Lagos Government Calls for Calm as Flood Takes Over State

•Unveils plan to establish sovereign investment fund

•Lagos is core jurisdiction for our infrastructural activities, says NSIA

Segun James

Lagos State government yesterday urged residents of the State to be calm amid the flash flood caused by the torrential rainfall experienced throughout the State, saying efforts were on to open more drainage channels to mitigate future reoccurrence.

The assurance by the government came as Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said yesterday, that the State was planning to establish a Sovereign Investment Fund for strategic investments into the future.

The government in a statement on the torrential rainfall signed by the State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, explained that Lagos experienced about nine hours of non-stop rainfall in the early hours of yesterday, a situation which led to flooding in several parts of the State.

He added that this was coupled with heavy rainfall which the State had been experiencing since last week resulting in the level rise of the Lagos lagoon.

Wahab, explained that the flash floods which inundated areas like Iyana Oworo linking the Third Mainland and several other areas would recede once the rains abate and the level of the lagoon goes down.

The Commissioner added that the State had also deployed officials of the Emergency Flood Abatement Gang to major black spots including Iyana Oworo which had been cleared of all blockages.

He also urged residents to desist from wading through floods with their vehicles as it takes only a foot of flowing water with high tide to sweep away a vehicle irrespective of the number of occupants.

The Commissioner also urged all residents to avail themselves of daily weather reports issued by the State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources as it serves as a guide to daily itinerary.

He stressed that Lagos remains a coastal city with almost one-third of its landmass underwater, necessitating a genuine reason for every resident to be more responsive to the state of the environment.

He reiterated that the State Government due to its part had embarked on a year-long maintenance and cleaning of all its secondary and primary collectors to be able to contain runoffs that may come from heavy rainfalls.

He added that residents on their part were expected to regularly clean and maintain the tertiary drains in front of their tenements and refrain from dumping refuse in the drains for the collective good of everyone.

Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu has said the State was planning to establish a Sovereign Investment Fund for strategic investments into the future.

Sanwo-Olu spoke during a courtesy visit by the Executive Management of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), led by its Managing Director/CEO, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, at Lagos House, Marina.

 The Governor charged the NSIA to consider investing in the Lekki Airport, Rail, Film City and Food Logistics hub projects of the Lagos State Government.

 He said: “We, as a subnational, are planning to set up Sovereign Investment Fund and it is not out of place because we also realised that the Sovereign Fund is critical. It is critical because you can starve yourself a little bit to provide for the future by setting something aside for the future. I think it is always a prudent thing to do. It is not out of place for subnationals to have funds working for today and for the future.

“I am aware you (NSIA) have a massive oncology center in LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital). We believe Lagos actually requires about four or five of such facilities across the state. So, we as a government are planning to support another investor to set up another one so that we can have a way to meet the growing needs of our citizens to reverse medical tourism.

“In Lagos, we pride ourselves on being able to do more if we can get the resources to work with. We have an airport project that we have conceived and are pushing to get financial closure. You can take on the project.

“We also have rail projects (Blue and Red lines) that we have done. There are other rail projects that we’ve designed that will help improve public transportation in Lagos.

“We have Film City in Lagos, which is a massive entertainment city that we are planning to build. It is the future of the creative industry. These are investments we have in Lagos you might look at.”

Speaking earlier, Umar-Sadiq said NSIA was an institution established by law to manage funds on behalf of future generations of Nigerians. He disclosed that the fund last year made about N1.6 trillion in total comprehensive income and N200 billion in terms of core earnings.

He said: “Lagos continues to be the core jurisdiction for a lot of our infrastructural activities. We have a lot of investments and infrastructural development in the areas of health, agriculture, and technology in Lagos State.

“NSIA will continue to ensure that we operationalise ourselves to be essentially the asset manager of choice for both the federal and state governments in Nigeria.”