hope to achieve with this write-up is to initiate discussions around Ikorodu-centric development initiatives that could be a model for other communities in the country. These ideas may seem ambitious, but in a country home to the richest Black man in billion-dollar terms and a division that has produced professionals and academics of international repute, we can only be limited by our imagination.
The Vision: A 21st Century Smart City
What I have in mind is a 21st-century compliant vision for transforming Ikorodu into a modern smart city that would blend innovation, local context, sustainability and strong collaborative governance among the 6 LCDAs.
The Ikorodu Advantage
Geographically, Ikorodu’s position is enviable. Located on the Lagos Lagoon with vast undeveloped land, it has been spared some of the extreme density issues plaguing other parts of Lagos.
The Division has already demonstrated promising developments—from the growth of tertiary institutions to industrial zones and growing commercial corridors. Yet what makes Ikorodu truly promising is not what it is today, but what it could become tomorrow through deliberate, coordinated evolution of its constituent parts.
A Different Path from Lagos’s Urban Core
The history of how Lagos’s urban core developed offers cautionary tales of unplanned growth, infrastructure strain, and inequality. Ikorodu stands poised to write a different story by embracing a polycentric development model where each LCDA develops distinct strengths while remaining connected to a cohesive whole.
Imagine Igbogbo/Baiyeku and Ijede LCDAs leveraging their waterfront for sustainable tourism and water transport innovations, while Imota specializes in educational excellence and agro-processing given its rice mill and vast agricultural zone in the area. While Ikorodu Central enhances its administrative and commercial primacy, it can also become a technology hub, leveraging the existing SAIL Innovation Lab. Each area contributes to a metropolitan ecosystem rather than competing in a zero-sum game for limited resources.
Smart Governance as the Foundation
Governance would need to be reimagined in order to achieve true innovation. Instead of six LCDAs operating independently, Ikorodu could lead the way with a “smart governance” approach that uses digital platforms to coordinate regional initiatives while maintaining local autonomy. In the context of Nigerian urban governance, this kind of balanced federalism at the metropolitan level would be groundbreaking.To address the fragmentation that has hindered Lagos’s development, there would be joint planning commissions, shared data systems, and collaborative infrastructure projects. This would not require constitutional amendments or extensive restructuring—only visionary leadership and a strategic application of existing frameworks.
The Human Capital Advantage
Ikorodu’s greatest untapped resource is its people. A cross-LCDA human capital development strategy could transform the area’s demographic dividend into economic vitality. By establishing specialized training centres, entrepreneurship hubs, and innovation zones across the six LCDAs—but accessible to all residents—Ikorodu could build a workforce ready for 21st-century opportunities.
Current human empowerment initiatives could be broadened to focus on the skills required in the new age. Vocational training in ICT, renewable energy, manufacturing, and agro-tech are other areas to where empowerment could be expanded.
Ikorodu Talent Academy that focuses on providing online training programmes and scholarship to talented individuals in STEAM could be established across all LCDAs.
Public schools should be empowered to compete favourably with their private counterparts. At least, each ward should have a primary school and a secondary school with the necessary facilities and teaching aids that make them attractive and viable.
Cross-LCDA Infrastructure Integration
One of Ikorodu’s most significant opportunities lies in the potential for infrastructure planning. This is an area where a lot of work is required to meet the exploding population growth in the Division. The plan should cover a coordinated approach to transportation, utilities, and digital connectivity. It won’t be out of place for the first streetcars (electric-powered public transport vehicles that run on tracks) in Nigeria to be in Ikorodu, connecting the LCDAs and adding smart mobility solutions. This would create a multi-modal network demonstrating how peripheral areas can be both interconnected and linked to the wider urban core.
A coordinated approach at lobbying the state and federal governments to complete ongoing projects and identifying other areas where state and federal funding would be needed. The proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge and the potential of water transportation give Ikorodu unique connectivity advantages.
Roads to incorporate AI-powered traffic lights to manage congestion and improve safety.
Healthcare Capacity Building
Each ward should have a healthcare centre and each LCDA with a general hospital. Healthcare delivery for pregnant women, children form 0 – 7 years and the elderly over 70 years should be free across board. We could also explore telemedicine in order to reduce the waiting times and congesting at the clinics and hospital.
Support could be provided to residents/indigenes in medical schools to develop healthcare manpower while more students are encouraged to explore opportunities in medical programmes in tertiary institutions.
Creative and Cultural Economy
Ikorodu Creatives Network: Support music, fashion, design, and film talent through digital tools, VR/AR storytelling, and cross-border distribution platforms.
Smart Culture Villages: Build tourism and youth engagement around heritage, local art, and indigenous crafts—with training on digital branding and social media marketing.
NFT & Digital Art Academy: Train artists on how to tokenize their work (creating Non-Fungible Tokens or unique digital assets) and monetize creativity through blockchain tech.
Women and Inclusive Development
For a start, women should be well represented in the choices we make for chairmanship, vice-chairmanship and councillorship positions in the councils. This is not just about affirmative action, it is common sense. If statistically women make up about half of the population, they should also be equally represented in governance. There should also be emphasis on:
Smart Women in Tech Program: Train women and girls in coding, cybersecurity, and remote work tools.
Mothers & Makers Market: E-commerce training and support for female artisans and small-scale traders, with digital payment support and delivery partnerships.
Digital Safety Education: Initiatives focused on online safety, financial literacy, and data protection, targeting young women and vulnerable groups.
Security & Environmental Monitoring
With recent spate of kidnappings and other security challenges, a coordinated approach becomes even more compelling.
Smart Surveillance: CCTV and drone surveillance integrated across LCDAs for crime prevention and rapid response.
Disaster Response System: Joint climate adaptation strategies, early warning systems, and flood monitoring across riverine zones.
Environmental Sensors: Monitor air quality, noise, and pollution with public dashboards to drive awareness.
Challenges and Reality Check
This vision faces formidable challenges. Political rivalries, limited funding, land speculation, and the sheer scale of Lagos’s urbanization pressures could easily derail such ambitions. Implementation would require overcoming entrenched interests and building unprecedented cooperation among stakeholders who often view development as competitive rather than collaborative.
Moreover, Ikorodu’s rapid population growth threatens to overwhelm planning efforts if not managed proactively. The window for implementing such a vision may be closing as informal settlements expand and land use patterns become entrenched.
Conclusion
For Ikorodu to become a model, leadership across the six LCDAs must embrace a metropolitan mindset without sacrificing local responsiveness. This requires:
- Establishing formal coordination mechanisms among the LCDAs
- Developing a shared data infrastructure for evidence-based planning
- Creating incentives for complementary rather than competitive development
- Engaging private sector and community stakeholders in a shared vision
- Leveraging diaspora connections and international partnerships for resources and knowledge
Ikorodu stands at an inflection point. It can follow the same path of unplanned growth and fragmentation that has challenged Lagos, or it can pioneer a new approach to metropolitan development that harnesses the potential of coordinated local governance to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
The question is not whether Ikorodu can be a model for metropolitan development—it has all the necessary ingredients. The question is whether its leaders and citizens will seize this moment to demonstrate that Nigeria’s urban future can be more coordinated, sustainable, and equitable than its past.
The choices we make in the forthcoming elections will go a long way in actualizing this vision.
Let the discourse begin, and let’s build the Ikorodu of our dreams!
Bashir Banjoko writes from Ikorodu
You can follow him on Substack by subscribing to: https://babainspired.substack.com/
