Traffic solutions for a megacity
"It's not enough for us to stay in the office and believe that we can create solutions to the traffic challenge that we have in the state..." said Akin Ambode, the Governor of Lagos State, on an inspection tour of traffic hotspots last month. In his first few weeks in office, Ambode visited the 3rd Mainland Bridge, Oworonshoki, Ketu, Abule-egba, Alimosho, Mile 2, Apapa, Mile 2 and the Lekki-Ajah Expressway. On those visits he announced plans to widen roads, install traffic lights, build a footbridge (in Berger) and a flyover (in Ajah). He also ordered the relocation of a number of traffic-causing bus-parks. Read more.
Lagos is on the cusp of a radical change in the way the city is organised. Not only is the first light rail being built in the city, thirty years after the idea was first mooted; the government has also recently announced that construction will soon start on the 4th Mainland Bridge, long overdue by many standards. A few years ago I listened to a talk by the designers of that bridge, and was fascinated by how they envisioned it to not only work as a conventional bridge but also a direct stimulant/supporter of economic activity. The design is of a two-level bridge, the upper one for vehicular movement, the lower one for a combination of a tram line, rows of shops and goods vendors, and a pedestrian lane; that idea informed by the realization that modernizing Lagos does not have to happen at the expense of the trademark hustle-and-bustle that gives the city its peculiar character and feel; the things that make Lagos Lagos. 
"Welcome to Lagos" was a 2010 BBC documentary that introduced Vocal Slender to the world. Vocal – real name Eric Obuh – was a rapper by night, and a scavenger, at the Olusosun rubbish dump, by day.