Urban dynamics, everyday hazards and disaster risks in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Many cities in sub-Saharan Africa lack official records of deaths and of serious illnesses and injuries from everyday hazards and disaster events at all scales. This is a major limitation to effective planning for risk reduction. This paper seeks to fill some of these data gaps for the city of Ibadan, drawing on newspaper reports, hospital records, and databases or records of government departments for the period 2000–2015. It presents what can be learned about risks from these sources and discusses how the social, economic and political structures at the national, city and locality levels contribute to the most serious urban risks, as well as how these drive the process of risk accumulation, especially for vulnerable groups. Excluding public health risks for which data are scarce and incomplete, road traffic accidents, crime, violence and flooding constitute the most serious hazards in the city of Ibadan.