KillahPriest: This should clearly tell you that there's an infrastructure deficit in the waste disposal sector. Why not make it unnecessary to go long distances just to dispose of trash by providing adequate, necessary disposal mechanisms and then, you won't have to perform these skits
Nobody goes long distances to dispose of trash in Lagos. Haven't you ever heard of PSP??
Baxilexi: The question is how many? And what’s the proximity to each other? How many bus stops have waste bins beside them?
naptu2: Institutional memory and ecology of administration.
One of the things that amazes md in this country is that we often solve problems, then forget that we've solved the problem and, more importantly, forget how we solved the problem and so we re-introduce that problem.
Someone asked a question a few days ago and I was happily surprised that everybody else knew the answer.
She asked why the beautiful new bus stops in Lagos did not have benches. People replied with the short answer, but I'm going to tell the story from the beginning.
Sometime between 1983-1985 the Lagos State Government built big new bus stop shelters across the state. These shelters were built with concrete, were quite roomy (so you'd be sheltered, no matter how heavy the rain was) and had enough benches to seat a reasonable number of commuters. It seemed like a perfect idea.
But, unfortunately these bus stop shelters became the homes of lunatics, area boys, homeless people and NURTW thugs. Commuters could not seek shelter in them because of the kind of people that occupied the shelters. They became dangerous places, especially st night. It was so bad that some of the shelters were eventually dismantled (eg, the bus stop shelter on First Avenue in Ikoyi).
Subsequent governments (Marwa and Fashola) built much smaller bus stop shelters, so that commuters would be sheltered from the sun and rain, but the shelters would be too small to serve as homes for lunatics and thugs. The government had learnt.
Ambode's huge mistake
Twice a week, very early in the morning between 1979-1983, I watched payloaders, bulldozers, compactors and humoungous trucks of the Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (LSWDB) evacuate refuse from a huge dump in Lafiaji as I drove past. Those giant equipment often held up traffic. There were many similar refuse dumps and large waste bins across Lagos.
Despite the efforts of the LSWDB, Lagos was known as the dirtiest city in the world. Foreign TV stations, newspapers and magazines often showed pictures of refuse heaps in Lagos. Most Nigerians felt that Lagos wasn't really as bad as it was being portrayed in the Western media.
Rasaki came and his era wasn't too different from Jakande. However, I noticed that the LSWDB did not evacuate refuse as regularly as they used to. Rasaki eventually converted the LSWDB into LAWMA and placed thd management of LAWMA in the hands of the local governments.
Then came the worst era in the history of Lagos. LAWMA completely stopped evacuating refuse during the Oyinlola era. Those large waste bins overflowed with refuse and the trash took over entire streets. The dumps became so full of waste that people dumped their waste anywhere, including on the median of major highways like Ikorodu Road and Lekki Expressway. People relied on cart pushers to evacuate their waste for them. No sane person could dispute the fact that Lagos was the dirtiest city in the world at that time. Colonel Oyinlola recently claimed that people deliberately dumped refuse on the streets in order to sabotage his government.
Things weren't much different in the Marwa era.
Then came Bola Tinubu. He scrapped the practice of having large waste dumps and bins by the roadside. He also banned the activities of carte pushers. Instead, private companies were given franchises to go from home to home to collect refuse from residents. The franchisees would then take the refuse to LAWMA's transfer loading stations and LAWMA would dispose of the waste.
This meant that there was no need to have piles of rubbish on the roadside. Residents were compelled to pay a refuse tax and this meant that they had to use the service in order to get value for their money.
The refuse heaps across the state vanished! In fact, for the first time, the foreign media stopped referring to Lagos as the dirtiest city in the world.
Fashola came and improved the system a bit by ensuring that the private companies used compactors to transport the waste, rather than open trucks.
Now Ambode is here and he has brought back the huge waste bins and restricted the activities of the private companies. I understand what he is trying to do and he has good intentions, but those large waste bins on the road side are a very bad idea. There is no way that Lagosians will resist the temptation to turn them into large refuse dumps with waste spilling on to the streets. I've already seen it happen on Alexander Avenue. Very small waste bins are ok, but those large waste bins will be a disaster.
Those dumps, apart from being unhygenic and an eyesore, will be a PR disaster for him like they were for Colonel Oyinlola. The best strategy remains the strategy used by Bola Tinubu, i.e. intercept the waste in homes, factories and offices, before it gets on the street.
Ambode was forced to return to the PSP system because the dumpster system does not work in Lagos.
Baxilexi: How many skip bins, dumpsters, public dustbins are available on the streets of Lagos?
With the population in Lagos its streets should be equipped with waste collecting units within 50-100meters of each other.
Something is only criminal if the broken law is logical.
Wrong!
Those dumpsters usually get overfilled and spill onto the road. In order to prevent this, government has licensed private waste collectors that come to your house or business premises to pick up the waste.
By law you are meant to register with the private waste collectors and only give them your waste.
You are not meant to dump it anywhere or give it to anyone else.
The private waste collectors have compactor trucks that they use to come and pick up the waste. There are contact detail with which you can complain to government if they do not come to pick up the waste.
naptu2: I like to look at problems from different angles and this is another opportunity.
People often look at this issue from the final enforcement action, but here is an opportunity to see the origin of the problem.
The government often shuts markets for violating environmental laws and people often look for ways to blame government, but this is the origin of the problem.
Government has assigned private waste collectors to specific areas. Markets are expected to reach agreements with the waste collectors. There are contact details with which citizens can complain to government if the waste collectors do not do their duty. Yet traders often prefer to throw their waste on the street or patronise cart pushers (or people like the man in this thread).
The government does not just clamp down on offenders. For example, I created a thread when LAWMA officials visited markets along the Lekki Expressway. They showed the traders the refuse that was dumped on the median and encouraged them to remove it. They asked the traders if the PSP has been coming to collect the waste. They warned traders against indiscriminate dumping of waste. But they did not arrest anyone.
Yet, in some cases, traders continue to dump refuse on the roadside and medians. They continue to patronise illegal waste collectors. What do you want government to do? Of course they will shut the market down.
People will complain and come up with all kinds of stories if the government shuts down Gowon Market, but just look at what's happening!
naptu2: It looks like my thread about the advocacy at Ajah was removed (I can see hidden posts), but I think this was the original tweet (I remember the maize on the median).
You can see that one of the traders (who is a member of the trader's union) confirmed that there's a PSP that serves the area and she gives them her waste, yet some traders dump corn waste on the median.
You can see that they did not arrest anybody, they came to educate them.
Yet, when this market is closed for violating environmental sanitation laws you'll see people blaming government.
Watch the videos.
Following a tip from a concerned citizen, @RealestNamy, about illegal dumping of waste by market women at Ilaje Market in Ajah, the @Lawma_gov advocacy team, led by Mercy Adegbulugbe, swung into action to give a last warning and caution them on the need to:
: It seems like some do not know how the trash collection system works in Lagos. Here's the answer.
[quote author=naptu2 post=64245125]Institutional memory and ecology of administration.
One of the things that amazes md in this country is that we often solve problems, then forget that we've solved the problem and, more importantly, forget how we solved the problem and so we re-introduce that problem.
Someone asked a question a few days ago and I was happily surprised that everybody else knew the answer.
She asked why the beautiful new bus stops in Lagos did not have benches. People replied with the short answer, but I'm going to tell the story from the beginning.
Sometime between 1983-1985 the Lagos State Government built big new bus stop shelters across the state. These shelters were built with concrete, were quite roomy (so you'd be sheltered, no matter how heavy the rain was) and had enough benches to seat a reasonable number of commuters. It seemed like a perfect idea.
But, unfortunately these bus stop shelters became the homes of lunatics, area boys, homeless people and NURTW thugs. Commuters could not seek shelter in them because of the kind of people that occupied the shelters. They became dangerous places, especially st night. It was so bad that some of the shelters were eventually dismantled (eg, the bus stop shelter on First Avenue in Ikoyi).
Subsequent governments (Marwa and Fashola) built much smaller bus stop shelters, so that commuters would be sheltered from the sun and rain, but the shelters would be too small to serve as homes for lunatics and thugs. The government had learnt.
Ambode's huge mistake
Twice a week, very early in the morning between 1979-1983, I watched payloaders, bulldozers, compactors and humoungous trucks of the Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (LSWDB) evacuate refuse from a huge dump in Lafiaji as I drove past. Those giant equipment often held up traffic. There were many similar refuse dumps and large waste bins across Lagos.
Despite the efforts of the LSWDB, Lagos was known as the dirtiest city in the world. Foreign TV stations, newspapers and magazines often showed pictures of refuse heaps in Lagos. Most Nigerians felt that Lagos wasn't really as bad as it was being portrayed in the Western media.
Rasaki came and his era wasn't too different from Jakande. However, I noticed that the LSWDB did not evacuate refuse as regularly as they used to. Rasaki eventually converted the LSWDB into LAWMA and placed thd management of LAWMA in the hands of the local governments.
Then came the worst era in the history of Lagos. LAWMA completely stopped evacuating refuse during the Oyinlola era. Those large waste bins overflowed with refuse and the trash took over entire streets. The dumps became so full of waste that people dumped their waste anywhere, including on the median of major highways like Ikorodu Road and Lekki Expressway. People relied on cart pushers to evacuate their waste for them. No sane person could dispute the fact that Lagos was the dirtiest city in the world at that time. Colonel Oyinlola recently claimed that people deliberately dumped refuse on the streets in order to sabotage his government.
Things weren't much different in the Marwa era.
Then came Bola Tinubu. He scrapped the practice of having large waste dumps and bins by the roadside. He also banned the activities of carte pushers. Instead, private companies were given franchises to go from home to home to collect refuse from residents. The franchisees would then take the refuse to LAWMA's transfer loading stations and LAWMA would dispose of the waste.
This meant that there was no need to have piles of rubbish on the roadside. Residents were compelled to pay a refuse tax and this meant that they had to use the service in order to get value for their money.
The refuse heaps across the state vanished! In fact, for the first time, the foreign media stopped referring to Lagos as the dirtiest city in the world.
Fashola came and improved the system a bit by ensuring that the private companies used compactors to transport the waste, rather than open trucks.
Now Ambode is here and he has brought back the huge waste bins and restricted the activities of the private companies. I understand what he is trying to do and he has good intentions, but those large waste bins on the road side are a very bad idea. There is no way that Lagosians will resist the temptation to turn them into large refuse dumps with waste spilling on to the streets. I've already seen it happen on Alexander Avenue. Very small waste bins are ok, but those large waste bins will be a disaster.
Those dumps, apart from being unhygenic and an eyesore, will be a PR disaster for him like they were for Colonel Oyinlola. The best strategy remains the strategy used by Bola Tinubu, i.e. intercept the waste in homes, factories and offices, before it gets on the street.
Ambode was forced to return to the PSP system because the dumpster system does not work in Lagos.
Video: LAWMA had received complaints from members of the public, so they secretly watched the man and followed him as he collected trash and went to dump it on the median of the road. You can see operatives following him in this sped up video.
Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin is the MD/CEO of the Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA).
Muyiwa Gbadegesin, PhD @muyiwag
At approximately 4:37 a.m. on May 27, 2025, @Lawma_gov Waste Infractions Surveillance and Investigation Team apprehended an individual identified as Fashola for illegally dumping refuse along the median of Egbeda–Iyana-Ipaja Road.
Fashola, a known repeat offender, has been linked to multiple instances of unauthorized waste disposal. Investigations revealed that he had been hired by traders around Gowon Market to dispose of their market waste unlawfully, despite repeated warnings and enforcement campaigns in the area.
This arrest underscores LAWMA’s ongoing efforts to clamp down on environmental infractions and hold violators accountable. Photographic and video evidence has been secured to support legal proceedings.
We urge market stakeholders and residents to use only LAWMA-accredited PSP operators and to desist from patronizing illegal waste collectors. A clean Lagos is everyone’s responsibility. Thanks!
#KeepLagosClean
At approximately 4:37 a.m. on May 27, 2025, @Lawma_gov Waste Infractions Surveillance and Investigation Team apprehended an individual identified as Fashola for illegally dumping refuse along the median of Egbeda–Iyana-Ipaja Road.
LAWMA operatives kept watch on that road median and they arrested the same man a second time. He initially denied that he dumped the waste, then he admitted that he dumped it but said that he planned to come back and carry it.
Politics › Re: Repeat Offender Arrested Again For Dumping Trash On Median Of Road In Lagos by naptu2(op): 9:44am On May 29, 2025
