Evicting the poor in the ‘overriding public interest’: Crisis of rights and interests, and contestations in Nigerian cities

Abstract

Forced eviction is unquestionably a global humanitarian crisis. Africa and, particularly, Nigeria bear a major brunt of this 'global epidemic', which carries enormous material and human costs. Yet, eviction is frequently hidden behind forms of displacements which operate within the law, and are justified on the basis of public interest rationales. Drawing on a research project into urban infrastructure-related displacement in Nigeria, , this paper explores the reported incidence, patterns and trends of urban displacements and their impacts in Nigeria over a period of six years (2010 -2016). Through the prism of the holistic approach, it interrogates the conflicting 'publics' and 'interests' in the diverse displacement contexts, and argues that the 'public interest' behind official rationale for displacement is, in reality, a highly contested affair. The paper recommends that displacements, where unavoidable, ought to be planned with a human face.

Original dataset on urban infrastructure related displacements in Nigeria: Insights from national and sub-national levels

“…Having described the nature (patterns and trends) and inherent dynamics of urban infrastructure-related displacements in the period under review in Nigeria, it is also imperative to summarize the post-displacement actions and outcomes of Infrastructure related displacement in Nigeria by States and Geo-political Zones in Table 1 . Spatial and temporal variations in displacement cases at national and sub-national (South East, South South, South West, North Central North East, and North West) levels have already been highlighted [1] . Through data mining and cross-tabulation procedures, the data provided can aid information acquisition and further research on the costs and benefits of different infrastructure development approaches, among other inferable or speculative causal and explanatory associations.…”

“…The dataset comprises of multiple data arrays, gathered over the period 2010–2016. It is organized according to the six geo-political or sub-national zones and the 36 states of Nigeria plus Abuja FCT, and the information collected on 14 thematic headings [1 , 10] . The categories are: infrastructure type; sector-based area of intervention; rationale for displacement; mode of displacement; status of displacement; mechanism(s) of displacement; specific reason(s) for displacement; and initiator/project funder.…”

“… The data presented here is related to the research article titled “Evicting the poor in the ‘overriding public interest’: Crisis of rights and interests, and contestations in Nigerian cities” [1] . This data brief presents relevant national and sub-national data on patterns, trends, and impacts of reported urban infrastructure-related displacements in Nigeria between 2010 and 2016.…”

Urbanisation-induced displacements in peri-urban areas: Clashes between customary tenure and statutory practices in Ugbo-Okonkwo Community in Enugu, Nigeria

“…Two key clashes related to the current enquiry have persisted a subject of heated litigations and protests in Nigeria. First is the contested nature of the 'overriding public interest' doctrine that harbours contrasting meanings for different players in real-life situations of land expropriation and eviction (Tagliarino et al, 2018;Onyebueke, Walker, Lipietz, Ohaeri, & Ujah, 2019). The other is the equally disputed question of customary tenancy.…”

“…Such appeals that hinge on own vulnerability and moral conscience underlie most of the afore-mentioned resistance and redress-seeking strategies as various informative captions hand-written on placards clearly show (Plate 3). Everyday resistance practices or people-led movements signify spontaneous reactions by threatened groups to remain and/or prevent uncompensated displacements (Onyebueke et al, 2019;Martiniello, 2019). Invariably, such movements contribute to further deepening recognition or tolerance for customary tenure in affected cities.…”