Press Releases

Fashola Canvasses Nigeria As Spokesman For Africa At International Levels

Oct 2, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has canvassed Nigeria as spokesman for the African Continent at international levels especially on issues of the Environment saying Nigeria bears greater risk of environmental degradation than any other country in the Continent.

Governor Fashola told Government House Correspondents at a media interaction at the Lagos House Alausa that he made the submission in California while attending the International Governors’ Forum on Global Warming as part of his tour of Saudi Arabia and North America.

Briefing the Correspondents on the outcome of the two weeks tour, the Governor lamented that Senegal and Algeria were the two African nations speaking on behalf of the Continent, a situation which he said he protested against at the forum.

According to Governor Fashola, “If we have the largest population on this Continent, our voice must be heard at the international level, not only because of our size but because as a country, we are the most risk prone nation in this Continent being bordered in the North by the desert and in the South by coastal erosion”.

“We bear more risk in terms of our geographical spread as well as the danger that 140 million face at the Environmental level, and as I have said, I have made the submission, our voice must be heard not only to speak for ourselves but to speak for the Continent”, the Governor said.

Governor Fashola said the meeting was aimed at activating the concerns of various state governors, local government chairmen, city and state managers across the world as the whole world prepares for the December 15 meeting of world leaders on the Environment in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He said the meeting was particularly important to Nigeria as a country and to Lagos State as it provided an assemblage of state and city leaders from six continents of the world who deliberated on the matter of the world environment, adding that while he represented Lagos State, he participated in the opening panel whose mandate was to discuss the hows and the solutions to developing the methods of approach to Global Warming.

He said as the world leaders prepare to meet in Copenhagen later this year and with all the treaties and conventions that will be signed, the outstanding issue from the whole meetings is that the issue of the Environment is no longer an issue anybody could play politics with, pointing out that the Scientific results made available at the meeting was that “the whole world has barely 100 months to stop the Environmental Time Bomb from ticking”. “It is clear now that we cannot reverse it”, he said.

Lagos, the Governor said, has been a member of the Sea 40 countries before the last administration in the State adding, “We are pushing now that the Sea 40 countries should be expanded to the league of cities and states across the world working with nations across multiparty lines so that issues of protocol treaties should not, in any way, stand in the way of city managers who will, in any event always be the first responders to environmental disasters”.

Noting that there have been cases of flooding in parts of the country, in parts iof the United States of America and the Philippines, as well as the recent Tsunami South-East Asia, Governor Fashola declared, “It is the governors and the mayors who are out there relocating people, building homes, evacuating people, putting out fires and doing all of the human activities to save life”.

He said the position of the Governors’ Forum was that the issue of the environment should not be left to city managers alone but rather each nation should work side by side with other nations of the world is the in the effort to assuage the situation. “We need a bottom-up approach to finding a solution to the problem. Every hand must be on deck to stop the time bomb”, he said.

The Governor said one of the things expected to follow up from his visit to Saudi Arabia in terms of economic benefits for Lagos is the proposals the State Government has received from companies in Saudi Arabia for Housing Development in the State, adding that the proposal is in line with the State Government’s plan on housing construction and development in the way that it has been trying to deliver it through mortgages.

On the issue of special status for Lagos, Governor Fashola who described it as a national one, pointing out that correspondence on the issue had long been going on between the Federal and the Lagos State governments both from the previous and the present administrations in the State.

The Governor reiterated that considering the fact that a large percentage of businesses and investments that form the economy of the country are located in Lagos, the issue of special status for the State “is something we must collectively think about for our own economic benefit”.

“In my view and what I call an Enterprise Management Approach, given the contribution of Lagos to the GDP, given the role of Lagos in the National Economy, in order to grow the economy, a manager will strike the most impactful blow where there is the largest concentration”, the Governor said adding, “The prosperity of Lagos will, certainly, mean the prosperity of Nigeria”.

According to him, “The quickest and the best way to start is to support Lagos, support the infrastructure, support Education, support Security, support development as a whole and, because so many Nigerians call Lagos home, first or second home, as the case may be. So many Nigerians have assets and investments here and the prosperity of those asserts is clearly a national prosperity”.

He said the State Government would continue to agitate for understanding and for the rationale that it is not just in the interest of Lagos State but in the interest of Nigeria that Lagos should be accorded a special status in order to accelerate economic growth and development in the country.