Africa's Megacity Addiction

Across Africa, governments are looking to megacities to solve urban problems. But African cities need to focus less on skyscrapers and more on city halls.

Written by Dafe Oputu

Jul 11, 2019

EKO ATLANTIC

In his 2012 book, Zombie Economics, Australian economist, John Quiggin, talks about ideas that have been disproven or ‘killed’ time and time again but continue to live on in the minds of public policymakers with disastrous results. Quiggin was thinking mainly of the assumptions that led to the 2008 financial crisis in the United States, but I can’t help but recall the concept whenever I hear of the ongoing ‘megacity’ project in Lagos, Eko Atlantic.

Eko Atlantic is a wildly ambitious plan to develop a new city off the coast of Victoria Island on 10 square kilometres of land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. If the promotional material is to be believed, the new development will be free of all the urban challenges that plague Lagos, and become a modern, world-class megacity to rival Dubai or Singapore. Cynics will be forgiven for thinking this latest scheme will go the way of past attempts at building a New Lagos; Victoria Island, Ikoyi, and Banana Island were announced with similar fanfare after all.

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About the Author

Dafe Oputu

is a sub-editor at The Republic and PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science, where he studies democratic governance and urban development in Africa.

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Africa's Megacity Addiction