An infrastructure deficit is making life in African cities more expensive than it should be

[Trajan]

Adding on to your comment -

Many modern African socities since the 1960s have been run by weak/ineffective governments which don't respect the rule of law and are not accountable to their citizens. It's very hard to exercise fiscal discipline in those environments. Moreoever, government's have figured out ways to not rely on taxation in order to fund their governments. The lack of a link between the citizenry and their governments in terms of fiscal accountability worsens governance in the long-run.

This has been a problem in North African states too.

All facts.

That's why they love aid and natural resources that can be exploited. The average citizen doesn't see that as their money as they haven't worked for it.

 

[Yo Mama]

The problem is over centralization of many countries. Very few countries have a set up like Nigeria and SA with Abuja/Lagos or Pretoria/Joburg. A capital city that is also the commercial capital and other cities have very little economic activity. In other cases like Luanda it was a case of civil war that drives more people staying in cities than can be supported. Public transport also needs to be improved, private operators are dominant because the cities or state governments never took it seriously and we dont see much mass transit.

This is spot on

 

[Reality]

Fascinating thread brehs...learning a lot just reading the back and forth.

What are some good books / articles to better understand Nigerian history and why it is as it is today?

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Fascinating thread brehs...learning a lot just reading the back and forth.

What are some good books / articles to better understand Nigerian history and why it is as it is today?

Try reading these blogs:

The Fourth Republic – Medium

https://aguntasolo.co/

Policy think tank: SBM Intel

Stears News - Nigerian Business News, Economic News and Politics

Twitter: My fav. Onye Nkuzi (@cchukudebelu) on Twitter

Read any books by Toyin Falola really.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@Reality

More stuff: Feyi Fawehinmi – Medium

Cheta Nwanze – Medium

Nonso Obikili – Medium

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

فلان نصر ٱلله (@FulanNasrullah) on Twitter

T. Marclint Ebiede (@TEMarclint) on Twitter

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Blog following the Boko Haram War: Vox Peccavi week by week

Twitter of a Nigerian nationalist who closely follows military affairs: BEEGEAGLES BLOG (@beegeaglesblog) on Twitter

 

[newworldafro]

Bingo.