President of the Association of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Practitioners, retired Air Vice Marshal Akugbe Iyamu, has warned that the flooding witnessed in Lagos and other parts of West Africa marks only the beginning of a worsening crisis, cautioning that more severe disasters lie ahead if urgent action is not taken.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Thursday, following torrential rains that caused severe flooding, Iyamu said the warning signs had been clear for some time.
“It was predicted. The World Meteorological Organisation warned about El Nino.”
“And that it will start between June and August. And it will get worse. It will get worse, by November 2026.”
He warned that countries across Africa, including Nigeria, must brace for increasingly devastating weather events driven by climate change.
“The Al Nino and the El Niño, they are very active. Very, very active. It cannot spare anybody to say because you have not prepared enough…. Africa and Nigeria must be ready.”
According to him, the current flooding crisis should serve as a wake up call for governments to rethink their approach to disaster management and preparedness.
“What we need to do now is to go back to our primitive response system.”
He criticised the absence of emergency preparedness measures, particularly in Lagos, despite the growing threat posed by extreme weather events.
“Here in Lagos now, I have not seen any evacuation model or state-sponsored shelter that we would have gone to.”
Iyamu warned that authorities could no longer afford to respond to disasters after they occur, insisting that lives and livelihoods were increasingly under threat.
“Now it’s time to take a decision. A decision of where, look, where do we invest because lives and livelihoods are being affected.”
He stressed that the consequences of inaction would become more severe with every passing year.
“When we deal with one disaster, that is not enough for us to thump our chest.”
“The next one is going to be more disastrous.”
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is the beginning.”
Despite the grim outlook, the retired Air Vice Marshal maintained that the situation was not beyond redemption if governments acted decisively.
“It is not a hopeless situation.”
“All it needs to do is that, now, when an emergency passes, it is the federal government that comes in.”
He also called for stronger institutional support to confront the growing climate challenge.
“And secondly, the ecological fund, which has been there, 3%, cannot do anything now. We have to think of taking it to 5% or 6%.”
“The constitution should not be improvisational now. It should be an overhaul.”
“Section 20 that deal with all these issues, we have to overhaul it so that it can give power to the various levels of government to deal with the situation we have at hand now.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
