The ever-expanding moonscape that stretches out behind a wall holding back the Atlantic Ocean here will one day host a project designed to help anchor Nigeria as Africa's biggest economy.
But if the ambitious plan to construct a new city on land reclaimed from the sea, called Eko Atlantic, represents Nigeria's future, it is one that will be outsourced. Nearly every aspect of it will be privately run, from electricity supply to security.
Economists expect Nigeria, already the continent's most populous nation and largest oil producer, to overtake South Africa in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) over the next several years, technically making it Africa's biggest economy.
But the impressive-sounding title tells an incomplete story, and the Eko Atlantic new city project illustrates the contradictions in a country crippled by corruption and unable to provide basic services, but with vast potential that could indeed one day be realised.
"The more important thing is, fundamentally, you have a population of 165-million" while South Africa's is around 52-million", said Bismarck Rewane, a respected economist and head of Lagos-based Financial Derivatives.
"So even if you are the same GDP, your GDP has to be four times more – 400% more than that of South Africa for you to have [roughly] the same income per capita."
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