Data as Infrastructure and Adaptive Urban Governance in Nigerian Cities

Abstract

Urban governance relies on data for planning and delivering projects-but data systems are not considered fundamental infrastructure. This paper argues that understanding data as infrastructure is useful in understanding persistent integration challenges in Nigerian cities. Drawing upon comparative qualitative analysis of Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, analyses the influences of institutional arrangement and technical as well as civic practices on urban data systems. Findings reveal that fragmented platforms, poor data stewardship and limited community generated information limit the coordination and learning across all three cities in different ways. Lagos embodies digital ambition but poor interoperability, Abuja exhibits technical coherence but poor public engagement, Port Harcourt reflects extractive political economies and governance capacity deficits rooted in extractive political economies that produce critical informational blind spots. The paper concludes that treating data as shared civic infrastructure will accelerate adaptive urban governance with broader implications for rapidly urbanizing cities with similar institutional conditions.