It was a wet Saturday afternoon, after heavy
downpour. Two unrelated events were
simultaneously going on not far from each other
in Lagos Island. First is the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, state rally where President Goodluck
Jonathan and the leadership of the party were
addressing party members at the Tafawa Balewa
Square, TBS.
At the second event, Lagos State governor,
Babatunde Fashola, members of the state
Executive Council and Managing Director of the
Lagos State Waste Management Authority,
LAWMA, were at the Onikan Stadium
addressing over 17, 000 members of LAWMA
street sweepers at the Annual Training
Workshop for the sweepers and other
stakeholders.
Speaking on the theme, "Let's Keep Our
Environment Clean At All Times," Fashola
explained that in a bid to achieve a safer,
cleaner and healthier environment his
administration in the year 2008, took several
initiatives, one of which is the introduction of
street sweepers to complement the highways
managers whose job it is to promote cleanliness
of the streets, highways, walkways, and
pedestrian bridges in the city.
The scope of work of the street sweepers, who
the Governor christined "Sanitation
Ambassadors", include the sweeping of
pedestrian bridges, even at night and the
collection of bagged litters and silts, abandoned
tyres and other materials that deface the streets
and highways.
According to Fashola, the deployment of
sanitation ambassadors by government is one of
the ways of providing job for the unskilled
residents, who have demonstrated that there is
dignity in labour, irrespective of state of origin,
sex.
The highlight of the programme aimed at
sensitising state and local government street
sweepers on safety and precautionary measures
in the course of discharging their duties, was the
presentation of awards to outstanding sweepers
of the year.
But as the lucky 13 outstanding awardees for
Excellent Performance in their various zones
were filing on to the podium to receive their
respective awards, the attention of the crowd
was drawn to a physically-challenged young man
on a skate-roller among the awardees as he
waddled to the stage. This caused a thunderous
ovation from the crowd which cheered the
young man to the podium.
With tears in his eyes, after receiving the award
and a hand shake from the governor, Mr.
Saheed Gbadamosi, 30 years old and a native of
Offa, Kwara State, could not hold back his joy at
being so appreciated in spite of his physical
deficiency. "I never knew a day like this will
come for me to be appreciated in this manner
before the whole world. I really thank Governor
Fashola for taking me out of the gutters to
make me a better man not only to myself and
my family but the entire public," he told
Vanguard Metro, VM.
Gbadamosi, a father of five children, who has
been working with LAWMA for six years, also
told VM of his predicament before he finally got
the LAWMA job. He narrated thus: "I am 30
years old, an indigene of Offa, in Kwara State. I
have been living in Lagos for over 15 years. I
am married with five children. I was not born a
physically challenged person. My predicament
started when my mum took me for vaccination
in Offa then. I was nine years old. After the
vaccination, I started feeling pains all over my
leg, and before I knew it I could not walk again.
I was rushed to several healing homes but all to
no avail.
"The quest for daily bread saw me leaving
Kwara and coming to Lagos because my poor
family could not adequately take care of my
needs and wants. So, when I got back to Lagos I
started begging. I live in Atan, in Sango area of
Ogun State. I realised I was not making enough
money to take care of my family, so I proceeded
to cleaning pedestrian bridges. People took pity
on me whenever they saw me toiling in the
scorching sun, sweeping the bridge. I earned
more than what I used to get when I was just
begging without doing any work.
"One day, a LAWMA official walked up to me at
Ikeja Along pedestrian bridge and told me that
my work had been noticed by the authority and
that Governor Fashola has approved that all
willing physically-challenged persons should be
absorbed into LAWMA. And that was how I got
the job. This really encouraged me to put in
more efforts into my daily work. While I was
doing all that, I never knew I was being
monitored by LAWMA officials. I am really glad
that my effort has been crowned today. My
special thanks go to Governor Fashola, our
amiable, passionate leader for his kind gesture.
His policy brought me out of the gutters to be a
useful person not only to myself but to the
society at large."
In addition to the award he received,
Gbadamosi was also given a brand new
wheelchair to aid his movement.
Earlier, LAWMA boss, Mr Ola Oresanya, said in
order to guarantee the continuity of the
programme, focus has shifted to ensuring the
safety and well-being of the sweepers through
regular supply of Personal Protective
Equipment, PPE, regular free medical screening,
meetings with representatives of major
stakeholders and training of operatives on
safety measures, among others. He thanked
some corporate partners of the programme for
their invaluable contribution, adding that some
of them have placed some of the sweepers on
their pay roll.