Nigeria has Africa’s biggest economy and a population of over 200 million people. Nigeria faces numerous challenges as it struggles to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with flooding being the most serious with wide-reaching impacts. This paper highlights the impact flooding has on Nigeria reaching SDGs and enumerates the specific SDGs most directly impacted. A systematic literature review provides an overview of the relationship between flooding in Nigeria and the SDGs. It highlights the main causes of Nigeria’s flooding problem are man-made and advocates spatial planning as a suitable Flood Risk Management (FRM) strategy for the Nigerian environment. The paper calls for collaborative action by all concerned stakeholders to address the flooding problem and to help move Nigeria closer to meeting the United Nations (UN) 2030 SDGs. Most importantly, the evidence presented in this paper seeks to promote action on a national scale to combat the flooding in Nigeria and help the nation work more effectively toward achieving the SDGs.

Food is connected to sustainable development goals in numerous ways, as food security is key to achieving sustainable development. The world is currently not on track to achieve the set sustainable development goals (SDGs). In Nigeria, flooding is a recurrent disaster and constitutes a setback to success with the SDGs and sustainable development. Flooding disasters are a threat to food security due to their impact on the food system. This study is an integrative review that explores the link between Nigeria’s flooding, food security, and the SDGs. It adopts an assemblage and systems thinking approach to analyze the impact of flooding on all components of food security. It finds that, despite the impact of flooding on food security, it is not recognized as a threat by policymakers, as evidenced by the lack of mention of disasters in the current Nigeria Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP). Attention is drawn to this oversight in this work by highlighting the interconnections between flooding, food security, and sustainable development. Recommendations on flood mitigation and adaptive practices that can alleviate the negative impact of flooding on food security to enhance the success rate of the SDGs are proffered. This work contributes to the literature by showcasing the impact of flooding on food security and its connection to sustainable development, which is an area that has not received adequate attention in research. The assemblage and system thinking approach adopted brings novelty and allows for a succinct understanding of how flooding impacts all four aspects of food security. This paper serves as the first time the problem has been explored in this manner.

Africa is rapidly urbanizing and its population is growing exponentially. The United Nations has predicted Africa will have the fastest global population growth, with over half of its populace residing in urban areas by 2050. This is concerning given Africa's current infrastructural deficits which compromise liveability in these urban areas. Education, health, and transport are core areas of challenge in Africa and currently, no research is known to have analyzed if the infusion of smart city technology in these core areas will make a difference, a gap this paper fills. This work reviews the literature on smart city technology using Singapore as a model to make inferences and ascertain the adaptability of the technology to the African situation. It seeks to investigate the prospects of enhancing the aforementioned core areas of challenge using smart city technology and determine the prospects for Africa's development. Findings indicate Africa's current state of development is an advantage here as infusing core areas with digital technology would proactively help address Africa's urbanization challenges. African nations are encouraged to embrace digital technology to address core development issues while putting adequate measures in place to maintain the security and privacy of citizens.

Flooding is widely recognised as a global problem which has worsened in recent years due to climate change. In Nigeria, flooding remains the most widespread environmental disaster with the population of 200 million suffering numerous threats from perennial flooding. Port Harcourt in Southern Nigeria experiences annual flooding on a significant scale. While research has linked the flooding in Port Harcourt to poor urban planning, little research has engaged with planning professionals to investigate this relationship. This paper fills this gap. It explores how urban planning is linked to flooding in Port Harcourt and reports on qualitative research undertaken with five urban planners in Port Harcourt. The findings affirm that poor planning and/or lack of compliance with planning regulations are the main factors contributing to the flooding of Port Harcourt. The urban planners gave their expert opinions on how to control the flooding and unanimously agreed that improved planning practices could control the endemic flooding problem in the city. This implies that the government needs to work more closely with urban planners and other stakeholders to effectively control and find a lasting solution to the flooding problem in Port Harcourt city.

Disasters annually ravage numerous African countries. Flooding is the most severe and prevalent adverse event and has serious implications for sustainable development. As the world is currently facing the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters such as flooding are still occurring but limited attention is being paid. This research analyzes the cause of flooding in Nigeria and Ghana, two countries regularly affected by floods. Previous analysis of the causes of flooding has mainly been done on a national scale. This work adopts a transnational approach by studying the flooding phenomena in both countries. It highlights an opportunity for international partnership in disaster-risk reduction (DRR) as both Nigeria and Ghana are signatories to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction that advocates an understanding of disaster risk and aims to foster international cooperation. Appreciating the root causes of flooding is the first step in building awareness of the common problem that could be the foundation of seeking and adopting solutions. A systematic review of peer-reviewed papers was conducted. This study finds that the underlying drivers of flooding are similar in the two nations and advocates research and data-sharing as ways of partnering to tackle the common problem. This finding has the potential to promote and facilitate capacity building for DRR and flood-risk management (FRM). Potential solutions could also be scaled to other countries of comparable profiles facing related flooding challenges. This approach is likely to yield better and quicker results while presenting opportunities for partnership in achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that has already suffered COVID-19-related setbacks.