Are Nigerian Cities Futuristic?



What if you stepped out of the house and jammed the front door and it locked on its own, because it was a smart door and functioned with a sensor that received instructions from the tiny remote in your hands? And you hopped into you SUV, started the ignition, revved the engine a bit and drove off, off to work. Because your office is 45 minutes away from your house, you could not afford to rush back to confirm your fears. What if you were scared and confused that you did not switch off the electric cooker and electric iron? You knew you wouldn’t have a house to go back to if you did not act immediately. You tried calling your neighbor who was the only bachelor in the neighbourhood. You called him, not because he is a bachelor, but because he lost his job and was always at home. The call did not connect and you gave up calling. You gave up calling because he didn’t have the key to the house, anyway. Then you remembered that your smart phone had always been with you, on the table. You picked it and slid the screen with your thumb, and it lit. You swiped your finger on the screen until you found the app you were looking for. You found two apps. One could unlock and lock your doors while you were away at work or the supermarket. It could also map out all the doors and windows in your home, and tell you which was open or locked. You thought of unlocking your front door, but you remembered you couldn’t reach your neighbor. Then you exhaled and touched the other app. That was the right app. It could check all switches and sockets in your house. It could confirm which was on, and which was off. It could map the electrical members of your house. So, you conveniently switched off all appliances, one by one, through your app that is installed with license, on your smart phone. Your cooker went off. The electric iron went cold.



That is the city we dream of. That is a smart city, where data and technology are used to solve the challenges of the city and its citizens, where one could book a parking lot 10 minutes away from the available lot, after driving through easy route indicated by a customized city traffic app, not the global Google Maps. Remember the first story about you, as a home owner, who was able to switch off all home appliances through an app. This could be regarded as Smart Energy, which has the capacity to save energy load on government grid, thereby saving home owner some cost, especially when the home runs on smart electricity meter.



In Milton Keynes, some of these smart ideas are already running, as prototypes or in their final trial stages. According to the website “the MK:Smart project, is a large collaborative initiative, partly funded by HEFCE (the Higher Education Funding Council for England) and led by The Open University, which is developing innovative solutions to support economic growth in Milton Keynes”. MK:SMART is a 16 million pound investment, and The Open University is working with E-ON, BT and Milton Keynes Council to achieve this. For Smart Energy, data is collected from different homes and gathered at data centers where it is analyzed to determine how people use energy in their various homes in Milton Keyenes. And then, Solar Energy is provided to every home, through panels on rooftops, to serve as an alternative when the sun is at its peak during the day. Because of this innovation, people can save money and energy, by using an application that is connected to home appliances, like the washing machine, and also to the solar panels. Home appliances and solar panels are connected to a digital hub in the house. The app monitors the amount of energy imported through government grid and the amount exported. It also monitors the online weather through open data, which will advice when sun intensity will be at its peak. Home owner can set the washing machine to start operating at that peak time, through the alternative solar energy, and not the government grid. So, while home owner is at work, washing machine can start working at the exact time sun intensity is high, because it would have been set by home owner through the app, recognizing weather reports. Electric cars can also be charged, using solar energy, at these hours. This saves cost for individuals in Milton Keynes, and also saves the environment from many forms of unfriendliness. In Milton Keynes, this is only one of the smart ideas The Open University and partners have been working on. There are many more.



Nigerian cities can start thinking of how to revolutionize how we function in our cities. It is time to join the world in thinking out unique ways to live smart, in connection to our daily lifestyles and cultures. This is a global revolution, and every serious city in the world is embracing it. From Ajmer in India, to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Songdo in South Korea, citizens and tech entrepreneurs are beginning to think smart. Songdo is the world’s most futuristic urban area, built 40 miles southwest of the second most populated city in the world, Seoul in South Korea. It is a $40 billion project. Songdo is a ubiquitous city. Every device is linked to an informational network through wireless computing technology, allowing for a more synchronized city. An example of a smart idea that exists in Songdo is the waste management technology where a network of tubes sucks waste directly from the kitchen bin of every home, through pipelines, to sorting facilities. This is where garbage is sorted and segregated, and moved to appropriate disposal centers. There is absolutely no need for garbage trucks, and waste bins are not found on Songdo’s streets.



I accept that social infrastructure must be put in place for a city to be smart. This means governments of developing cities must work hard on amenities such as energy, water, housing and transportation. There is also great need for sufficient data to be made open to tech investors, and the involvement of citizens in decision making. By 2020, humans will begin to feel uncomfortable living in cities that are not smart, and this will have its negative effect on business and social activities in such cities.



There are new cities springing up in Nigeria, prominent are The Eko Atlantic City Lagos and The Centenary City Abuja. Those are two cities that are highly praised to be smart cities and highly energy efficient, with different natural alternatives to energy. But how smart are these new Nigerian cities? How original and indigenous are the ideas that will give birth to the technologies that will run in these cities? How available is open data provided for the success of tech operators in these new cities? And how sustainable and affordable is life going to look like in these new Nigerian cities?

First published on CityDezigns Magazine. Follow @CityDezigns on Twitter and Instagram.