The Luxury Apartment Complex in Lagos

A few years before our move, I saw a television advertisement for the Eko Atlantic City development for the first time. As a child, I had been socialized to view the Island and Peninsula portions of Lagos as the domains of the city’s wealthiest and most elite. Save for a few affluent mainland areas like FESTAC, Magodo, Gbagada and Ikeja, proximity to the water was widely regarded as proximity to wealth. Watching that ad, mostly intrigued by the animated depictions of the dredging of Bar Beach, I imagined that this ambitious urban development would allow more Lagosians to experience the amenities found in the city’s most luxurious neighbourhoods.

Many years have passed since I first saw that ad. I have completed secondary school and university, and now I work, but Eko Atlantic City remains a small, secluded cluster of exorbitantly priced, mostly empty, heavily policed high-rise apartments. It is neither an extension of Lagos’s true identity nor a space that reflects the experiences and realities of the majority of residents and is largely antithetical to my childhood dream of an equitable living community.

In recent years, Lagos has witnessed a surge in waterfront developments, mirroring the urban landscapes of cities like Miami and Los Angeles. The Lagos living experience now seeks to provide a shielded experience for the rich while ignoring the needs of the lower-income citizenry, who make up more than 60 per cent of Nigeria. Rather than fostering inclusive growth, these developments have intensified socio-spatial inequality while increasing climate vulnerabilities, such as rising sea levels and increased inner-city flooding.

But what are the roots of this trend?