With its futuristic film studios, luxury
shops and elevated light railway,
Tinapa should be a showcase of Nigerian dynamism, a commercial hub for West Africa raking in millions of
dollars. But 10 years after it opened, the resort
in southeast Nigeria is a ghost town
and has become a symbol of
monumental waste. Its majestic contours and avant-garde
domes rise defiantly out of the bush
and palm trees. At the entrance, a giant
signboard proclaims: "Tinapa back on
track!" But the few visitors who venture inside
are quickly disillusioned. Apart from a few idle employees, not a
soul stirs in the endless aisles of shops
and warehouses that should have made
the capital of Cross River state, Calabar,
famous across Nigeria's south. "It's empty there, we have no clients,
it's like a cemetery," said one shop
assistant in Da Viva, which sells the
popular brand of wrapper skirts. "Many have left already," he added,
pointing to shuttered premises. A huge supermarket still displays
clothes, furniture and foreign-made
knick-knacks but in virtual darkness: the
electricity was cut off some time ago. Inside, an old man snoozes in the
suffocating heat. Tinapa, with its 80 000 square metres
(861000 square feet) of warehouses
and shops, cost $450 million (413
million euros) to build.
But, it has become a financial black hole
for its backers. At the turn of the century, Nigeria was
on the point of becoming Africa's
biggest economy and leading oil
producer. Newly returned to civilian
rule, everything seemed possible. A handful of businessmen and
architects got together and imagined an
international centre of commerce and
tourism in a free-trade zone. Nigeria's biggest banks fell over
themselves to finance the project,
which was opened in 2007. "At that time, everyone was excited.
Tinapa was going to boost economic
development of the whole region and
create thousands of jobs," said Bassey
Ndem, who was in charge of the
project. It aimed to attract Nigerian millionaires,
who ordinarily jetted off to Dubai or
London to go shopping, as well as make
Cross River a commercial crossroads on
the Atlantic coast. A plush 242-room hotel with a view
over the lagoon and a water park with
slides were built to cater for the cream
of high society and their families. Alongside luxury tourism, imported
goods would provide for Nigeria and its
neighbours such as Cameroon, Chad and
Niger, competing with the country's
commercial capital, Lagos.
"Everything was going well at first,"
said Ndem. "At the peak, in 2009, we
generated $30 million of revenue. But
we faced a lot of resistance from the
customs. "They really didn't want the tax-free
zone to work." Goods were supposed to be exempt
from import duties in the free-trade
zone. But from the beginning, the customs -
which has a reputation for rampant
corruption - blocked containers
destined for Tinapa in the ports,
paralysing business. Ndem left in 2012. None of his
successors has managed to get Tinapa
off the ground. "There was clearly a lack of political
will" to make the project succeed, he
said, describing himself as angry and
frustrated at a "wasted opportunity". For the economist and blogger Nonso
Obikili, Tinapa's downfall was largely
because of a lack of existing
infrastructure to transport goods: bad
roads and an average-sized port. "It was a wide project conceived with
the deep sea port, which was supposed
to enable big ships to come to Calabar,"
said Obikili. "It was the responsibility of the federal
government but finally it wasn't done,"
he told AFP.

osinbanjoisaliar:
Donald Duke should be stripped naked and flogged

NwaObinkita:
TINAPA was world calls when it was established.

I'd be so shocked and sad to hear it's been abandoned.

Well thank God
I was privileged to make love to my sugarmummy on its suspended bridge.

NwaObinkita:
TINAPA was world calls when it was established.

I'd be so shocked and sad to hear it's been abandoned.

Well thank God
I was privileged to make love to my sugarmummy on its suspended bridge.

NwaObinkita:
TINAPA was world calls when it was established.

I'd be so shocked and sad to hear it's been abandoned.

Well thank God
I was privileged to make love to my sugarmummy on its suspended bridge.