The chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, Allwell Onyesoh, has praised President Bola Tinubu and works minister David Umahi for their swift response to the flooding allegedly caused by the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

The senator made the commendation during the minister’s inspection tour of the coastal highway, along with some members of the National Assembly and other stakeholders, on Monday evening.

He noted that Mr Umahi organised a stakeholders’ meeting earlier in the day to find solutions to the flooding, directing the deployment of 40 youths to monitor the highway against vandalism and misuse.

“We sat through a seminar, what I would call a seminar with diagrams, where experts linked everything about Lagos, the geographical position, the behavioural pattern of the weather around Lagos, and so on. This flooding of Lagos did not begin today. It dates back to the days of the White men. So, what we are seeing today is not new,” he said.

Mr Onyesoh said that flooding around the coastal highway should, therefore, not be attributed to the construction of the coastal road.

“Even where we are standing, we can see floodwater moving. The water is moving from the ocean to this way, which means even without the coastal road, the water will still move this way,” he said.

The senator added that flooding was not peculiar to Nigeria but global.

“Minister, I am not surprised that you are doing your best, and I will tell you the truth: I am impressed. Your response is timely,” stated Mr Onyesoh.

Akin Alabi, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, praised the president and  the minister for their timely response to the flooding.

He said, “Any journalist, anyone that has an audience, even social media influencers, I want you to have a responsibility to your audience because people believe you. It is easy to say the cause of the flooding is the coastal road, but always consult experts before you make broad assumptions.”

The Senate’s deputy chief whip, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, commended Messrs Tinubu and Umahi for their quick response to the flooding.

“We have seen, as a parliament, that the coastal highway is not in any way the cause of flooding in this part of Lagos, and going by history, flooding in Lagos is as old as the city itself.

“What should be done is to listen to the advice of environmental impact experts to see how this flooding can be controlled in collaboration with the Lagos state government. I want to advise Lagosians and everybody living around this area to take into account the advice of environmental experts by making sure that they don’t block the drainage channels, the waterway,” Mr Nwaebonyi explained.

(NAN)