18. Resilience of Informal Public Transport and Urban Land Governance in Ibadan, Nigeria

Informal public transport (IPT) has emerged as an adaptive alternative to formal public transport in developing countries. Transport sytems are an integral part of land allocation and urban governance in urban development, with positive and negative impacts upon the wellbeing of urban dwellers. A pragmatic theoretical approach to the role of informal transport in Ibadan, Nigeria, helps to position the significance of stakeholder perceptions to policies on land and urban governance in cities of the developing world. This approach has more significance given the diminishing public sector investment in public transport in developing countries that has led to the growth of informal transport. Pragmatism encourages the perceived negative role of informal transport becoming more positive, informed by the stakeholder views involved in IPT in Ibadan. This chapter argues that the stakeholder perceptions of IPT reflect the real world situation, to allow a shift towards seeing IPT as essential for achieving urban wellbeing for citizens of developing country cities.