Kano metropolis used to be by far the largest urban area in Northern Nigeria followed by Kaduna & Jos, but over the years, the Abuja urban agglomeration (which includes Abuja Municipal, Karu Urban, Suleja urban, Gwagwalada, Bwari, Kuje e.t.c) has overtaken it.

From year 2000 to 2010, Abuja grew by 140%, making it the fastest growing city in the world.

https://web.archive.org/web/20151117022953/http://blog.euromonitor.com/2010/03/special-report-worlds-fastest-growing-cities-are-in-asia-and-africa.html

As of 2015, Abuja grew with 35% per annum, retaining it's position as the fastest growing city on the African continent, higher than Lagos.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160204113031/http://www.abujafacts.ng/top-5-cities-to-do-business-in-nigeria-abuja-is-2nd/

Karu area which was filled with empty villages 2-3 decades ago has become an entire Urban area of it's own.
It is the fastest growing urban area in Nigeria and Africa at 40% per annum and it can now rank among the 10 largest urban areas of Nigeria on it's own.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110928204947/http://www.nasarawastate.org/news1/10222113251.htm

It is no longer a satellite town of Abuja, but now an entire Urban area of it's own with an estimated population of over 2 million people as at some years ago.

The same with Zuba-Madalla-Suleja-Diko urban area. 4 originally distinct towns that have now merged into 1 large urban area and keeps on expanding.

Abuja metropolitan area is now about half the size of Lagos Metropolitan area in terms of Land area and the population should also be running close to half of that of Lagos metro based on estimates.


The question is with the higher population growth, could Abuja metro overtake Lagos metro and become the largest urban area in Africa anytime in the future?

Think the religious intolerance of HausaFulanisKanuri Muslims over the last 40 yrs across the core North has caused aggressive relocation to a Christian forte of the middle belt at Abuja. Talking from experience...!

Maitatsine of Kano in 1980,
kafanchan religion crisis, 1987
Bauchi religion crisi 1990
Reinhard Bonke crisis of 1991 kano
Zango Kataf crisis of 1992 &1994
Kaduna religion crisis 1994
Sharia war in Kaduna state as whole 2000
Miss world religion crisis 2001 Abuja & Maiduguri
Jos religion wars 1945, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2010, etc

All of the above were northern Muslims killing sprees to create terrorism in the nation.
Christians being practical peaceful people quietly relocated their families to Abuja.....!
Over 75% of Abuja population are Christians thereby guaranteeing Peaceful capital territory.

ZKOSOSO:
Think the religious intolerance of HausaFulanisKanuri Muslims over the last 40 yrs across the core North has caused aggressive relocation to a Christian forte of the middle belt at Abuja. Talking from experience...!

Yes you are kinda correct with this.
Extremism and intolerance never pays. If the Hausa fulanis were very tolerant, progressive and liberal, Kano would not easily have lost out to Abuja as the largest city in the North.

Their loss.

Abuja is strongly within Middlebelt lands and with all the development in it, if the country divides, it will never fall into the Hands of the HFK (Hausa fulanis Kanuris). Cos it is very obvious that Middlebelt people will never join HFK in one country if Nigeria divides.

The dream that can never come through

This should not come as a surprise. Lagos state has the smallest land mass in the country. The growth of Abuja is due to the fact that it is the seat of the central government and nothing more. It is not industrialised neither does it contribute anything worthwhile to the national purse. Abuja is like an obessed child leeching solely on the oil of the nigerdelta.

OP, the last time I checked suleja is part of Niger state and not Abuja. You may want to correct that.

The question is with the higher population growth, could Abuja metro overtake Lagos metro and become the largest urban area in Africa anytime in the future?

Why not chart it? I'll just guess no.

Nope.
Abuja is growing into Nassarawa and might probably extend to parts of niger in the future.

Lagos is growing into Ogun... Ikorodu and Lekki are exploding.

Besides, some of these areas you are adding to "Auja agglomeration" is a stretch..... too disjointed and far away to be part of Abuja metro. They are their own towns/metros.
lol if you are counting Suleja as part of Abuja metro, then Abeokuta will become part of Lagos metro. Is Abuja even bigger than Ibadan? Mind you, Ibadan is bigger than Kano, forget the nonsense Naija stats that has been misinforming everybody than Kano is #2 and larger than Ibadan at #3...

scholes0:
Nope.
Abuja is growing into Nassarawa and maybe niger.

Lagos is growing into Ogun... Ikorodu and Lekki are exploding.

Besides, some of these areas you are adding to "Auja agglomeration" is a stretch..... too disjointed and far away to be part of Abuja metro. They are their own towns/metros.
lol if you are counting Suleja and New Karu as part of Abuja metro, then Abeokuta will become part of Lagos metro. Is Abuja even bigger than Ibadan?

Karu area includes Karshi orozo, jikwoyi, Karu site, nyanya, mararaba, new karu, masaka, goshen, Aso, gbagalape,...etc

And you think Lagos government are sleeping?

How can Karu be up to 2 million people? lol
Ilorin is faar bigger than Karu. Heck, it isn't even nearly as large as the Osogbo urban area

ZKOSOSO:

Karu area includes Karshi orozo, jikwoyi, Karu site, nyanya, mararaba, new karu, masaka, goshen, Aso, gbagalape,...etc

All join together .

Karu that is like Ibafo while Kubwa and Madalla together are like Badagry agglo.
Those are the Eastern and Western limits of Abuja proper anything further would be pushing it, and they won't be able to catapult the Abuja agglomeration to topple Lagos. Also Lagos has the coastal, industrial and "Buzz capital" advantage and the ability to form a conurbation with larger surrounding settlements. The closest large town to Abuja is Minna in Niger state, which is even closer than Kaduna. Besides, There are not than much empty green spaces within Lagos except in areas criss-crossed by water which can not be built over, whereas the Abuja area is just too disjointed to form a single continuous urban area. I think because of the undulating terrain.

Abuja or FCT generally shouldn't have a large landmass. just like Washington DC in USA. A capital shouldn't be obsessed with urbanization or much population giving to the fact that there are other states needed to be developed in the country.

Yes Abuja urban area grew so fast initially, the reason being it was a newly emerging city as a lot of things were being moved away from Lagos and transplanted into Abuja. It happens with every new urban center experiencing a growth spurt. But it will all naturally slow down eventually and grow at a rate just slightly higher than other major urban areas of the country (Bar Lagos and maybe PH and some other new place where something big happens) but nothing as phenomenal as before. In fact it has already slowed. The greatest period of growth of Abuja was between 1995 and 2010. It has slowed somewhat since this er although still growing fast, it will eventually level out.
This is exactly the pattern that Brasilia the new capital city of Brazil followed.

As we speak Lagos is back among the Global top10 so it does not look like Abuja would catch up anytime soon, if ever.

[img]http:///65535/49704752931_0600eb9d92_z.jpg[/img]

http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/urban_growth1.html

scholes0:
Yes Abuja urban area grew so fast initially, the reason being it was a newly emerging city as a lot of things were being moved away from Lagos and transplanted into Abuja. It happens with every new urban center experiencing a growth spurt. But it will all naturally slow down eventually and grow at a rate just slightly higher than other major urban areas of the country (Bar Lagos and maybe PH and some other new place where something big happens) but nothing as phenomenal as before. In fact it has already slowed. The greatest period of growth of Abuja was between 1995 and 2010. It has slowed somewhat since this er although still growing fast, it will eventually level out.

I have observed this too, I mean the slow down of growth in Abuja in the past 10 years or so. Rather it is densely populated ghettos that are increasingly springing up in the outskirt areas lately. Abuja experienced a lot of infrastructural growth during the Oil-Boom years when oil money really flowed. The Executive and Legislature arms really allocated a lot of funds for its infrastructural development, but that has all changed since oil proceeds slowed down. Abuja's growth will always be tied to Nigeria's federal revenues and budgets. If the economy is performing well and Nigeria's Oil proceeds are high, Abuja will witness infrastructural growth, but if it doesn't, it won't because it is competing for resources with other federal units. I noticed it's IGR has been picking up though, but it's still not yet up to Rivers and Ogun state's, not to talk of Lagos'. Even Kano is embarking on more ambitious infrastructural projects than Abuja these days.

EcoBrick:


I have observed this too, I mean the slow down of growth in Abuja in the past 10 years or so. Rather it is densely populated ghettos that are increasingly springing up in the outskirt areas lately. Abuja experienced a lot of infrastructural growth during the Oil-Boom years when oil money really flowed. The Executive and Legislature arms really allocated a lot of funds for its infrastructural development, but that has all changed since oil proceeds slowed down. Abuja's growth will always be tied to Nigeria's federal revenues and budgets. If the economy is performing well and Nigeria's Oil proceeds are high, Abuja will witness infrastructural growth, but if it doesn't, it won't because it is competing for resources with other federal units. I noticed it's IGR has been picking up though, but it's still not yet up to Rivers and Ogun state's though, not to talk of Lagos'. Even Kano is embarking on more ambitious infrastructural projects than Abuja these days.

People will move more to places where they can legitimately hustle than one propped up by the national economy.
If Abuja wants to legitimately compete with Lagos into the far future, it would have to develop an Industrial base, a real organic city structure (not just a city center governmental facade surrounded by shanties and middle class living areas) and then offer residents a diversity of lifestyle choices like Lagos. But I am not sure if that will happen being that it does not tally with Abuja's initial purpose since it is meant to be a planned and serene/orderly city.

Lagos's own problem stems mostly from the general state of transport infrastructure leading to massive bottlenecks such as endless holdups. It should take more to the marine segment while also expanding existing terrestrial road structures including building new ones and increasing linkability between areas by offering more route choices.
It should also try to decentralize governing structure. Let all those LCDA's start operating like independent mini cities. No reason why Lekki should be fundamentally attached to Lagos when it can be its own independent City of Lekki. It will soon have a fully operational Seaport, there are universities there such as the Pan Atlantic University, several industrial complexes, leisure spots, And might soon have an airport!

That is how it usually works in the Western world. Once a suburb gets too big and developed, it becomes an independent incorporated city.

scholes0:


People will move more to places where they can legitimately hustle than one propped up by the national economy.
If Abuja wants to legitimately compete with Lagos into the far future, it would have to develop an Industrial base, a real organic city structure (not just a city center governmental facade surrounded by shanties and middle class living areas) and then offer residents a diversity of lifestyle choices like Lagos. But I am not sure if that will happen being that it does not tally with Abuja's initial purpose since it is meant to be a planned and serene/orderly city.

Lagos's own problem stems mostly from the general state of transport infrastructure leading to massive bottlenecks such as endless holdups. It should take more to the marine segment while also expanding existing terrestrial road structures including building new ones and increasing linkability between areas by offering more route choices.
It should also try to decentralized governing structure. Let all those LCDA's start operating like independent mini cities. No reason why Lekki should be fundamentally attached to Lagos when it can be its own independent City of Lekki. That is how it usually works in the Western world. Once a suburb gets too big and developed, it becomes an independent incorporated city.

You are right about the Brasilia - Abuja comparison. After the Brazilian capital was moved from Rio De Janeiro to Brasilia in 1960, the new capital witnessed dramatic growth of its population. But today, Rio's population is at least 2 times that of Brasilia's, while Sao Paulo (which was never a capital) is far more populated than both Rio and Brasilia put together.

If Nigeria is restructured to allow every state to control its resources, the Abuja attraction would tank. Even as it is, its relative growth has really slowed. Too many abandoned projects liter its landscape due to paucity of funds. Real Estate developers are just building houses that the average Abuja resident or worker cannot even afford, consequently forcing more and more people into the outskirts where a lot of shanties are popping up.

I've something to say when it reach fp, tap me!

Frenchkiss564:
This should not come as a surprise. Lagos state has the smallest land mass in the country. The growth of Abuja is due to the fact that it is the seat of the central government and nothing more. It is not industrialised neither does it contribute anything worthwhile to the national purse. Abuja is like an obessed child leeching solely on the oil of the nigerdelta.

OP, the last time I checked suleja is part of Niger state and not Abuja. You may want to correct that.

Abuja is a leeching city because the FG decided to leave it that way. The moment FCT leaves that place, it becomes active.

Suleja is part of Abuja metropolitan area even though it is in Niger state. Abuja developed into it and merged together with it through Zuba & Madalla.... Same way Lagos developed into parts of Ogun state.

Blue3k2:


Why not chart it? I'll just guess no.

Sorry please what does this mean?

scholes0:
Nope.
Abuja is growing into Nassarawa and might probably extend to parts of niger in the future.

Lagos is growing into Ogun... Ikorodu and Lekki are exploding.

Besides, some of these areas you are adding to "Auja agglomeration" is a stretch..... too disjointed and far away to be part of Abuja metro. They are their own towns/metros.
lol if you are counting Suleja and New Karu as part of Abuja metro, then Abeokuta will become part of Lagos metro. Is Abuja even bigger than Ibadan? Mind you, Ibadan is bigger than Kano, forget the nonsense Naija stats that has been misinforming everybody than Kano is #2 and larger than Ibadan at #3...

Ikorodu & Lekki are part of Lagos Metropolitan area/ Greater Lagos urban area. Likewise, Ota & Ibafo in Lagos...

People live in Suleja & Karu and work in Abuja Municipal. Can people live in Abeokuta and work in Lagos? Abeokuta is still too far and disjointed from Lagos for it to be considered part of Lagos metro.

Of course Ibadan is bigger than Kano, we did the measurements and thrashed the issue on a previous thread. I'm sure u were there.

https://www.nairaland.com/5728975/25-largest-cities-urban-areas

Ibadan is bigger than Abuja Municipal. But Abuja is bigger if you add the surrounding Urban areas that it has merged with.

ZKOSOSO:

Karu area includes Karshi orozo, jikwoyi, Karu site, nyanya, mararaba, new karu, masaka, goshen, Aso, gbagalape,...etc

Pls if you don't mind, where are you from?

Frenchkiss564:
The growth of Abuja is due to the fact that it is the seat of the central government and nothing more. It is not industrialised neither does it contribute anything worthwhile to the national purse. Abuja is like an obessed child leeching solely on the oil of the nigerdelta.

Same with the growth of Lagos, isn't it?

scholes0:
How can Karu be up to 2 million people? lol
Ilorin is faar bigger than Karu. Heck, it isn't even nearly as large as the Osogbo urban area

It is very clear that you did not see this thread where most top urban areas of Nigeria were measured.
Go through this thread below and digest it very well, then come back.

https://www.nairaland.com/5728975/25-largest-cities-urban-areas

Karu is now far bigger than you think it is.
It also has a very congested population.

scholes0:
Karu that is like Ibafo while Kubwa and Madalla together are like Badagry agglo.
Those are the Eastern and Western limits of Abuja proper anything further would be pushing it, and they won't be able to catapult the Abuja agglomeration to topple Lagos. Also Lagos has the coastal, industrial and "Buzz capital" advantage and the ability to form a conurbation with larger surrounding settlements. The closest large town to Abuja is Minna in Niger state, which is even closer than Kaduna. Besides, There are not than much empty green spaces within Lagos except in areas criss-crossed by water which can not be built over, whereas the Abuja area is just too disjointed to form a single continuous urban area. I think because of the undulating terrain.

Zuba & Madalla developed from Abuja and merged into Suleja... Suleja merged into Diko and the combined urban area km² of this Zuba-Madalla-Suleja-Diko urban area is about 113km², the same size with Asaba city and bigger than Calabar city.

Karu Urban which is about 188km² is the 5th largest urban area in the north after Abuja, Kano, Kaduna & Jos..... On it's own, it is bigger than Maiduguri, Zaria, Bauchi, Sokoto e.t.c and it is now almost merging with Keffi.
Ado or Uke to Keffi is like 10 mins drive.

Look at the map below and see how Karu Urban is developing. And remember that Karu Urban is the fastest growing Urban area in Africa, at 40% per annum. Almost 10x faster than Lagos.

Nowenuse:


It is very clear that you did not see this thread where most top urban areas of Nigeria were measured.
Go through this thread below and digest it very well, then come back.

https://www.nairaland.com/5728975/25-largest-cities-urban-areas

Karu is now far bigger than you think it is.
It also has a very congested population.

Zuba & Madalla developed from Abuja and merged into Suleja... Suleja merged into Diko and the combined urban area km² of this Zuba-Madalla-Suleja-Diko urban area is about 113km², the same size with Asaba city and bigger than Calabar city.

Karu Urban which is about 188km² is the 5th largest urban area in the north after Abuja, Kano, Kaduna & Jos..... On it's own, it is bigger than Maiduguri, Zaria, Bauchi, Sokoto e.t.c and it is now almost merging with Keffi.
Ado or Uke to Keffi is like 10 mins drive.

Look at the map below and see how Karu Urban is developing. And remember that Karu Urban is the fastest growing Urban area in Africa, at 40% per annum. Almost 10x faster than Lagos.

Your friend tried, but when you go into the fineprint of his measurements for example, one would discover that his measurements for all urban areas were not consistent.
For example, he measured the continuous Ibadan urban sprawl to be 562km², however I did my measurements and went into the details only to discover that the city is in fact 700km² or so which is about 140 SqKm more than what your paddy measured. You will observe that I have used much more pegged points than he has to carefully outline the city limits:

[img]http:///65535/49707695957_ba28353873_b.jpg[/img]

On to Abuja.
First, Gwagwalada can not be added to Abuja, that is a stretch, seriously Gwagwalada to Abuja CBD is about 47Kms or so as the crow flies, and even more distant by road (56km), in that same distance you would have covered central Akure to central Ado Ekiti or Ibadan to Oyo town , or Port Harcourt to Aba!. That both are in the same FCT does not automatically translate to them being the same.

.. Suleja too to an extent, but the fact that there is a string of settlements between Abuja municipal and Suleja township, I would add Suleja to the Abuja measurement for the sake of argument... I have measure the entire Abuja conurbation from Suleja area in Niger state deep into Nasarawa state, and at the end of it all, it comes to 550km²:, which is waay less than the 850km² your German Igbo friend is allocating to that urban area. I don't know how he did his own measurements.

[img]http:///65535/49707580026_17b46d8dbb_h.jpg[/img]

As it turns out, Ibadan is still over 150 km² larger than Abuja +Suleja+ Lugbe +Karu and all those other towns that can be considered a part of Abuja metro (within the scope of fair reasoning)

If I measure Lagos, It would be at least 1,500SqKm.. you just have to forget about Lagos. Your friend didn't even Add: Magboro, Loburo, Atan Otta, Owode Otta to Lagos. Neither did he measure all of Ikorodu.
Also, his Lekki measurement is stopping waaaay short of the actual extent of Lekki, so he is really underestimating the Lagos urban area, while he is adding Bwari and Gwagwalada! too Abuja or Ibusa to Asaba, a place that is neither considered the same town nor that much intertwined with Asaba in terms of urban sprawl.

As for Kano, it is already an established fact that ibadan is larger.

Nowenuse:


Ikorodu & Lekki are part of Lagos Metropolitan area/ Greater Lagos urban area. Likewise, Ota & Ibafo in Lagos...

People live in Suleja & Karu and work in Abuja Municipal. Can people live in Abeokuta and work in Lagos? Abeokuta is still too far and disjointed from Lagos for it to be considered part of Lagos metro.

Of course Ibadan is bigger than Kano, we did the measurements and thrashed the issue on a previous thread. I'm sure u were there.

https://www.nairaland.com/5728975/25-largest-cities-urban-areas

Ibadan is bigger than Abuja Municipal. But Abuja is bigger if you add the surrounding Urban areas that it has merged with.

Nowe, living somewhere and working in a larger urban area is not the definition of city limits. Maybe you might want to call that a CMA or a Larger common commuter area. There are people who live in far off towns in England and commute everyday to central london for work because the price of rent in the London city area is off the charts. Like seriously people in towns as close to London as Watford can't even say they live in London talk more people in places like Luton who drive to and from London everyday.

When Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan rai becomes a reality and people start railing from Abeokuta to Lagos for work, will Abeokuta suddenly become part of Lagos?
Ibadan as it turns out is larger than both Kano and all of Abuja urban area.

So in Nigeria, the list should go like:

* Lagos Metro
* Ibadan
* Abuja metro
* Kano.
In that order.

Your friend is also overestimating Kaduna, Jos and some other places. For example... Akure looks larger than Owerri to me but your friend's measurement is saying otherwise. If I do the measurements, I would turn out to be right, and your friend wrong.

scholes0:


Your friend tried, but when you go into the fineprint of his measurements for example, one would discover that his measurements for all urban areas were not consistent.
For example, he measured the continuous Ibadan urban sprawl to be 562km², however I did my measurements and went into the details only to discover that the city is in fact 700km² or so which is about 140 SqKm more than what your paddy measured. You will observe that I have used much more pegged points than he has to carefully outline the city limits:

[img]http:///65535/49707695957_ba28353873_b.jpg[/img]

On to Abuja.
First, Gwagwalada can not be added to Abuja, that is a stretch, seriously Gwagwalada to Abuja CBD is about 47Kms or so as the crow flies, and even more distant by road (56km), in that same distance you would have covered central Akure to central Ado Ekiti or Ibadan to Oyo town , or Port Harcourt to Aba!. That both are in the same FCT does not automatically translate to them being the same.

.. Suleja too to an extent, but the fact that there is a string of settlements between Abuja municipal and Suleja township, I would add Suleja to the Abuja measurement for the sake of argument... I have measure the entire Abuja conurbation from Suleja area in Niger state deep into Nasarawa state, and at the end of it all, it comes to 550km²:, which is waay less than the 850km² your German Igbo friend is allocating to that urban area. I don't know how he did his own measurements.

[img]http:///65535/49707580026_17b46d8dbb_h.jpg[/img]

As it turns out, Ibadan is still over 150 km² larger than Abuja +Suleja+ Lugbe +Karu and all those other towns that can be considered a part of Abuja metro (within the scope of fair reasoning)

If I measure Lagos, It would be at least 1,500SqKm.. you just have to forget about Lagos. Your friend didn't even Add: Magboro, Loburo, Atan Otta, Owode Otta to Lagos. Neither did he measure all of Ikorodu.
Also, his Lekki measurement is stopping waaaay short of the actual extent of Lekki, so he is really underestimating the Lagos urban area, while he is adding Bwari and Gwagwalada! too Abuja or Ibusa to Asaba, a place that is neither considered the same town nor that much intertwined with Asaba in terms of urban sprawl.

As for Kano, it is already an established fact that ibadan is larger.

1) Nice efforts, but you must know that you cannot measure Abuja municipal, Suleja & Karu as one urban area in the same manner with which you measure Ibadan.
This is due to the disjointed nature of the different urban areas and towns that make up Abuja.
Same way you cannot measure Lagos as one urban area, hence the reason we split the measurements. You can never get the proper measurement of an urban agglomeration by measuring it together.

2) Abuja metro should even be higher than the measurement we gave it because we did not include Kuje town and the small towns on your way to Gwagwalada from Zuba.

Yes, Gwagwalada, Bwari and even Kuje are part of Abuja Metropolitan area. The businesses, social life and economy of these places are all tied to Abuja. Do not judge Gwagwalada based on it's distance from Abuja CBD and compare it to that of other cities, because the road from Gwagwalada to Abuja is very good and it is a highway express. Rather what u measure is the distance in time from Gwagwalada to CBD and how economically tied Gwagwalada is to Abuja Municipal.
It takes less than 30 mins from Gwagwalada to Kubwa in Abuja Municipal on the highway through Zuba.

Gwagwalada to Zuba is 34km and between this 34km, you have 4 towns along the road (Tungan Maje, Anagada, Giri & Gwako). From Gwagwalada to all these towns to Zuba is like a 5 mins interval between them.

I grew up in Warri and there are places that one will go within Warri-Udu urban that will take you at least 50 mins. E.g from Ekpan (Uvwie) where my house is to Orhuworhun (Udu) where my church is located is 30 mins drive. Mind you, this is on a free road without any form of hold up or delay. If u are going from a place like Ugbokodo/Ughoton in the same Uvwie LGA to Aladja or Usieffurun in same Udu LGA, it will take you like 50 mins on a free road.... And all these places are within one urban area!

This is also same thing in Benin, going from a place like Oluku to Ikhueniro or Oluku to Obe on a free road, it will take you up to 40 mins. With little normal traffic it takes up to 1 hour.

Infact, distance in time or km between the suburbs should never be a defining factor to a metropolitan area. If not, how do u explain American/Canadian cities and other Western cities that are extremely large due to the gigantic nature of their well planned suburbs?

With the high quality road network in a place like New York, there are suburban areas you can transit that will take you 1-2 hours!

Aba & PH may be close, but their economies, businesses, work and social lives are not tied together, so they can never be considered 1 metro until they physically merge with each other. Apart from Kwali, Abaji and other farther towns from Abuja Municipal within FCT, almost all the other towns within FCT are developing rapidly in size because of Abuja. The social life, businesses and economy of these smaller towns are tied to Abuja and inseparable. It is on this note that they are considered part of Abuja Metropolitan area.

See the distance between Madalla & Gwagwalada below, if you zoom in, u will see 4 small towns in between, including Giri town which is the road to the Airport.

scholes0:


Your friend tried, but when you go into the fineprint of his measurements for example, one would discover that his measurements for all urban areas were not consistent.
For example, he measured the continuous Ibadan urban sprawl to be 562km², however I did my measurements and went into the details only to discover that the city is in fact 700km² or so which is about 140 SqKm more than what your paddy measured. You will observe that I have used much more pegged points than he has to carefully outline the city limits:

[img]http:///65535/49707695957_ba28353873_b.jpg[/img]

On to Abuja.
First, Gwagwalada can not be added to Abuja, that is a stretch, seriously Gwagwalada to Abuja CBD is about 47Kms or so as the crow flies, and even more distant by road (56km), in that same distance you would have covered central Akure to central Ado Ekiti or Ibadan to Oyo town , or Port Harcourt to Aba!. That both are in the same FCT does not automatically translate to them being the same.

.. Suleja too to an extent, but the fact that there is a string of settlements between Abuja municipal and Suleja township, I would add Suleja to the Abuja measurement for the sake of argument... I have measure the entire Abuja conurbation from Suleja area in Niger state deep into Nasarawa state, and at the end of it all, it comes to 550km²:, which is waay less than the 850km² your German Igbo friend is allocating to that urban area. I don't know how he did his own measurements.

[img]http:///65535/49707580026_17b46d8dbb_h.jpg[/img]

As it turns out, Ibadan is still over 150 km² larger than Abuja +Suleja+ Lugbe +Karu and all those other towns that can be considered a part of Abuja metro (within the scope of fair reasoning)

If I measure Lagos, It would be at least 1,500SqKm.. you just have to forget about Lagos. Your friend didn't even Add: Magboro, Loburo, Atan Otta, Owode Otta to Lagos. Neither did he measure all of Ikorodu.
Also, his Lekki measurement is stopping waaaay short of the actual extent of Lekki, so he is really underestimating the Lagos urban area, while he is adding Bwari and Gwagwalada! too Abuja or Ibusa to Asaba, a place that is neither considered the same town nor that much intertwined with Asaba in terms of urban sprawl.

As for Kano, it is already an established fact that ibadan is larger.

scholes0:


Nowe, living somewhere and working in a larger urban area is not the definition of city limits. Maybe you might want to call that a CMA or a Larger common commuter area. There are people who live in far off towns in England and commute everyday to central london for work because the price of rent in the London city area is off the charts. Like seriously people in towns as close to London as Watford can't even say they live in London talk more people in places like Luton who drive to and from London everyday.

When Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan rai becomes a reality and people start railing from Abeokuta to Lagos for work, will Abeokuta suddenly become part of Lagos?
Ibadan as it turns out is larger than both Kano and all of Abuja urban area.

So in Nigeria, the list should go like:

* Lagos Metro
* Ibadan
* Abuja metro
* Kano.
In that order.

Your friend is also overestimating Kaduna, Jos and some other places. For example... Akure looks larger than Owerri to me but your friend's measurement is saying otherwise. If I do the measurements, I would turn out to be right, and your friend wrong.

3) Yes, some suburbs of Lagos & Ibadan were not added to the measurement and I made it clear on that thread. Likewise parts of Abuja too were not added as you can see!

In your own measurement of Abuja u also did not include many parts of Abuja, Karu & Suleja urban. Do your measurements of Abuja Municipal, Karu Urban & Suleja-Zuba-Madalla-Diko urban separately!
And try to stop using too many pins, it defeats the aim of measurement if the lines between the pins are not visible enough.

4) For you to say Jos & Kaduna were overestimated shows that you don't know these places.
A very big suburb of Kaduna called Katabu (Mararaban Jos) and even Kujama town (the LG headquarters of Chikun LGA) was not included in the Kaduna measurement. Otherwise Kaduna should be close to 500km².

Are you aware that both Jos & Kaduna have been developing cities for almost 100 years now? Kaduna was capital city since Northern protectorate days, while Jos became capital city of 3½ states today since 1967 and before then it was the pre independent tin mining city where the British brought in workers from all over Nigeria to work on the tin mines which was among the top 5 income generators for the pre independent Nigeria?

Never you underestimate Jos & Kaduna. Only Ibadan, Benin, PH and Lagos (cities in the south) can measure up these cities in size and significance.

No one can really get a 100% proper measurement of these cities. The best we can work with are aggregates.

5) As for Abeokuta to Lagos, a railway cannot really make the businesses, economy, social life and worklife of both cities merge together. Abeokuta is 54km away from Ifo and Ifo is one of the last suburbs on the extreme end away from Lagos proper. It will take more than a railway to tie Abeokuta & Lagos together.

Also, Abeokuta did not develop from the influence of Lagos, so it is not dependent on Lagos.
This is unlike Gwagwalada, Bwari, Kuje e.t.c that started developing because of Abuja Municipal and have their existence tied to Abuja Municipal.
Try to read up the definition of a METROPOLIS, METROPOLITAN AREA & GREATER URBAN AREA to understand these things.

For example, the distance between Ekiugbo town (Ughelli Urban) to Agbarho (Warri urban) is 5 mins, but it will still take a long time before Ughelli & Warri can merge and function as one.

For the records, Igbuzor has merged with Asaba. Even Ogwashi Uku will merge with Asaba in the next 5-10 years. You don't even know when you're in Igbuzor or Ogwashi because the houses have merged together along the road.

There is no way Ibadan urban area can be bigger than Abuja Metropolitan area. Abuja is now a connurbation of multiple urban areas.

Nowenuse:


1) Nice efforts, but you must know that you cannot measure Abuja municipal, Suleja & Karu as one urban area in the same manner with which you measure Ibadan.
This is due to the disjointed nature of the different urban areas and towns that make up Abuja.
Same way you cannot measure Lagos as one urban area, hence the reason we split the measurements. You can never get the proper measurement of an urban agglomeration by measuring it together.

2) Abuja metro should even be higher than the measurement we gave it because we did not include Kuje town and the small towns on your way to Gwagwalada from Zuba.
.

It does not matter how you measure the different towns and cities within an urban agglomeration, you will always come up with the same results, either you measure them individually and then add them up or you measure them all at once (if you have the time, consistency and patience to do so) it is maths, it can't be cheated. The map is there nau, we shouldn't even be arguing you can measure it yourself and post what you arrive at here. Infact, it took me about 30 minutes plus to carefully outline Abuja and all the outlying surrounding towns, if I didn't have the ample time on my hands due to the present coronavirus situation + weekend, I would have preferred to do them individually and them add them together like your friend did because If I (or anyone measuring measuring) wasn't being careful about it, I/they would run the risk of adding a lot of uninhabited/non built up areas to Abuja due to how disconnected the entire area is (like you rightfully said)

2: Kuje town if you insist is only about 22kmSq. All those areas you mention can't not be more than 50kmSq put together, and that's pushing it. You are forgetting that the difference between Ibadan and Abuja in my measurements was more than 130 good Kms Squared.
And if are adding all those areas like Kuje to Abuja, then I better start adding Idi Ayunre, Badeku, Igbonna even Iwo, Ikire to Ibadan because that is exactly what it would mean.

Ibadan is clearly larger than Abuja but for whatever reason, you just don't want to accept. Notice that you keep pushing the limits of what is within Abuja to record distances but still fall short in the end. Small thing now, you will ask us to take the measurement of Abuja down to Keffi.

If Aba and Port Harcourt are not as intertwined as you say, then how is Abuja and Gwagwalada considered intertwined. What is your defination of an interlinked urban area?
The volume of people who move between PH/Obigbo/Aba each day is far greater than that which moves between Gwagwalada or Suleja and Abuja. Yet one is measured together but the other is not?

The only reason your criteria is inconsistent is because poth PH and Aba are popular, but you want to subsume Gwagwa or Suleja under the name "Abuja" because they haven't made a name for themselves yet as cities? That is wrong sir.