Makoko
node · earth
A waterfront settlement on Lagos Lagoon, founded in the nineteenth century as a fishing village and built substantially on stilts over the water, whose population is reported anywhere between about 80,000 by one NGO estimate and over 300,000 by community leaders — a spread that exists because no official count has been made. Makoko is the standard illustration of informality as a legal condition rather than a building type: it has streets, markets, schools, churches and a functioning fishing and smoked-fish economy, and it has no recorded tenure. That is what makes it clearable. Lagos State demolished a large part of it in July 2012, and again from late December 2025 into 2026, in an operation that removed more than 3,000 structures before the Lagos State House of Assembly ordered it halted in February 2026; the state gave proximity to a power line as the reason, and residents and advocates described it as clearance for waterfront redevelopment. UN figures reported at the time put displacement above 40,000 people.
Read in · 1
Evidence · 1
Timeline
No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.
Connections · 2
- Informal settlementinstance_of
- Lagoslocated_in
Assembled narrative · 1
Assembled from 28 blocks · 1 evidence · 23 related
- Story
- A waterfront settlement on Lagos Lagoon, founded in the nineteenth century as a fishing village and built substantially on stilts over the water, whose population is reported anywhere between about 80,000 by one NGO estimate and over 300,000 by community leaders — a spread that exists because no official count has been made. Makoko is the standard illustration of informality as a legal condition rather than a building type: it has streets, markets, schools, churches and a functioning fishing and smoked-fish economy, and it has no recorded tenure. That is what makes it clearable. Lagos State demolished a large part of it in July 2012, and again from late December 2025 into 2026, in an operation that removed more than 3,000 structures before the Lagos State House of Assembly ordered it halted in February 2026; the state gave proximity to a power line as the reason, and residents and advocates described it as clearance for waterfront redevelopment. UN figures reported at the time put displacement above 40,000 people.
- Knowledge
- Informal settlement
- Lagos
- Makoko
- Connections
- Informal settlement
- Lagos
- Eko Atlantic
- Lagos State demolishes part of Makoko
- Makoko is cleared again, and the legislature stops it
- Land tenure security
- Urban housing supply
- Makoko
- Urban water supply and sanitation
- Sub-Saharan African urban growth
- Makoko
- Eko Atlantic
- Lagos Blue Line
- Nigeria conducts its most recent census
- Reclamation begins at Eko Atlantic
- Construction starts on the Lagos Blue Line
- Nigeria's census is postponed again
- The Lagos Blue Line carries its first passengers
- Makoko is cleared again, and the legislature stops it
- Evidence
- Supports the account of demolitions at Makoko from late December 2025, the removal of more than three thousand structures, UN-attributed displacement figures above forty thousand, the Lagos State government's stated power-line rationale, residents' contrary account, and the Lagos State House of Assembly halting the operation in February 2026. V55 verification basis: contemporaneous journalism, retrieved in summary; no UN or state government document was retrieved, and the population and displacement figures remain disputed.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
Actions
/atlas?object=SITE_MAKOKO&experience=SITE_MAKOKO