Lagosians are advised to remain calm, but not complacent. A new category has quietly been added to the city’s endangered-species register. It is not wildlife. It is open space. Closely followed by greenery, and most recently, airspace.
Urban densification has reached such intimacy that I can now stretch my arms from my 7th-floor window and shake hands with my neighbour in the next building. No telescope. No binoculars. Just excellent planning.
Once upon a time, Lagos had football fields marked by stones, mango trees that fed children free of charge, and vacant plots that did absolutely nothing—yet somehow performed the radical function of allowing people to breathe.
Today, such spaces are treated as planning errors awaiting correction.
Even nature paths and wetlands are no longer exempt. They too must now justify their continued existence.
The executioner wears many official badges:
▪︎ Mixed-use development
▪︎ Urban renewal
▪︎ Judgment settlement
It arrives with survey pegs, compliance certificates, and a ritual chant known as “economic viability”—a phrase so powerful it overrides zoning laws, planning standards, environmental sense, and occasionally, logic.
Every master plan in Lagos follows the same tragic arc. The green areas look impressive—until the first “review.” Then out comes the red pen by the chief steward Roads are widened. Plots are adjusted. Green spaces are re-optimised. Recreational grounds are reclassified.
A piece of land can no longer simply exist. It must earn its keep. Grass that minds its business is accused of wasting land. Trees without revenue streams are deemed inefficient. Within weeks, bulldozers arrive, and a signboard announces an “exclusive lifestyle development” so dense that even daylight now requires planning approval.
Officials will insist this is growth. Environmental Impact Assessments will be filed. Somewhere, residents will protest briefly on WhatsApp. Unknown to the protesters, some other residents will quietly lobby for a slice of the cake. Then comes silence. The protesters adapt. The city moves on to the new normal:
More traffic.
Hotter nights.
Poorer air.
Shrinking lungs.
Ironically, every new development promises green living. In glossy renderings, trees flourish effortlessly. Open spaces migrate to rooftops. Nature is no longer natural—it is potted, branded, curated, and guarded by security.
Meanwhile, real parks have become so rare that children now ask their parents:
“Daddy, what is a playground?”
Daddy replies:
“It’s what this shopping mall used to be.”
The uncomfortable truth is this: Lagos does not lack plans; it lacks enforcement.
Open spaces are not protected assets—they are merely temporarily overlooked parcels. And in a city where discretion is negotiable, oversight is fatal.
So if you see a lone tree standing by the roadside, do not admire it for too long. Take a picture. It is probably already zoned—for parking.
Yes, Lagos will continue to grow. But growth without breathing space is not development; it is managed congestion. When the last open space disappears, where will citizens gather, rest, or simply exist—without paying an entry fee?
Until then, let us observe a minute of silence for greenery. Its eviction notice has long been approved.
The only open spaces left undisturbed for decades are the cemeteries. And even these are fast running out—despite a growing population and, quite naturally, more deaths.
Even the airspace between buildings is shrinking by the day—so much so that neighbours now find it easier to shake hands across their windows than across their fences.
Already Extinct or Critically Endangered Open Spaces
▪︎ Race Course (TBS)
▪︎ Campos Square
▪︎ Ikoyi Park
▪︎ Evans Square
▪︎ Shell Club Grounds
▪︎ Union Bank Sports Grounds
▪︎ King George V Garden
▪︎ Obele Odan
▪︎ Rowe Park
▪︎ Numerous neighbourhood parks in Surulere
Moral of the Satire
▪︎ Green spaces are infrastructure, not decoration
▪︎ Planning laws mean nothing without enforcement
▪︎ A city that eats its open spaces eventually eats itself
Before it is too late, we must stop approving the extinction of our environment in the name of development.
END
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