By Henry Obetta

The De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, on Sunday, raised concern over the ongoing market redevelopment projects across Lagos Island, Mainland, Badagry, Ikorodu and Epe warning that the projects risk displacing traditional traders and eroding the city’s mercantile heritage.
The foundation, in a statement, argued that many of the new structures were partially unoccupied due to high costs, while displaced traders resort to informal street trading in adjoining areas to sustain their livelihoods.
The statement reads: “We must ask: who are markets for? Markets are not shopping malls. They are social ecosystems. They are living organisms sustained by affordability, accessibility and proximity to the people. When redevelopment excludes the primary users, it fractures the economic chain. When modernization forgets the market woman, it forgets Lagos itself.
“The indigenes and long-time dwellers of Lagos across Island, Mainland, Badagry, Ikorodu and Epe do not resist progress. They resist erasure. They resist economic structures that elevate concrete above community and aesthetics above accessibility.”
The foundation called for inclusive urban development noting that while modernization improved sanitation and safer infrastructure were necessary it must prioritise the welfare of traditional traders in the state.
The group said: “True development should be inclusive. It should consult traders before demolition. It should provide phased redevelopment that guarantees return at affordable rates. It should incorporate open-air sections for low-capital traders. It should blend tradition with innovation, not replace one with the other.
“The history of Lagos trade teaches us a profound lesson: prosperity here was built from the ground up, not imposed from above. From barter to monetized exchange, from mats to structured stalls, growth has always been organic.
“If we sever modernisation from memory, we risk building beautiful emptiness.”
The foundation urged authorities to adopt phased redevelopment plans that guarantee traders’ return at affordable rates, incorporate open-air sections for low-capital merchants, and ensure consultations before demolition exercises.
It maintained that Lagos’ prosperity was built from grassroots commerce and called for development strategies that balance modernization with the preservation of the city’s trading heritage.
“Modernise, yes — but modernize with memory,” the statement noted, emphasising that the future of Lagos must reflect both progress and its historic identity as a market-driven city.