Eko Atlantic “will help to diversify the economy of Nigeria, to brand Lagos all over the world, and to create an enormous number of opportunities,” declared former American president Bill Clinton at the projects’ dedication ceremony in 2013. He was one of the many attendees from the worlds of politics and finance who spoke glowingly and optimistically about Eko at the ceremony. Seven years later, what was supposed to be the premier piece of real estate in Nigeria – a “Dubai in Africa” – remains a massive, mostly empty and dusty construction site with three completed high rise buildings towering over it, and not much else.
“The project is a failure!!” declares Olamide Udoma-Ejorh. She is an architect and urban activist based in Lagos who says she is not surprised by its current state. In her view, Eko Atlantic was never the type of project Lagos needs in the first place. It ignored the vibrancy and reality of life in Lagos and has resulted in the loss of one of the city’s most accessible public beaches by privatising it. Lagos needs housing for middle and low-income communities and a way to nurture and transform the informal economy that employs about three-quarters of the state’s 7.5 million labour force, she argues.
For Edgar Pieterse, urbanist and director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of South Africa, there was no way the megacity’s leaders could not fall for the pitch and glamour promised by Eko Atlantic. “If you are in any political position or running a city, probably 80 percent of what you do is hustle,” he says. Developments of this nature are an easy sell to cities desperate to retain their middle class and earn much-needed tax revenue from high-value individuals and businesses who are the target. Like many cities across the world, Lagos is not immune to the allure of such prospects.
How does a city reconcile its need for investment with the demands of everyday people? Who are the primary beneficiaries of projects like Eko Atlantic, and is there another path for growing cities in desperate need of new revenue inflows?
