LAWMA AND LAGOS GOVERNMENT HAVE TURNED COMMUNITIES AND ROADS IN LAGOS INTO REFUSE DUMPSITES AND THREATENING PUBLIC HEALTH

LAGOSIANS MUST RISE UP TO PRESSURE THE GOVERNMENT TO MANAGE WASTE EFFECTIVELY TO PREVENT LIKELY EPIDEMIC

It is shocking to see most parts of Lagos in mess and filth due to failure of Lagos State Government to properly manage waste disposal. Lagos prides itself as Centre of Excellence but the simplest task of waste management cannot be handled by the State Government.

In most parts of Lagos, household waste is collected once in four months by which time everywhere is messy. Indeed, in some other places, residents are abandoned to dispose waste as they can. In Harmony Estate and its environs in Aboru, Alimosho LGA, the waste disposal company (Urban Care) collects waste once in 13-plus weeks, thereby creating serious refuse crises. The last time Urban Care PSP picked waste in many parts of Aboru community was on May 28, 2026. As a result of this obvious failure, rodents and wild birds have taken over the environment. Besides, another private waste contractor (Oye Balogun Enterprises) whose franchise covers Charity Road, Abulegba and environs has even introduced a fraudulent measure usually adopted by the electricity distribution companies that issues bills without service. Oye Balogun, which last collected waste in April 2025, has been issuing waste bills to No 49 Charity Road, for instance, till date such that the property has accumulated over N250,000, without enjoying any service, as a consequence.

One of the functions and obligations assigned to the local government is refuse disposal as enshrined in Section 1(h) of 4th schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended. The Local Governments have become redundant and only preoccupy themselves with revenue generation, largely through unjust and illegal taxes and levies on the poor people, while the Lagos State Government has displayed utter ineffectiveness and lack of seriousness in waste management. The model adopted by the government in the last 27 years is a so-called private/public partnership wherein the private sector brings little or no investment but profits from it because they are affiliated to the ruling party or connected to top political office holders and are maintained on patronage. The private waste company get regular subventions (a secret arrangement not open to public scrutiny) and other forms of support while still charging residents for waste disposal.

During a recent interview conducted by a radio station (Nigeria Info 99.3FM), The Lagos State Deputy Governor and the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling APC in the 2027 elections, Obafemi Hamzat exposed the utter bankruptcy and poor thinking of the ruling elite in Lagos State. He absolved LAWMA and the Lagos State Government of any blame but put the blame squarely on the Nigerian people and the African continent for being disorganised. Secondly, he stated that LAWMA is handling the scale of work that was never predicted citing an example of poor people living on the street and cannot be measured and planned for while the scale of waste is 17,000 tons instead of 13,000 tons originally envisaged. Thirdly, he reduced the whole problem of waste management to inadequate refuse trucks and that the state and Local Government have ordered 214 refuse trucks (114 trucks by the 57 LGA/LCDA and 100 by the Lagos State Government) and will arrive in the country in September 2026. He also admitted that some of the 840 trucks deplored by the 420 private waste disposal companies are unusable and in bad condition.

While there is acute shortage of refuse trucks, it is not the only major element of the waste management crisis in the state.  The fact is that the dumpsites remain the biggest problem because the Lagos State Government did not only fail to plan for a mega city but runs an unsustainable refuse dumpsites system. There are two major dumpsites (Epe and Badagry) currently in use and they will soon suffer the same terminal fate as the previous dumpsites (Igando, Ojota, Ile-epo etc). The operational dumpsites are located in the two extremes of the state and will take some trucks over 4 hours to reach, a 62 Km or more distance in a chaotic Lagos and sometimes still spend 2 days in the queue before off-loading. This is not a workable arrangement, it is chaos! So, the 214 additional trucks, which Hamzat talked about, will not resolve the waste crises since the whole system is broken as we currently have it

Had the Lagos State Government had their thinking cap on, for almost three decades in power, there would have been a refuse management system that includes sorting, recycling and waste-to-electricity incineration system. Beijing, a city of nearly the same population as Lagos, generates about 25,000 tons of refuse waste daily but manages waste in such a way that there is no bag of refuse left unpicked and recycles about 9,000 tons of waste daily while the Lagos State Government uses rising refuse generations as an excuse for failure. What stops the Lagos State government from planning for 20,000 tons daily and project for more as times goes on?

By and large, Mr Hamzat interview responses on waste crises insult the intelligence of Lagosians and betray crass irresponsibility and insolence to public service. In the first instance, the ruling party (APC) has been in power since 1999 and 27 years after, there is no proper planning and management of waste commensurate with the population growth. Yet, Hamzat had the audacity to blame ordinary people for the disorganisation whereas the actual disorganisation was created by the clueless and looting ruling elite of which he is a member. How else can disorganisation be entrenched other than gross deficit of electricity, housing, food, schools and basic infrastructure? To cap it up, simple basic task of governance like waste disposal and management has become rocket science for the Lagos State Government.

Lagosians never deserve this government and should be done away and be booted out the next one minute, as their continued stay in power is a threat to humanity. Unfortunately, if Hamzat wins the next gubernatorial election as APC candidate, Lagosians should be rest assured that the disorganisation imposed on the people will intensify. However, this is not peculiar to the APC and Hamzat; it is the same with other bourgeois and self-serving candidates/parties

We call on the Lagos State Government to invest in waste management system that keeps our communities clean and safe and stop using huge waste generation as an excuse for failure. There is threat of epidemic due to overflown garbage attracting rodents, flies and birds that now compete with humans for space and survival. Is it not ironical the same Lagos State Government who undemocratically imposed a monthly sanitation exercise on the people cannot regularly collect waste let alone manage it properly? If the ruling APC cannot manage waste properly, it has no business being in power, it is as simple as that. The mass of the people must begin to demand proper refuse management through mass actions.

SIGNED:

Comrade Chinedu Bosah

National Publicity Secretary