“Eko Atlantic City provides safety for those that can afford it, but it does not remove the problem with erosion. Instead it transmits the problem down the coast to communities like Alpha Beach, whose homes and infrastructure get flooded over by the sea. It is a catastrophe,” argues Nnimmo Bassey, a renowned Nigerian environmental activist, author and director of the think-tank Health of Mother Earth Foundation.

Eko Atlantic City rejects the claim that the unusual entrepreneurial project has increased erosion and flooding in neighbouring communities. The investor group refers to the fact that the project has gone through a series of legal environmental studies and has been approved by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Environment.

Today, humming activity fills the four-square-mile artificial peninsula as the first phase in the erection of the new city gets under way. In front of noisy cranes and construction machines stands Ibiene Ogolo. She is the developer of the Eko Atlantic City’s new marina.

The construction of Eko Atlantic City follows international best practice with its own sewage system and power supply, she explains.

And an important element of the sales pitch is the fact that the city will protect its new inhabitants from ocean surges, which are expected to increase as a consequence of climate change. The long seawall will allegedly withstand even the most extreme waves, and enormous drains will lead the rainwater away. The end goal is to create a city “made for the 21st century” in which cosmopolitan jet-setters can “work, play, live and invest”.