I am
sure we all remember Bar Beach and either going for day outs there or just viewing
it from the Ahmadu Bello coastal Road which ran along the beach front. We all
knew just a few years ago when the waves from the beach flooded the roads and
buildings in the surrounding areas. Well, the beach has totally disappeared, I
mean TOTALLY. I was driven two miles unto the newly reclaimed sand filled land,
where the ocean waves recently surged. It was an unbelievable surreal experience,
I literally felt sea sick. A year ago you could see the ocean a few yards away,
now it has been sand filled two miles into the sea and will be filled six miles
along the coast line. It is a real ongoing transformational miracle of this
generation.
Lagos State is more than a fifth covered in water with
Lagoons all around with prime land like Victoria Island sitting at the edge of
the Atlantic Ocean. The former governor of Lagos State when he was in power was
worried about the sea eroding the island’s coastline which lay above sea level,
and businesses along the coastal highway being regularly flooded. He enlisted
the Lebanese-Nigerian property developer G Chagoury of Nigeria’s Chagoury Group
in 2003/2004, to reclaim land from the ocean and put up a sea wall along the
island’s original coastline. The newly reclaimed land between the former shore
and the new wall will eventually be a total of ten square kilometers. Luxury
apartments, retail outlets, skyscrapers with businesses, parks, and a man-made
marina providing accommodation selling from $600,000 off plan for more than two
hundred and fifty thousand super wealthy residents will be built on this
reclaimed land. This is a multi-billion-dollar project which also includes
plans to build the tallest building in Africa, sixty floors high. The irony of
all this is that Victoria Island which adjoins this Mega City is no longer properly
maintained. There is inadequate parking facilities and failing infrastructure
with the over development of commercial businesses. The original master plan
has not been maintained which was for VI being a residential area only. This is
the access area to our future Mega City!
What cannot be
ignored is that with the daily increase in population in Lagos, there will be
the need for regeneration of more areas and accommodation at much more
affordable prices. Ninety eight per cent of the population in Lagos will not be
able to afford to live in the Mega City. Where will the houseboys, cooks,
drivers etc live if accommodation cannot be provided for them on this gold
mine? Whilst our current Governor has done so much to improve the lives of the
residents, much more still needs to be done, he cannot do it alone and will
need investors who have the vision and means to improve the city. Roads are
still bad, schools and hospitals falling apart, erosion eating out the
coastline and damaging homes along the
Lekki Expressway which seems to be increasing alarmingly since sand filling
works started.
Looking at the Eko
Atlantic Project on paper now seems like futuristic dream that will unravel
between now and 2020. I guess if Dubai can do it, then just maybe Lagos can?
Maintenance will need to be first class priority
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