A newly-released report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has ranked Lagos as the world’s most dangerous city.
The report, named Safe Cities Index, ranked 60 cities across the world based on digital security, health, infrastructure and personal security.
Tokyo, Japan’s capital city, was ranked the world’s safest city.
Singapore, Osaka, Amsterdam and Sydney occupy the second to fifth spots on the ranking.
“Urban management will play a fundamental role in defining the quality of life of most human beings in the coming years. A key element of this will be the ability of cities to provide security for their residents, businesses and visitors,” the report read.
“A look at the top five cities in each pillar—digital, health, infrastructure and personal security—yields a similar message. In each area, leading cities got the basics right, be it easy access to high-quality healthcare, dedicated cyber-security teams, community-based police patrolling or disaster continuity planning.”
Lagos occupied the 56th spot on the digital security ranking and placed 58th on the infrastructure security ranking.
Nigeria’s most populous city ranked the least on the health and personal security tables.
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Some of the items which cities were ranked on are:
Digital security: Privacy policy, citizen awareness of digital threats, public-private partnerships, level of technology employed, dedicated cyber-security teams, percentage of computers infected, percentage with internet access.
Infrastructure security: Enforcement of transport safety, pedestrian friendliness, disaster management/business continuity plan, road network, power network, rail network, the percentage living in slums, air transport facilities.
Health security: Environmental policies, access to healthcare, number of beds per 1,000 population, number of doctors per 1,000 population, access to safe and quality food, quality of health services, air quality, water quality, emergency services in the city.
Personal security: Level of police engagement, community-based patrolling, available street-level crime data, use of data-driven techniques for crime, the prevalence of petty crime, gender safety (female homicide), level of corruption, rate of drug use.
The cities who did not factor in disaster risk in their city-level urban plan were listed as Cairo, Riyadh, Lagos, Bogota, Caracas, Baku.
The report also estimated that more than half of Lagos’ population live in slums; a development that Alioune Badiane, president of the Urban-Think Tank Africa (TUTTA), says is due to poor or insufficient planning.
“The main driver of insecurity is the extent of informal settlements. This arises not from a growing population per se, he adds, but poor or insufficient planning. It is not acceptable,” he said.
“We have a lot to do, but the number one priority is improved urban planning and better city management.”
