The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has criticized the Lagos State Government for its lack of proactivity in flood management.
In an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, Rhodes-Vivour addressed the recent flooding that hit Lagos following heavy rainfall on Wednesday.
The flood is the latest in a series of episodes that have severely impacted the commercial capital of Nigeria.
Rhodes-Vivour expressed his discontent with the Lagos government’s approach to flood and disaster management, urging them to implement wetland protection policies to mitigate and manage the impact of annual floods.
“What is more painful to me is that I see a government that is in your face and very active when it comes to demolition, but you have this kind of thing (flood), and you don’t see any emergency response or protocol,” Rhodes-Vivour said.
“We are not seeing men on the ground. We are not seeing intelligence being given out early: ‘avoid these routes.’ There were no diversions.”
He further emphasized that anyone familiar with Lagos’s history would have anticipated such flooding events. “I don’t feel a sense of ‘I told you so.’
Anybody who loves Lagos well enough and has looked at the history of Lagos would see these things way before they happen,” he added.
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