07/09/2022
How Tinubu’s greed Made Lagos Lose a $3 billion Investment In The Tourism Industry By Kunle Eshinlokun
As a result of the growing appeal of Pan-Africanism amongst African Americans and an urge to connect with their roots, In 2009 under the aegis of The Motherland Group LLC, a group of African Americans led by Gary Loster, Alfred Dixon, Marlon Jackson an elder brother of the late Michael Jackson and numerous other successful African American celebrities, based on research findings that 30% of African Americans had Nigerian roots, proposed to invest $3 billion in a multi-purpose development complex which will include various tourist attractions, hotels, and residential apartments in the Badagry area of Lagos.
Many African Americans were interested in investing in African property to reconnect with their roots, and the project presented itself as the perfect vehicle for them to achieve this dream.
The choice of Badagry was because the ancient town was identified as the point from which most Africans were shipped off into slavery in the Americas which made the town very symbolic and strategic to the Pan-Africanist movement.
The tourist resort was proposed to include a theme park and museum to showcase the history of slavery, hotels, condominiums, a golf course, amusement arcades, a Jackson Five museum, casinos, amphitheaters, and numerous other tourist attractions that were designed to rival Disney World in Florida.
With the ex*****on of the project, Badagry would have been put on the world tourism map and it would have attracted billions of dollars worth of tourism revenue into the country annually. The then Lagos state governor Fashola was intimated about the project and he was naturally excited about it and pledged his support. He further introduced the group to the Akran of Badagry who was equally excited about the project and made available a strategic expanse of land between the lagoon and the ocean for the implementation of the project.
Everything seemed to be in place for the successful ex*****on of the project, the black community in America was already sensitized and investors were lining up to invest in the project, local partners who were also enthusiastic about investing in the project were identified and this was all based on its unique concept that will essentially attract millions of black American tourists to visit the country over time while a few thousand of them were ready to invest in acquiring property in the project as a springboard to other investments in a country they consider to be their Motherland.
The long-term vision of the initiators of the project was to use it as a platform through which black Americans can reconnect back to Africa, integrate into African communities, and invest heavily in the continent as a means of contributing to the development of their Motherland using Lagos as a starting point.
Everything seemed to be in place for the successful take-off of the project but atlas it failed to take off even though the governor of Lagos state who ideally should be the final authority in the state had given his consent.
Unfortunately, the governor was tied to the apron strings of a godfather who always put his personal interest first and still dictated how the state should be run with the governor merely being his appendage. So, despite the governor’s enthusiasm about the project, another level of approval that wasn’t forthcoming was needed to get the project approved.
A few years earlier the then governor of Lagos state, Bola Tinubu had approved the development of the Eko Atlantic City project adjacent to Victoria Island in Lagos, to the erstwhile business partners of the Late General Sani Abacha (the Chagouris) who had relocated to Lagos having fallen out of favor with the government at the center in Abuja. They had been received warmly in Lagos because they understood the language of Nigerian politicians which the then Lagos state governor was very fluent in. As a result, they went into many deals together, of which the Eko Atlantic City was the icing on the cake.
Thus, when the news filtered in that another mega project was being promoted in the Badagry axis of Lagos which will include massive development of premium end property, the promoters of Eko Atlantic City who were focused on the premium end of the market felt that it may provide competition for their project even though both projects had different concepts and target markets.
However, this did not stop them from getting the ‘Lagos landlord’ who was already a stakeholder in their project to prevail on the then Lagos state governor to withdraw his consent for the Badagry project.
As a result of the selfish interest of one man, Lagos state lost a multi-billion dollar investment project which would have helped to transform the economy of the state and provide hundreds of thousands of jobs to our unemployed youth while exposing the Lagos state economy to numerous other opportunities. It is worthy of note at this point to recall that as of 1999, Dubai was merely a barren desert and was much less developed than Lagos but as a result of the massive investments in tourism that were actively promoted by the leadership of Dubai, the city is today one of the most popular and developed tourist destinations in the world.
This is the same investment in tourism that was offered to Lagos state on a platter of gold yet was rejected because one man felt that it might affect his personal business interests.
The irony of it all is that Lagos has far more tourism potential than the emirate of Dubai and a much larger GDP to pool development resources from but the state hasn’t been able to live up to expectations due to a lack of visionary leadership and a stifling of the state by an individual who sees and treats the state as an extension of his private estate.
Lagos state clearly has a huge potential for development but its growth is being stunted for selfish reasons. For how long will this mega city be held down based on the whims and caprices of one man?
Nigeria Youth Movement
