Vice president Osinbajo promises to address Igboland's environmental and road crisis

altVICE president Professor Yemi Osinbajo has wadded into the environmental catastrophe facing southeastern Nigeria declaring that the chronic situation demanded urgent federal government attention.

 

Southeastern Nigeria is currently in the grip of a horrific erosion crisis, which large swathes of land, particularly in Anambra State, collapsing under the pace of development. During the rainy season, the situation gets a lot worse as whole villages get marooned, rivers burst their banks and hundreds of houses get washed away.

 

To make matters worse, the southeast lacks a proper road network and this, coupled with the lack of drainage, makes movement impossible across large areas of the region when it rains. Last week, it was reported that former vice president Dr Alex Ekwueme's family home in Anambra State was under threat from the ongoing devastation caused by erosion in the area.

 

Over the weekend, while visiting Enugu, Professor Osinbajo said that the worst problem plaguing people of the southeast geo-political zone was the failed road network. He noted that despite government financial constraints at the moment, there was a need to improve on the roads in the region where commerce was the mainstay of the people.

 

While in Enugu, where he attended a wedding at the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd, Anglican Communion, the vice president disclosed that he had discussed the issue with Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, noting that the problem was not unknown to the federal government. Since the start of the current rainy season, large swathes of land across Nanka in Aguata Local Government Area and Oko in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State, have been particularly hard hit.

 

Professor Osinbajo said: “One problem that the people of the southeast have is roads. You know what our financial constraints are and there is a need for improvement on roads where there is a lot of commerce and movement of people.”

 

Recently, five houses were affected by the erosion in Anambra State and 22 families whose houses were under serious threat by have been relocated to safer places. Some environmentalists have asked that the southeast be declared an ecological disaster zone due to the problem.

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