The Flip Side: Flipping capital cities: Is Africa misguided?
Many African countries have embarked on the journey of moving their capital cities for various reasons. But is this always in everyone's best interest?
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00:00Imagine you live in a capital city and have a good government job, lots of friends, and your children are going to great schools.
00:07And then you're told you have to uproot your life and move. Why?
00:11Because the government decided to move the capital elsewhere. And how does that work?
00:16Well, let's find out. Welcome to the Flipside.
00:19Several African countries have embarked on the journey of moving their capital cities for various reasons.
00:25The most recent example is Liberia, which is now contemplating the move away from Monrovia as its capital city.
00:32Before that, in 1991, Nigeria's capital city was moved from the country's largest city, Lagos, to Abuja.
00:40And in the 1960s, the first president of Ivory Coast decided to move away the country's capital from Abuja to Yamoussoukro.
00:48But why move the country's capital city in the first place?
00:52Urban migration, for which the city is crowded, and a lot of things that may affect the lives of people.
00:59So there may be a need to reset the city so that it serves every sector of the population.
01:09A city that made sense as a capital in the past might not make sense today.
01:14Climate change and other disasters are often cited as reasons for a move.
01:19In the case of Liberia, flash floods in recent months triggered torrential rains that left at least 48,000 Liberians in urgent need in and around the capital.
01:30So what are the reasons for contemplating the move away from Monrovia?
01:35Is it climate change, urban decay, or poor governance?
01:39We all see the filthiness of the city. There's no decent pricing.
01:44Who comes from a civilized home will reject such a decision or such an agreement.
01:49The city is really congested. The population is increasing.
01:53And so on that basis, having another city will also be able to decongest our city.
01:59And what is the social cost of relocating established centers of activity?
02:03You have to determine what the economic life of the people would be, what you can harness the people's expertise on in that area.
02:12South Africa holds another example of how things can go wrong.
02:16Johannesburg, the mega city, is South Africa's economic hub and is also dubbed as the city of gold.
02:22Poor service delivery, environmental mismanagement and crime have all contributed to transforming Johannesburg, but not for the better.
02:31Both Johannesburg and Monrovia would have to seriously square up to creating livable spaces, which are democratic rights.
02:45They need to share better political and urban planning policies.
02:52And they need to abandon these neoliberal approaches to city management.
02:58But perhaps instead of deciding to move entire cities while uprooting the lives of tens of thousands of people,
03:05we could move our mindsets instead and reinforce the cities and infrastructures we already have.
03:10We are not hearing again about new capital city after today, after next election.
03:14We will never hear about that. So let them forget about that.
03:16And that is the flip side.