Korede Abdullah 
LAGOS, Nigeria – Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has criticised what it described as serious transparency breaches in the procurement activities of the Lagos Water Corporation, accusing the agency of conducting key public water projects behind closed doors.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the organisation alleged that the Lagos State government’s plan to privatise aspects of water supply through public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements violates mandatory disclosure requirements and weakens accountability in the management of a critical public resource.
CAPPA noted that tenders issued last September for the rehabilitation and operation of several waterworks across Lekki, Magodo, Apapa, Abesan and other areas were pursued without adequate public information.
According to the group, the Lagos State PPP Disclosure Framework (2024) requires proactive publication of feasibility studies, bidder identities, evaluation criteria and procurement timelines on public portals, yet none of these documents has been released since the process began.
CAPPA said communities directly affected by the concessions were denied access to full request-for-proposal details, while procurement milestones and award decisions remain unknown.
“It is disturbing that residents of Lagos must rely on an expensive foreign subscription journal to learn about decisions concerning their own public water and sanitation systems,” CAPPA stated, describing the development as “deeply troubling and revealing.”
The group further warned that secrecy surrounding the PPP programme poses risks to affordability, public oversight and long-term fiscal stability, citing experiences in other jurisdictions where privatised water arrangements triggered tariff increases and weakened democratic scrutiny.
“Transparency obligations in water governance are statutory,” the organisation said. “The government cannot claim adherence to disclosure standards while conducting one of its most consequential infrastructure procurements in secrecy.”
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Koko Maxwella 
Oluwatobi Adu 
Chukwu Obinna 
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