STAKEHOLDERS WARN AMBODE ON WATER PRIVATISATION

STAKEHOLDERS WARN AMBODE ON WATER PRIVATISATION

BY ABDLMUMINI ADEKU.

LAGOS LAGOON IS FULL OF MARINE AND INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS AND THEREFORE NOT FIT FOR MAN AND BEAST

Stakeholders in the nation’s polity are warning the government of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state to desist from his intentions to privatize the state water infrastructures due to political pressures.

In his address to a cross section of the press recently at a parley with the media, the Director Corporate Accountability  of The Environemntal Rights Action ,Mr Bode Oluwafemi insists that if the government thus goes ahead to do what they believe is unthinkable then they will have no option than to take all the necessary steps open to them under the laws of the land to prevent it as it was an anti-people project.

He recalled that the press was well aware of the recently organized match to the Governor’s Office in Alausa –Ikeja ,Lagos ,Nigeria to question the rationale behind the project but quickly added that at that occasion the state refused to open up as they continued to dilly dally on same subject.

He explained to the gathering that despite initial denials by state officials he was shocked to later learn through another source that Governor Ambode had told the entire state citizenry that privatization was the way to go.

Oluwafemi however picked holes in the state government ‘s mission on the matter as the World Bank Group which it was expecting to back it for the water project has backed off after taking note of the impact of its whistle blowing on the matter.

He revealed that as at press time ,he was privy to some information which suggests that there was some secret concession going on among state officials on the project at the moment despite the campaigns against it.

According to him there was no open bidding for the concession.

Oluwafemi while urging Ambode to stop trying the patience of the people over the matter advised him to expand the water infrastructure so that it could be made easily available to the masses at no cost.

His words:”Lagos state revenues is bigger than that of 15 nations in Africa but what is lacking is the lack of political and the greed of the people who have targeted water as the latest oil”

“Water is even now more expensive than oil,we all know the implications of water in our daily lives  because water makes up at least 70 percent of our body mass”

Oluwafemi noted that lack of water could lead to such problems like water borne diseases aside from several other crisis.

He lamented that the entire water body in Lagos area was polluted due to industrial and marine wastes  and prayed that the state will invest money into water like it is doing in the area of security.

He debunked the impression being created by some professionals that water privatization will be a great success in the mould of telecommunication insisting that this was like missing the paradigm.

He however pointed out that while he will not deny the fact that the issue has a lot of political undertone, Governor Ambode has undertaken to be the Chief Executive of the state under oath after swearing to an allegiance as Governor and as such should honor his pledge to the people as the whole buck stops on his table and nobody else.

He told the gathering that at the moment his agency had started a process of reaching out to various communities as part of his corporate social responsibility in places like Agege,Epe,Ikorodu, Alimosho among other places in the state.

He warned that if the citizens do not rise against this water tyranny ,he will not be surprised if owning a borehole will not soon be criminalized by the state.

He assured that in the next one month,he and others in his agency will be working seriously at taking the battle to The Presidency to find out whether it is now a state policy under President Muhammadu Buhari to go into water privatization.

The Media and Communication Manager of the agency, Mr Phillips Jakpor while also addressing the press on the same subject agreed in totality with his principal on the water privatization affair.