NJIKO: A Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Humanities, Law, Education and Social Sciences

Housing is an age-long social issue that traverses different epochs in recorded human history. One major challenges of the colonialism was housing provision in the urban centres, during this period, the colony of Lagos was faced with housing problem which caught the attention of the colonial authorities and the consequent housing provisions policies. Housing challenge in colonial Lagos is worthy of examination for a number of reasons. First is the fact that housing problem Lagosians, especially the poor were mostly affected. Second is the fact that housing challenge in Lagos during the period attracted a large number of social issues - worthy of mention are the racial and demographic problems generated during this period. This paper investigates and invariably provides a historical explanation to the housing policies adopted by the government in one of the earliest British colonial settlements in West Africa, Lagos. In accomplishing this herculean yet intriguing task, this paper relied wholly on archival and written materials.

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