Recognizing building demolitions as a gendered issue will inform new ways of understanding the human cost of urban development beyond affordable housing policies and urban planning.
The occurrence of demolitions without proper eviction notice is commonplace in Lagos for a wide range of reasons, affecting residential areas and marketplaces. The Jakande Housing Estate has been a huge target and has endured a series of demolitions by several Lagos State administrations, according to Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeria the founder of Spaces for Change and Oladipupo, a victim displaced by the March 2024 demolitions. Although building demolitions is a reoccurring story in Lagos’ history, it fails to provide visibility to the unique plight that women face from urban displacement.
Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeria (photo Credit: online0
The March 2024 urban displacement of the Jakande-Ilasan Estate—which occurred due to the construction of the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway—clearly reflects this visibility, pushing the agenda that urban displacement is a gendered issue.
Livelihoods Endure the Hardest Hit
While speaking to female victims of the Jakande building demolitions, they recounted similar experiences, reflecting how the incident affected all aspect of their lives. But of all their narrations, the impact of this incident on their livelihood stood out the most—mostly because many of the families were female-headed (single mothers and widows).
Research in other informal settlements in Nigeria reveal that the primary source of income for women in such settlements are informal sector jobs, especially trading, usually done from stalls attached to their houses.
According to Ibezim-Ohaeria, the livelihood options for these women are limited due to illiteracy, their gender role as primary caretakers which confine them to informal businesses within their community, and lack of land title certificates that exclude them from loans. This explains why Comfort, a widow with three children, ran a chair and table rental and water-selling business from home.
She lost her chairs and tables in the demolition and had to plead with the bulldozer driver to spare her water tank. After the demolition, many female traders created makeshift shelters that accommodated their shops. Despite their effort, they failed to make enough given that their patronage depended on community members who had relocated. Other victims were impacted indirectly.
Grace’s displacement led to an increment in her transport fare to the market where she trades. Martina, a young lady who sheltered her niece and nephew, lost her teaching job, which she believes was attributed to her unstable state after the demolition.
The Importance of Traditional Support Networks
As women are known to be the traditional caretakers of their homes, the immediate decision to determine the methods of survival for them and their families rest on their shoulders. According to Ibezim-Ohaeria, women residing in informal settlements are quick to turn to their traditional support networks—neighbours, community, church—when in need.
This include asking neighbours for household needs, asking neighbours to watch their children or quickly attend to a customer at their stall, amongst others. However, their displacement forces them to relocate, destroying such networks that they relied on for their daily sustenance. Losing her support network was Grace’s major fear when she was about to relocate to a new house after the incident.
It was this support networks that provided shelter to the widow and her six children which shortened their days of being exposed to harsh weather conditions on the rubble. Her access to traditional support networks enabled her to split her children across friends and parish houses, aiding their survival during this hardship.
Prioritizing Women in Urban Planning Strategies
As vulnerable demographics, women and girls are hit the hardest in cases of climate change, conflicts and in a most recent observance, urban displacement. The gendered impacts scale beyond these examples, including exposure to gender-based violence, health risks due to harsh weather conditions, amongst others.
As we continue to advocate for affordable housing and social housing policies in Lagos, Ibezim-Ohaeria argues that the government should implement a quota system that prioritizes female-headed households’ access to affordable housing, preventing them from bearing the brunt of urban displacement and renewal efforts in Lagos State and Nigeria.
Photo credit: IED
#Chidinma Rita Neboliza a fellow of 2025 Women in Journalism, Gender reporting media fellowship of Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals did this story as part of the fulfilment of the fellowship
