WATER :WHISTLE BLOWER
CONTINUES WAR SONG
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU.
OULWAFEMI STRESS A POINT AT THE WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE "DANGER "BILL
Environmental Rights Action[Friends of the Earth Nigeria]
has again for the umpteenth time called on the Lagos state Governor,Mr
Akinwunmi Ambode to shelve his idea behind the planned planned privatization of
the water schemes in the metropolitan city of Lagos as part of the long term
plans to turn it into a mega city.
The Deputy Executive Director of the Not-for-profit body,Mr
Akinbode Oluwafemi said that it was
imperative that since Mr Ambode has decided and accepted to serve the
people then it was time for him to
listen to the people that elected him instead of succumbing to some form of pecuniary
pressure.
He recalled that on 20 th of Febraury,2017 which was exactly
a week ago,Lagosians were shocked at the news that the Lagos state House of
Assembly had hurriedly passed what it called a bill for law to consolidate all
laws relating to the environment for the management ,protection and sustainable
development of the environment in Lagos state and for connected purposes.
He pointed out that the house members had actually cut short
their six weeks recess to attend to the bill and after passing it ,immediately announced
they were going for another recess.
He urged that all within the polity should move against the bill
as it was nothing but a clandestine maneuver to unleash extreme capitalism
,business without morals and politics without values on the people of Lagos
state as it was a draconian law hence obnoxious and anti-people.
He told the gathering made up of a cross section of the
Lagos media in there office’s conference room in Lagos,Nigeria that the new laws
only subjected to a hurriedly conducted public hearing by the house committee
on the environment on 9th February,2017 .
He assured that when the law was initially made at the time , he and some others within the polity had felt had frowned
at the committee ‘s deliberate invitation of a few civil society and grass
roots pressure groups to what was
supposed to have being a public hearing while noting that he only had just some
few hours to review a 190 paged
document.
Mr Oluwafemi raised some concerns about the new bill as he poured
cold water on such grey areas like the
fact that the state will aid in securing the payment in respect of contracted
services and concessions for long term infrastructures investments and with an
irrevocable service payment order as the first line charge on the states’s
internally generated revenue.
The whistle blower king also will not agree that in the
event of the state’s generated revenue being insufficient with the state applying the monies due to
it from the monthly allocations and from state’s Federal allocation account and or any other source to secure its payment
obligation to contractors and concessionaires under this law.
He stated that while taking a look at the laws,he observed
that there will be provisions that tie the hands of Lagos citizens to agreements
that are ambiguous and not for the interest of the people.
His words:”This clauses will make government through tax payers money ,to pay corporate
entities without failing even when there are other pressing issues requiring
funding,literarily it is saying if passed the Lagos government must pay these
corporate entities before spending on salaries,healthcare,roads,e.t.c”
“we also feel Lagosians should have a say on how the state’s
federal allocation will be used ,these provisions elevate
government spending towards private concessions over all other government spending and for us everything is wrong about these
provisions and they should be reviewed”
In her own contributions,Madam Betty Abah of Ceehope argued
that it was high time that concerted pressure be brought to bear on the key
state actors on the planned privatization of lagos water as it was a plot
against the people and then assured that if nothing was done on this then the the
state will have such things like diarrhea ,cholera ,dysentery on the increase due
to the bad water.
In his own contributions ,another whistle blower,Mr Biodun
Bakare said he was not in any way surprised about the state government’s
actions as when they were hell bent on doing something they will just go ahead
with it.
He revealed to the audience that Iju water works suction
pump was being deliberately frustrated to work below capacity due to governments
plots against its own people And quickly
told the people that out of 12 suction pump only 2 was working at the moment
In a related issue,Mr Francis Abayomi of Peace and
Development Project said from what he
was seeing ,the new bill will make it a crime for anyone to fetch water within
his own neighborhood.
