Lagos #2: Is It Truly The Center Of Excellence?

smyle (66)in #lagos • 7 years ago

In my latest post, i discussed some of the problems facing Lagos as a city. A city that almost everybody in other states wish live. It is a dream of some people to come and settle down here because of the opportunities.

No doubt, it is easier to get job in Lagos compared to other states. This is because there are many companies here. Even if you wish to establish yourself as an entrepreneur, Lagos gives you that platform to flourish. It is a land of opportunities i must say.

Despite all the positives about the state, it is the hardest place to live in Nigeria. Recently, Lagos state was voted as the 3rd most stressful city to live in the world. This buttress my argument in my latest post about the traffic you will face constantly as a Lagosian. Lagos is known for traffic.

Another major thing i intend to discuss with you guys is the way refuse are dumped on the main roads!

You are wondering if this is possible considering the danger such posses to human. But here almost every street has one or two junctions with heap of refuse.

This was not really the case before the then governor Babatunde Fashola introduced private partnership with refuse agencies. With this new development, the government stopped local waste truck pushers which we paid little money to throw away our wastes.

To ensure the partnership works, the government started arresting the truck pushers who throw away these wastes. Gradually, they stopped carrying our wastes because of fear of being arrested.

When this started newly, the Lagos State Waste Management (LAWMA) ensured the waste trucks go to every street to pick their wastes. They distributed nylons and waste bins to residence to ease the process. Then they started charging high fees and before we know it, the LAWMA pfficials stopped coming weekly. Some times, we wont see them in two months but they bring bills monthly!

In order not to have the wastes around them, the people moved these wastes to junctions which in turn cause blockage to the drainage system and flood.

It is hard to walk three streets without you seeing heap of refuse on one junction. This is the sad situation and the reality of the state.

The LAWMA offcials have already concluded to be packing these heap of refuse at junctions where they find them. They do not bother distributing nylons to the people. They now see wastes on the junction as norm and something that 'makes' their work easy.

The question now is who to blame? It is not really about playing the blame game because both the people and the government have their share of the blame.

The government tried what they saw in foreign countries by replicating similar thing in Lagos. But they forgot that Africa history is different from that of the foreign people.

The government ought to have anticipated a situation where there will be shortage of trucks to carry these wastes or laxity on the part of the waste management workers which might create epidemic. Since they did not anticipate this, then they can accept what is happening.

The people should have been allowed to choose whether to be paying LAWMA or use the local truck pushers. This would have reduced the unpleasant sights of heap of refuse seen at almost every junction.

Lagos is beautiful if you visit some part of island, but on the mainland, you will see Lagos for what it is: A state with so many problems!