naptu2: [size=14pt]Background and context [/size]

Unfortunately, the Lagos State Ministry of Justice website has not been the same since it was attacked by hackers early this year. I was going to repost the environmental sanitation act.


Environmental sanitation law has always been controversial in Lagos. People always complain about the state of the environment, but they complain even more when government takes steps to remedy the situation.

Back in the 1980s people often quoted the report that stated that Lagos was the dirtiest city in the world. Foreign news stations often showed pictures of Oshodi, kids hawking in traffic (dodging cars, etc), heaps of refuse on road median, etc. The people often complain about the presence of lunatics who wander the streets aimlessly.

Government response to these problems have included:

1) Colonial governments deploying health inspectors (the infamous "Wole Wole" ) to ensure that houses, markets, etc were kept clean. The people hated these health inspectors and accused them of bribery (I remember comedy sketches which depicted health inspectors stealing meat from people's pots in the guise of ensuring that the food was suitable for consumption).

2) Military governments deploying soldiers, policemen and other officials (environmental offences task force) to chase away beggars, street traders and other offenders. It was seen as a futile effort, because the traders and beggars would return to the same spot hours later. The law was amended to include the forfeiture of goods seized during such raids and imprisonment of offenders. The task force would seize the goods and burn them. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang

The time around 1975 and '77, police go seize expensive goods dem go start to burn burn them. Army go go market, anything cost money go burn burn dem (2x).

Why dem like to burn the things wey dey costee money? Government fit sell to people cheape cheape. Government fit dash people wey no get money.
And the burn burn na im dey sweet dem pass (burn and bribe). Na im dey sweet them pass. Oya oh, burn burn.

(Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, "Confusion Break Bone", c1980)

The people were sympathetic towards the traders and beggars and believed that the task force was cruel and inhuman. The public felt that these people were only trying to earn a living and their presence on the streets was a result of the economic decline caused by the government. It was also felt that sentencing these people to jail would mean sending them to a training centre where they would learn how to become hardened criminals (besides, the prisons were already over crowded. How many prisons would be built to accomodate the vast army of beggars and street traders?).

3) The return to civilian rule in 1999 ushered in a wave of ammendments to the law. The year 2000 amendment created the Kick Against Indiscipline Corps (basically, the environment police) and made the public-private system the only legal means of disposing waste in Lagos. It became illegal to patronise cart pushers and residents were given bin bags for free. Several markets were also closed because the market men and women engaged in street trading and improper means of disposing refuse.

The 2003 amendment presented offenders with 3 choices, rehabilitation, repatriation or jail.

This amendment was made because the government realised that the prison system was over crowded and thus it would not make sense to keep sending people who break the environmental sanitation laws to jail.

Sending them to jail also created bad publicity for the government. Offenders would often be more hardened and a greater danger to the society when they were released than when they were sent to jail. It was therefore decided that jail term would be a last resort.

Offenders would be given a second chance at life via the rehabilitation process. They could also choose to return to their home state via the repatriation process (some realised that it's better to farm in their home state, than to sleep on the streets of Lagos). Their home state government or relatives would be informed ahead of time, so that they can take steps to rehabilitate the returnees. For example, in the documentary I watched, the Kano State Government gave returnees some money to ease the process of resettlement.

Indeed, it was discovered that gangs of criminals act as agents, ferrying people from their home states to Lagos for a fee, promising them jobs when they get to Lagos and subsequently dumping them on the streets of Lagos. These gangs are particularly active in Kano State and Niger Republic. The City of Kano used to be the great economic centre of the sahel region of Africa. People came from far and wide to work in the factories in Kano City. However, chronic electricity cuts have led to the closure of many factories. Criminal gangs promise to help these people get jobs as security guards, okada riders, etc in Lagos in exchange for a fee and dump the people on the streets of Lagos.

In contrast, the rehabilitation and repatriation process would change the lives of offenders and enable them to become respectable and independent citizens.

Further amendments to the law since 2007 (Fashola administration) have made it illegal to give alms to beggars. Citizens are expected to channel such donations to registered charities, orphanages, destitute's homes, churches, mosques and other such institutions. It also provided the option of community service for people who break the law.

It should be noted that, under the law as it was before the 2003 amendment, the people who are currently being returned, would have been sent to jail.


Finally, it's a pity that the author of the article that the OP republished did such a shoddy job. He should have interviewed the returnees and then interviewed Lagos State Government officials. This would enable the public to know whether the scheme is still being implemented the way it was conceived, or whether it has derailed (the rehabilitation process suffered a setback when the Ita-Oko centre was burnt by inmates. Please ignore the bigotry in the link https://www.nairaland.com/400138/area-boys-lagos-ibadan-action ). Rather than doing this, the author wrote a sensational piece (probably to maximise sales/views) that made it seem like the returnees were forcibly deported and that they were returned simply because of their state of origin.

Afam4eva: Now, the issue has moved from whether it's constitutional to drive Nigerians out of a state to whether or not Fashola communicated with Peter Obi about the action. Whether or not he did does not take away the fact that it's immoral to deport a citizen of a country within the country. I don't care whether Anambra or Akwa-Ibom has done it previously. It is wrong. Every state government should cater for the Nigerians they find in their abode. Afterall, states are given allocations based on their population and other variables. If the government were to give allocations based on state of origin then Lagos will probably receive the smallest allocation. let our leaders be wise and not take actions that will heat up the already heated polity.

Demswear4u?:
when and how it will happen is none of your business.
The only thing you need to know is that it will happen.

ilugunboy:


Only Ibos that want to make political gains and the utterly deluded ones are stoking the fire.....

Reasonable and everyday Ibos here in Lagos are in perfect agreement

ilugunboy:


You can only argue on the basis of morality and not law....if any Ibo man...woman ...group feels that Fashola has trampled on the law.....why is any of you shying away from approaching the court....?

Stop talking blindly pls.

ilugunboy:


You can only argue on the basis of morality and not law....if any Ibo man...woman ...group feels that Fashola has trampled on the law.....why is any of you shying away from approaching the court....?

Stop talking blindly pls.

ilugunboy:


Only Ibos that want to make political gains and the utterly deluded ones are stoking the fire.....

Reasonable and everyday Ibos here in Lagos are in perfect agreement

Obiagelli:
Exactly, its the work of the NNO, check thieir monickers

Afam4eva:
The action negates morality and the law. Tell me where it's written in the constitution that a Nigerian can be deported from a state.

ilugunboy: Well..Ibos will never accept any reasonable explanation .......am sure even if GEJ try to explain the issue...they will threaten him with withdrawal of their phantom support.


Now the question is ....what would they do?

Afam4eva:
The action negates morality and the law. Tell me where it's written in the constitution that a Nigerian can be deported from a state.

PeterKbaba: [b]

IN 2011 29 Arrested in Awka and Onitsha, and repatriated to their home states; Ebonyi and
Akwa Ibom states.

The Anambra state government has issued a warning to all
street beggars, especially children used by their parents to
beg for alms, to vacate the streets or be arrested.

29 of such women who displayed their children as strategy
for getting alms have already been arrested in Awka and
Onitsha, and repatriated to their home states; Ebonyi and
Akwa Ibom states.

The state commissioner for Women Affairs and Social
Development, Dr. Ego Cordelia Uzoezie, disclosed Friday in
Awka when a middle-aged woman was arrested for begging
with nine children at various points in Awka.

Uzoezie said her attention was drawn to the spectacle when
one of the children who begged at the Unizik junction, Awka,
six-year-old Goodnews Sunday, was hit in the jaw by an
Okada rider, while he begged
.
Uzoezie decried the attitude of some parents who used their
children to beg for alms, and warned that after 72 hours any
beggar seen in the state would be arrested by the law
enforcement agents and the special task force of the ministry
of women affairs and social development.



http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/9600/2011/12/04/anambra_orders_arrest_child_beggars.html[/b]

oshyno: When you think it will get better for Ngige it turns South again. He just shot himself on the foot by endorsing this inhuman act of Fashola simply bcuz u are frm same party. Dumb move IMO.

Ada Nri1: wonder what a woman Like you will teach her children. In the face of truth you have chosen to play the tribalism
card. Have you bothered to ask these simple questions? 1. Were those people brought there in the wee hours of the morning or not?
2. Were they all Anambra indegenes or not?
3. Were they all destitutes without family ties in Lagos ?
Just be honest and the truth shall set you free

xrisdon:


good question :
1, there so called ACN ,APC will never smell power in anambra in particuler and SE, SS in general
2, thats the end of there man ngige, he can never win an election in anambra state, be it governor
3, ngige) will never be re elected in the senate so after his present tenure he will simply go back to his brothers(yorubas)
4, your beloved APC will continue to be regional party and therefor will drop the dream of ruling this country!

ilugunboy:

Simply head to the nearest court....let the law be tested up to the Supreme Court....

Demswear4u?:
There will be retaliation.
I can assure you.

ilugunboy:

Simply head to the nearest court....let the law be tested up to the Supreme Court....

naptu2:

Who agreed to have the transfer done there? Wasn't it the Anambra State Government? Why didn't they show up? How come there was no controversy when Akwa-Ibom State had a transfer with the Lagos State Government? What do you even know about this policy? Do you think this is the first time people have been relocated? Do you know that even Lagos indigenes are re-integrated within Lagos?

Isn't this just another one of your ploys to whip up sentiments?

sunto: hatred is like an acid it destroy the container also.

greggng: IS A SHAME THAT FASHOLAS KIND GESTURE IS NOW BEING POLITICIZE BY THOSE THAT MEANT EVIL FOR THIS NATION. I AM AN IGBO MAN AND I SEE NOTHING WRONG IN WHAT FASHOLA DID.THE CHALLENGE IS ON IGBO PEOPLE TO BE THEIR BROTHERS KEEPERS.WE ARE SELF CENTERED PEOPLE AND ONLY CARE ABOUT OURSELVES.

IF THOSE DEPORTEES ARE IGBOS, LET THE GOVERNOR OF THEIR STATES ACCEPT THEM AND MAKE THERE LIFE'S MORE MEANINGFUL. I DONT SUPPORT EVIL IF AM IN FASHOLAS SHOES I WILL DO SAME.I MUST COMMEND HIM FOR TAKEN CARE OF THEM .THE BALL IS NOW IN THE COURT OF THEIR STATES GOVERNORS/RELATIVES.

FINALLY, WE SHOULD AS A PEOPLE FIGHT FOR THINGS THAT WILL BE BENEFICIAL TO THE MASSES.THINGS LIKE SOCIAL BENEFIT THAT COULD TAKE CARE OF THE UNEMPLOYED AND SOCIAL MISCREANTS.IF THE LAW GUARANTEES THIS, THEN SITUATIONS LIKE THIS WILL BE A THING OF THE PAST.THIS WAY FASHOLA WILL HAVE LOTS OF MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF THEM KNOWING FULLY WELL THAT THE FEDERAL GOVT WILL ALWAYS MAKE PROVISION FOR IT.THIS IS MY OPINION

ilugunboy:


So says a bigoted Ibo boy...