The Aridolf hotel in Yenagoa is an unlikely monument to kitsch
on a reclaimed swamp in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger delta. In the
lobby, Louis XIV furniture is accompanied by bowls of plastic fruit,
faux Dutch landscapes and a grotesquely gaudy chandelier. The hotel is
redolent of the riches on display in a region that for half a century
has generated the bulk of Nigeria’s wealth.
Only a decade and-a-half ago there was just one petrol pump in
Bayelsa state, which produced a quarter of Nigeria’s 2m barrels per day
of oil, and Yenagoa, the state capital, was a string of tin-roofed
shacks. Resentment at the region’s under-development erupted in
violence, with militants blowing up pipelines and kidnapping oil
workers.
Today, Yenagoa is a sprawling construction site. But the Aridolf, which is owned by Patience Jonathan, wife of the outgoing president,
is symptomatic of how superficial progress has been in addressing the
festering sense of marginalisation in the region, which remains
desperately impoverished despite benefiting from a tide of petrodollars
in recent years.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Photos : Aridolf Hotel In Bayelsa Owned By Patience Jonathan
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
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