A burgeoning wealthy class is settling into one of Africa’s
fastest-growing cities, attracting designers, world-class architects and
a growing creative community that seeks to preserve its culture through
art and fashion.
This is an interesting read culled from New York Times. Read and form your own conclusion
The Land Cruisers and Range Rovers began lining up on a steamy Sunday
afternoon outside Tafawa Balewa Square long before sunset. The banking
tycoon Otunba Subomi Balogun was hosting his 80th birthday party and
nobody wanted to be late, and there was also the matter of inching past
the press of beggars living in the square’s arcade. Once through a
security line, women in gold headdresses and men in white robes
disembarked. Balogun lives in a mansion modeled on the White House,
furnished entirely in white and gold, and the invitation had asked
guests to wear his favorite colors.
Guests sashayed through the tent doors into a scene of surreal
opulence. At the far end of the tent, engulfed by servants, courtiers,
national politicians and guards with wires in their ears, the celebrant
perched beside his wife on a throne covered with white faux fur, his
every move broadcast on flat-screens arrayed around the tent walls. From
the throne, the founder of the First City Monument Bank (F.C.M.B.)
could survey his 1,000 guests, acres of floral arrangements and goldfish
ponds brought in for the occasion, and the legion of waiters ferrying
Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot and steaming trays of traditional Nigerian
stews and rice. Bands and dancers performed in succession, a
professional actress emceed and business and blood royalty mingled with
state governors and the archbishop of Lagos. Massive cakes, one a
replica of Balogun’s columned white house, and one designed to match his
white Rolls-Royce, were stationed in front of the head table.