Lagosians have developed extraordinary coping mechanisms.
We leave home before sunrise to beat traffic. We carry food in our cars. We charge our phones before entering the expressway. We listen to podcasts, watch videos, make business calls and sometimes conduct entire meetings while trapped between Ojota and Obalende.
But the fact that Lagosians have adapted to congestion does not mean congestion has become acceptable.
That distinction matters after Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat told an audience at PODFEST Naija 2026 that:
“Anyone who has crossed Third Mainland Bridge at 6 p.m. knows that Lagos traffic is not a problem; it’s just a lifestyle.”
Hamzat also suggested that traffic has become a patron of Lagos' creative industry because residents consume entertainment while stuck on the roads.
It is a clever line.
It is also a flawed argument.
Because a city's ability to turn an inconvenience into culture does not transform the inconvenience into good public policy.
And that is the danger of the statement.
There is a difference between culture and failure
Lagos has a culture of resilience.
Lagosians improvise.
They adapt.
They create businesses around problems.
They turn traffic jams into podcast studios, marketplaces, classrooms and even offices.
But governments should not confuse citizens' resilience with government's success.
If Lagosians spend three hours travelling a distance that should take 45 minutes, the fact that they listened to a podcast during those three hours does not mean the transport system worked.
If someone watches a Netflix episode while sitting in traffic, Netflix has benefited.
The commuter has not.
The employer waiting for the worker has not.
The delivery company paying for fuel has not.
The mother spending additional money on transport has not.
The economy losing productive hours has not.
And the environment absorbing additional vehicle emissions certainly has not.
The government's own documents contradict the lifestyle argument
The most revealing evidence comes from Lagos' own transport planning.
LAMATA's Non-Motorised Transport Policy explicitly describes Lagos as facing “critical traffic challenges” associated with increasing motorisation.
It identifies congestion, road-safety problems, noise and air pollution as challenges requiring intervention.
The policy specifically argues for shifting transport planning toward people rather than simply accommodating more vehicles.
That is important.
Because if traffic were genuinely merely a lifestyle, why would the state's transport authority need a policy specifically designed to reduce the demand for private motor-vehicle travel and alleviate congestion?
The state itself clearly recognises congestion as a policy problem.
Even Lagos' new 2050 transport strategy admits the problem
In April 2026, LAMATA convened stakeholders to update Lagos' Strategic Transport and Mobility Master Plan through 2050.
The state's transportation commissioner said something remarkably different from the “traffic is lifestyle” framing:
Expanding road infrastructure alone can no longer solve Lagos' congestion challenges.
The proposed response is an integrated mass-transit system involving rail, BRT, ferries, cleaner buses and better last-mile connections.
LAMATA says Lagos already generates more than 20 million daily trips, while its population could reach 45 million by 2050.
That is not a lifestyle problem.
That is an urban mobility problem of enormous scale.
And there is a logical fallacy in the deputy governor's argument
The argument appears to be:
Lagos has traffic → Lagosians consume entertainment in traffic → therefore traffic has become part of Lagos culture.
The first two propositions may be true.
The conclusion does not follow.
It is essentially confusing adaptation with justification.
Human beings adapt to bad circumstances all the time.
People adapt to unreliable electricity by buying generators.
That does not mean electricity shortages are part of our national lifestyle.
People adapt to poor public transportation by buying cars.
That does not mean inadequate mass transit is a cultural achievement.
People adapt to bad internet by buying multiple SIM cards.
That does not mean network instability is a lifestyle.
People adapt to flooding by raising the entrances to their houses.
That does not mean flooding is an acceptable urban-planning strategy.
Adaptation is evidence of resilience—not evidence that the underlying problem has disappeared.
Imagine applying the same logic to waste management
This is where the argument becomes even more uncomfortable.
Imagine Lagos residents creating TikTok content about rubbish piling up on their streets.
Imagine entrepreneurs making podcasts about navigating refuse-filled roads.
Imagine comedians making jokes about overflowing waste bins.
Would that mean waste accumulation is now part of Lagos culture?
Of course not.
It would mean Lagosians are adapting to an environmental-management problem.
And Lagos itself recognises that waste management remains a major operational challenge.
LAWMA recorded 1,023 illegal dumping and waste-management non-compliance incidents in 2025, with 447 cases referred for legal action.
In December 2025, the Lagos government itself attributed waste accumulation in parts of the state to disruptions caused by the decommissioning of the Olusosun landfill and said refuse was being redirected to facilities in Epe and Badagry.
The state's own waste authority says its responsibility is to provide a clean and serene Lagos and operates a large network of private-sector waste contractors.
So if Lagosians complain about garbage, the answer cannot simply be:
“That's Lagos. Learn to live with it.”
And the same principle applies to traffic.
Government exists precisely because some problems should not become lifestyles
This is the fundamental issue.
Citizens do not elect governments to document their suffering.
They elect governments to reduce avoidable suffering.
A traffic jam caused by an accident is one thing.
A recurring congestion pattern caused by inadequate road capacity, poor public transport integration, inefficient junction management, weak enforcement, bad land-use planning or insufficient alternatives is something else.
Government cannot control every traffic event.
But it can influence the system that produces recurring congestion.
That is why Lagos has agencies such as LAMATA and traffic-management institutions in the first place.
The state even operates a Traffic Management Solutions platform specifically intended to address prevalent traffic problems and monitor traffic violations.
You cannot simultaneously build institutions to solve traffic and then publicly redefine traffic as something that is not a problem.
Third Mainland Bridge at 6 p.m. is not cultural heritage
There is something revealing about the particular example Hamzat chose.
Third Mainland Bridge at rush hour is almost a perfect laboratory for Lagos' mobility problem.
Thousands of people are trying to move between different parts of a megacity.
The bridge is carrying commuters, commercial traffic and private vehicles.
People are trying to reach homes.
Hospitals.
Schools.
Businesses.
Markets.
Airports.
Factories.
Offices.
Ports.
Universities.
And the longer those people remain stationary, the less efficiently the city functions.
A modern megacity should not celebrate the fact that its citizens have learned how to survive gridlock.
It should celebrate the day when gridlock becomes unusual.
Traffic is an economic tax
There is another dimension missing from the lifestyle argument.
Time is an economic resource.
When a worker spends an additional two hours commuting, those hours have an economic value.
When a delivery driver spends another hour in traffic, fuel is consumed.
When a truck spends hours approaching a port, logistics costs increase.
When an entrepreneur arrives late for a meeting, opportunities can disappear.
When parents spend longer commuting, family time shrinks.
When ambulances are delayed, the consequences can become much more serious.
When buses spend more time on the road, operators need more vehicles and fuel to provide the same service.
Congestion therefore imposes costs across the economy.
It is not simply an inconvenience.
And Lagos' own planning strategy recognises this
The state's long-term planning documents explicitly connect improved transport with reduced journey times and lower travel costs.
Lagos' development plan says the proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge is expected to reduce pressure on the Third Mainland and Eko bridges and reduce journey time and travel costs for users.
Again, that is the language of problem-solving.
Not lifestyle celebration.
If traffic were simply Lagos' cultural identity, there would be little reason to spend billions of naira trying to reduce it.
The creative industry does not need traffic to survive
Perhaps the most questionable part of Hamzat's argument is the idea that traffic is somehow a patron of Lagos' creative economy.
Yes, commuters consume podcasts, music, films and social-media content while travelling.
But correlation does not mean the traffic created the creative economy.
Lagos' entertainment industry exists because of:
- Nigeria's huge population;
- enormous youth demographics;
- entrepreneurial talent;
- digital platforms;
- music culture;
- Nollywood;
- advertising;
- telecommunications;
- streaming services;
- global Nigerian diaspora markets;
- social media;
- private investment;
- and decades of creative production.
Traffic is not the industry's patron.
At most, traffic creates captive audience time.
But that is hardly a development strategy.
Imagine telling Lagos entrepreneurs:
“Don't worry about losing two hours in traffic. You can consume our creative products while you're stuck.”
That solves the wrong problem.
The better goal is:
Give citizens back those two hours.
They can still listen to podcasts while travelling efficiently.
A great city should not monetise its dysfunction
This is the deeper philosophical problem.
There is an emerging tendency to turn African urban problems into cultural aesthetics.
The chaotic market becomes “vibrant.”
The unreliable electricity becomes “hustle.”
The traffic becomes “Lagos lifestyle.”
The overcrowding becomes “energy.”
The waste becomes “part of city life.”
The informal economy becomes “resilience.”
Some of these descriptions capture genuine cultural characteristics.
But they can also become dangerous when they allow leaders to romanticise conditions that should actually be improved.
There is a difference between celebrating people's resilience and celebrating the conditions that force them to be resilient.
We should celebrate Lagosians.
We should not necessarily celebrate everything Lagosians are forced to endure.
Lagos needs a different definition of resilience
There is a point at which resilience becomes an excuse for institutional failure.
If citizens constantly have to adapt to problems that government has the capacity to reduce, the question should eventually shift from:
“How resilient are Lagosians?”
to:
“Why do Lagosians have to be this resilient?”
That is the question policymakers should welcome.
Not fear.
Because accountability is not hatred of government.
It is one of the reasons government exists.
Traffic should be measured, not romanticised
A serious government should be able to tell citizens:
- average commute times;
- average peak-hour speeds;
- journey-time reliability;
- traffic volumes by corridor;
- public-transport ridership;
- average BRT journey times;
- rail ridership;
- accident-related delays;
- freight delays;
- emissions;
- parking violations;
- road capacity;
- and congestion trends over time.
Then Lagosians can ask a simple question:
Are things getting better?
That is much more meaningful than saying traffic is part of the city's personality.
The solution isn't simply “build more roads”
Criticising the lifestyle argument does not mean believing every traffic problem can be solved by pouring concrete.
LAMATA's current strategy is actually moving in the opposite direction.
The state's 2050 transport planning process emphasises integrated mass transit rather than relying solely on road expansion.
That means:
rail + BRT + ferries + walking + cycling + better land-use planning + intelligent traffic management + efficient last-mile transport.
That is the direction a megacity needs.
Because you cannot build enough roads indefinitely if population and vehicle ownership continue growing.
Eventually, you simply create more space for more cars.
Lagos should be aspiring to the day Third Mainland Bridge is boring
This may sound strange, but it is worth saying.
The greatest achievement would be for someone to cross Third Mainland Bridge at 6 p.m. and say:
“Nothing happened. I got home in 35 minutes.”
No viral video.
No cultural mythology.
No heroic story of surviving Lagos traffic.
Just movement.
That is what infrastructure is supposed to accomplish.
The greatest transport system is not the one that gives citizens the most interesting stories about surviving it.
It is the one they barely notice because it works.
The same principle applies to waste
A city should not become famous for residents learning where to dump rubbish.
It should become famous for efficient waste collection.
It should not celebrate citizens' ability to navigate overflowing drains.
It should build drainage systems that work.
It should not praise people for surviving terrible commutes.
It should build transport systems that move people.
Government should make dysfunction boring.
That is progress.
The political danger of normalising failure
Hamzat is now the APC's candidate for the 2027 Lagos governorship election, according to current reporting.
That makes his words particularly important—not because political candidates should never joke or use rhetorical language, but because transportation will inevitably be part of the public evaluation of Lagos governance.
The public deserves to distinguish between a cultural observation and a policy position.
If Hamzat was simply making a humorous observation about how Lagosians consume creative content in traffic, the remark can be understood in that context.
But if “traffic is a lifestyle” becomes an explanation for why persistent congestion should simply be accepted, then it deserves serious challenge.
Because Lagos cannot plan its future around the assumption that citizens will forever tolerate avoidable inefficiency.
Lagos deserves more than survival
The city has extraordinary energy.
Its entrepreneurs are exceptional.
Its creative industry is globally recognised.
Its population is ambitious.
Its economic potential is enormous.
But precisely because Lagos is so important, its citizens deserve infrastructure commensurate with its ambition.
The answer to congestion should not be:
“This is Lagos.”
It should be:
“This is a problem we are going to solve.”
The answer to overflowing waste should not be:
“People have always lived this way.”
It should be:
“The system must work better.”
The answer to flooding should not be:
“Lagos is a coastal city.”
It should be:
“We will build resilient infrastructure and enforce sound urban planning.”
And the answer to traffic should not be:
“Listen to a podcast while you wait.”
It should be:
“Why are you waiting this long in the first place?”
The real Lagos lifestyle should be mobility, not gridlock
There is nothing uniquely Lagosian about sitting in traffic for hours.
Cities across the world have struggled with congestion.
What separates successful metropolitan systems from dysfunctional ones is not whether congestion ever occurs.
It is how effectively the city manages it.
Lagos has already acknowledged this through its transport policies, its mass-transit investments and its long-term mobility planning.
So let us celebrate the right thing.
Celebrate the Lagosian who builds a business despite the traffic.
Celebrate the podcaster who finds an audience in the middle of congestion.
Celebrate the artist who turns urban frustration into music.
Celebrate the entrepreneur who solves a problem created by the city's complexity.
But don't confuse the creativity of citizens with the effectiveness of government.
Lagosians turning traffic into content is a testament to Lagosian ingenuity.
It is not evidence that traffic is good.
A city should not measure progress by how beautifully its people learn to endure failure.
It should measure progress by how successfully it removes the need for them to endure it.
And perhaps that is the conversation Lagos really needs:
not how to make traffic part of our lifestyle, but how to make efficient movement part of our standard of living.
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