In the News:
EIA, NIWA demands cloud new Eko Atlantic City dredging project.
The Lagos State government’s development of a brand new city off Victoria Island is proceeding with some controversy. Eko Atlantic City, which is to be entirely reclaimed out of the waters of the Bar Beach on the Atlantic coastline, is being hailed by state government officials and its promoters, South Energyx Nigeria Ltd ( a South African firm), as unique. The city’s development comes at a price tag of $3 billion and to be fully built within 5-7 years, according to government officials. While the state government officials boast about the development of a brand new city, bigger than Victoria Island and boasting the kinds of amenities now adorning similar Middle East artificial cities, environmentalists say that the state government is dodging demands to present the environmental impact assessment of the project for public scrutiny. From another angle, the National Inland Waterways Authority, (NIWA), with whom the state has a lot of axe to grind, has threatened to stop the project anytime from now if the right thing was not done.
What is the right thing, you may ask? Well, NIWA says Lagos state is not carrying it along in the implementation of the grandiose project affecting the mining of sand for the reclamation aspect of the job. Whereas Lagos state government says that the federal government is in support of the project, NIWA, an agency of the federal government having legal issues to sort out with the state government, says through its Managing Director, Yakubu Zubairu, that the organization was yet to be consulted by the state government. The controversy continues.
But otherwise, Eko Atlantic City is the new rave amongst property dealers in Lagos and, indeed Nigeria, as it is reported in the media that 60% of the planned property slots have been bought by interested companies and individuals. As at now, nothing could be seen at the spot though two Chinese operated hopper dredgers had deployed to site many months ago and had been rainbowing sand in the general area. Eight hundred and twenty hectares (6,500m X 1,260m) is projected to be reclaimed and prepared for human habitation and amenities. It is understood that some Nigerian banks are involved in the finance arrangement of this joint venture.
Under the terms of the joint venture, the developers will provide funding and infrastructure for the building of hotels, housing accommodations, a tourism centre, schools, hospitals, shopping malls and related city amenities like a power plant and a 30m wide waterway to facilitate ferry transport at the marina. The state government will earn revenues from the sale of the development upon completion to the tune of not more than 20% pending the completion of recouping of spent development funds by the investors. A 3-year moratorium is also to be allowed the financiers by the state government.
Most of the reported buyers of slots in the new city so far are said to be dominated by foreigners, foreign companies and the expatriate business community, who, ab initio, would be more likely to afford the high price tags. The figures are yet to be made common knowledge as it is believed that the developers are keeping a lot of things close to their chest.
The gigantic project is proceeding under a heavy burden of the poorest road network for the Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki axes of the state, where many residential and corporate establishments and businesses have set up base in the past few years. Go-slows on the Lekki expressway currently stands at around 3 hours in bumper to bumper traffic at most times of the day and early evenings. Only one road serves the entire length of the populous Lekki axis till now, although an effort to widen it to eight lanes which commenced some years ago is still ongoing at a very slow pace. The state government says another road called a Coastal Road will be built as a continuation of the present Ahmadu Bello Way overlooking the Bar Beach marina but as at now nothing by way of any construction has started on such a projection. Moreover, a deep sea port and a petrochemical complex is being developed 60 kilometres away at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Ibeju Lekki. All these traffic and movements must rely on the only available Lagos-Epe expressway which is already beyond maximum capacity.
The sheer number of residential estates along this expressway is beyond reckon in terms of surging population of occupants in the next one or two years. Many continue to be built while most have been occupied. The frightening spectre of bush clearing and rising block and concrete structures along this road by both individuals and companies, is a signpost of a certain exodus. As some are now saying, Lekki is the new Lagos. To supply the building boom, sand-laden trucks now outnumber or equal the combined total of all other vehicles plying the Lekki peninsula on any day of the week. It is yet to be seen how the state will cope with such a critical shortfall in essential road space for its bustling development strides. Although the present state government is the most proactive in terms of confronting the transportation problems of the Lagos mega city, nothing short of a high-budget Marshall Plan for rapid road construction and city planning can rescue it from the jaws of a socio-industrial overload, transportation-wise.
