in infrastructure. This included the building of the second bridge linking the Island, the Eko Bridge, and re-building of the first (colonial) Carter Bridge. The third and longest bridge was commissioned in 1990.

AP Photo/David Guttenfelder Pedestrians push their way through a traffic jam in downtown Lagos in 1999.

These bridges were aimed at improving accessibility between the two islands (Victoria and Lagos) and the mainland. But, uncontrolled commercial development on the islands has produced persistent traffic bottlenecks. This has been worsened by the lack of a public transport system.

Two developments added to pressures on the city. Its population burgeoned while infrastructure lagged behind. This period marked the beginning of the decline of planning for the city. The worst periods were the late 1980s and the 1990s. As architects RemKoolhaas and Kunle Adeyemi noted in an interview, these were Lagos’ darkest times:

Lagos, in the 1990s, was the ultimate dysfunctional city and an example of what happens to a society where the state is absent. At that point the state had really withdrawn from Lagos; the city was left to its own devices, both in terms of money and services.

The city was being governed by the military. But it was not cut out for governance, had no accountability and couldn’t care less about planning and environmental issues. As a result it routinely disregarded existing regulations.

In the 1990s, for instance, the largest public park in Lagos—the old, colonial 10-hectare Victoria Park in Ikoyi—was sold as residential development land. The waterfront of the Lagos Cowrie Creek in Victoria Island was