Date Published: 10/25/09

LAGOS AC DISAGREES WITH CRITICS OVER LAGOS FLOOD.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has said that the one-day flooding in Lagos last week is not proof that the de-flooding project of the Lagos State government has failed. The party insists that the Fashola regime has made such tremendous impact on the task of riding Lagos of flood and is well proud of its achievements in this regard.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary of AC, Joe Igbokwe, the party says it is trite and tendentious for a few people to choose to play politics with the flooding of some parts of Lagos after a day-long rain that they are throwing jabs at the de-flooding project of the state government. It therefore advises those that are fixated on not seeing anything good in the positive works going on in Lagos now to find something else doing than struggling to find fault with every move made by the Fashola government.

“We must note that flooding is a universal phenomenon and almost all great cities even in the advanced world, face flooding problems once in  a while. We note that flooding flows from the volume of rains that fall over a given period and is a natural outcome of heavy rains. We note that sometimes last week, there was a particular heavy down pour in Lagos, the heaviest this year and for several hours, the streets were flooded as a result of this. We note with consternation however, that some idlers that are fixated on seeing something wrong with every move of the present government went to town immediately to lampoon the massive de-flooding project the present government has embarked in Lagos since it came to power.

“Lagos AC is at pains picking the real grouse of these tendencies or the point they were trying to make. This is in view of the fact that they are all aware of the huge resources the government has judiciously committed to de-flooding Lagos and the fact that these have yielded tremendous results as Lagos has ceased to be a permanently water-logged enclave it used to be. We boldly state that no part of Lagos is facing prolonged flooding problem as before and we state that the de-flooding project of the Fashola regime criss-crosses every part of the state. Every Lagosian is aware of the huge projects sites, the construction of drainages, dredging of canals, opening water arteries and gutters all over Lagos. We believe that these nay sayers are not disputing these obvious facts in their desire to make wild points for the interests they want to project. We state that Governor Fashola foresaw the prospect of the type of flooding that is happening in Asia and other countries and that is why he is investing so heavily on de-flooding. We must state that if Fashola did not do what he had been doing in the past two years, in terms of massive de-flooding projects, the one day flood last week would have been a great disaster for a state like Lagos, which is submerged in water.

“Lagos AC wants to assure Lagosians that the present Fashola regime is totally committed to their interests and it had proved this fact over and over again. We want to state that the one day flood in Lagos last week is natural and does not indicate failure of the government in de-flooding Lagos. If it is to prove that Lagos has failed in the task of de-flooding Lagos, it therefore means that de-flooding Lagos or any city in the world is an impossible task. We do not think so because before our very eyes, that seemingly hard task is being achieved and instead of flood taking over Lagos all year round, it is now a rare incident that does not exceed a day. We find it strange that some people are quarrelling with natural events such as the volume of rains that falls in Lagos, in their bid to find reasons to disagree with a performing government. Flooding after a heavy rain, we dare say, is a natural event but we note that in the case of Lagos, the flood clears in record time and does not linger as was the case before.

“We challenge any person who feels that Governor Fashola or his predecessor did not do enough in de-flooding Lagos to come out with his or her facts that disproves the massive investments in that regard, which are on ground all over Lagos presently. We ask those that have nothing doing than to find fault with every of the state government’s moves to give this regime a break, if they don’t have more constructive reasons to engage the government. “

Joe Igbokwe.

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC.