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.
More photos of the hotel after the cut........................................................
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.
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.
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