We’re doing our best to curtail ocean surge in Lagos – Prince Oniru

Recently, there was yet another ocean surge at Okun Alfa community in Lekki area of Lagos State, what exactly is government doing to control this menace?
About three-and-a-half years ago, we had a major surge in the area whereby the entire vicinity was destroyed.  At that time, Mr President visited Lagos and we took him there. He assessed the whole situation and promised to help combat the surge but as at today, that still remains a promise. Nothing was forthcoming from federal government. Be that as it may, there is an ongoing project in the area to protect the entire coastline from an area called Okunde Blue Water up until where we know as Okun Ajah. This work is being done by the state government and funded by it. It is an ongoing project now that if you go around GOSHEN estate and Elegushi, you will see a whole roll of rocks going into the Atlantic. That is called “growing” and what those growing do is to trap sands that come with wave from the ocean. Eventually, we hope to extend the project to Okun Ajah which is seven kilometres away from where we started from. So it is not as if they have been abandoned or anything, rather, it is just that the magnitude of the work is so big that it is being done in phases. So, in sum, I can say work is ongoing and the state will get to them.

It is said that the construction of the embankment has been quite slow and people are becoming agitated as to when it would be completed. What is your reaction to this?
That work is being programmed and the contractor executing the work is not behind schedule. If you really take out your time to visit the place, you will see the amount of “x-blocks” that break the waves that are being put in place. This is not something that can be rushed. It takes a number of days to get those rocks from Ogun and Oyo states. Yes, when a particular work is being done and is considered slow, people will blame the contractor and the supervisory agency of government that is in charge but all I can tell you is that the work is being done as fast as it can be.
Many have said aside the challenge of climate change and the rising sea level, the reclamation exercise embarked on by the state government in preparation for the construction of Eko Atlantic City also contribute to recent ocean surges. Is government really aware of this?
I think we need to educate our people in this regard. To start with, Eko Atlantic City has no effect on what is going on along our coastline. And if our people don’t believe it, look at what is going on in Delta and Bayelsa states. If you watch the TV, you will see how communities along the coastlines are disappearing. So Eko Atlantic City has nothing to do with what is going on. What are going on are climate change, global warming and rise in sea level. Last year we saw what happened to the East Coast of America, Eko Atlantic couldn’t have caused that. Now, with regards to the reclamation exercise of Eko Atlantic, the state and the developer are not doing anything new. Thirty or 40 years ago, from the edge of Ahmadu Bello Way, you still have to work a kilometre-and-half to see the Atlantic. What we are doing by that project is to reclaim lost land to the Atlantic, developing it and using it to protect the coastline of Victoria Island.  Without the development carried out by the government, believe me, today, there would be no more a place called Victoria Island. It would be gone. It would be under water. Ahmadu Bello Way used to be completely under water. That road was not in existence anymore before the commencement of this project. And the sand being used to reclaim the portion of land is coming 15 to 20 kilometres out there in the Atlantic. That is how far the dredger goes. It has got nothing to do with the ocean surge.
But question are being raised about whether or not the state government carried out proper Environmental Impact Assessment before and even as the project progresses?
To carry out a project as big as the Eko Atlantic City, there is constant EIA being carried out. As the project passes through different stages of reclamation, different stages of construction, you must be carrying out EIAs, be it positive or negative. It must also be noted that the city is being tested internationally to show that it does not have any negative impact on the vicinity or the environment where it is being created.
Is your ministry aware that some residents of Okun Alfa are saying they prefer the quick completion of the embankment rather than relocation from the community that remains their ancestral land?
I think we have to be careful here and I believe this is one area the press must also come to the aid of the government. If you claim somewhere is your ancestral home and that ancestral home keeps disappearing every day, will you just stay there? Won’t you try to move? Will you wait till you are consumed by the water? Isn’t that the common sense? Eventually the protection will come and then you can return to your place. But in the mean time, if there is need for you to move pending the time the protection gets there, I think that is the right thing to do for anybody with the right thinking mind. I really don’t think our people are that naïve when you know that this Atlantic which you have no control of is coming to consume you.
But there is no place yet to take them?
 Well, I can put the question another way. The area where we are talking about, is it a fixed address for anyone to live in? If you go back and ask some of these people, you will find out that there are some of them who were living in shanties and some of them who have come from other places, thinking Lagos State will be a greener pasture and the only way for them to survive is to live close to the Atlantic. Before that problem happened in New Orleans in United States, everybody residing there moved back from the ocean until government came to build that big wall that now protects them and everybody went back there. The same thing is happening here. We have a problem and the state is dealing with it. May be with the help of federal government things could have been done much quicker. But it is only one state with 21 million people to look after.
In all of these, what will you say has been the intervention from the federal government?
The truth is none, in a nutshell. And I tell you why. In Nigeria today, you have a total coastline of 856 kilometres and on annual basis, except something is done, you are losing half a kilometre to a kilometre annually. This is not just in Lagos State but all the littoral states in Nigeria.  And if you don’t look after those literal states where 22 to 30 percent of your population resides, you can imagine what is going to happen. Personally, I believe a special budgetary allocation should be made available to these littoral states to combat erosion.