Lagos

Lagos is the most populous city in Nigeria and arguably the most populous in all of Africa. Lagos city is a huge metropolis with its population spread along the Nigerian coastline and upon the islands to the southwest that form an archipelago just off the mainland.

There is a school of thought that insist thats Lagos is not a single city as popularly indicated, but rather an amalgamation of several lesser towns and smaller settlements into a greater Lagos metropolis. Historically, the name Lagos referred to the smaller island city that is popularly and locally known as Eko. The mainland, on the other hand, was comprised of several separate towns and settlements such as Ikeja, Surulere, and Mushin. In the wake of the 1970s Nigerian oil boom, Lagos experienced a population explosion, untamed economic growth, and unmitigated rural migration. This caused the outlying towns and settlements to develop rapidly, thus forming the greater Lagos metropolis seen today. The history of Lagos is still evidenced in the layout of the local governments which display the unique identities of the cultures that established them.