According to Hamzat, people are already relocating to safer locations in the UK and New York City as a result of climate change.
Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, the deputy governor of Lagos State, has voiced concern that the state may eventually be under water if the required steps are not taken.
Lagos Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat.
According to Hamzat, people are already relocating to safer locations in the UK and New York City as a result of climate change.Speaking at the opening of a Strategic Stakeholders Meeting at the Radisson Blu Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, Hamzat stated that “we do not know how to manage land and our physical planning laws” is the nation’s largest problem.The largest problem, he stated, is how to administer our laws. What does it mean to refer to the land-owning family, then? Is it not worth defining?
“We paid N9 billion in compensation to build the red line, but we did not do anything or buy anything—we just moved people away, which is why most states can not do it. Therefore, the federal government must be involved because Lagos is the only state in the world that has taken such an action, such as putting a rail on our balance sheet.How do we manage our lands in the UK, where the Federal Government owns 14% of the city of London and the New York Underground does the same? We are missing the point if our justice ministry, attorneys, and judges do not properly comprehend that these cases are threatening our children’s futures when they go to trial.
Lagos State has a 180-kilometer coastline, so it is surrounded by water. This is a mismatch because, despite having 22 million residents, we only make up 0.4%, or less than 0.38%, of Nigeria’s land mass, despite housing 10% of the country’s population. Lagos and New York City are sinking today,” he said.In the next twenty to twenty-five years, our priorities need to shift, according to Hamzat, who identified three existential threats to the state: extreme heat, climate change due to sea level rise, and high rainfall. I should therefore be able to state that this estate needs to be sold. Therefore, how do we create laws? Without them, our state is in danger.
In order to protect our state and alter our laws, how can we as a people unite to examine this existential threat to our existence? Our judges and attorneys need to be aware of it in order for us to survive. Since the city is collapsing, high-rise approval in New York has been halted for the foreseeable future. They are smart!” he concluded.