By Erasmus Ikhide
The visible and olfactory tragedy of a Mega-City
No customer arriving in Lagos can probably miss its beautiful, breathtaking neglect. Traffic chaos was as soon as thought-about its second nature, an unlucky product of its frantic geographic growth and sprawling inhabitants.
However, this infamous gridlock has now been violently overtaken by a much more pervasive and nauseating illness: the proliferation of indiscriminate waste dumps festering throughout the metropolis with out well timed or systematic evacuation.
From Badagry to Mile 2, from Mile 2 all the way down to Orile, stretching throughout the congested veins of Iyana Iba to Egbeda, and from Oshodi all the way down to Agbado-Ijaye, the panorama bears the deep scars of environmental abandonment.
Both the mainland and Lagos Island—most notably historic, high-density industrial hubs like Idumota, Akpongbon, and their claustrophobic environs—have systematically devolved into monumental environmental disasters as a result of of unmitigated, indiscriminate waste dumping.
You could be genuinely shocked at how soiled these areas have change into. All sides of the roads, the medians, and the once-functional drainage channels are littered, choked, and buried beneath industrial and home refuse.
Other prime places similar to Lekki and Victoria Island could also be much less littered on the floor, however even their major thoroughfares cry out for pressing consideration and structural upkeep.
If you juxtapose what is going on on this self-proclaimed “Centre of Excellence” with the visionary, monumental improvement strides of the Lateef Jakande years, one is certain to confront agonizing, existential questions: Is Lagos really working? What is going on to our native governments? Why can’t they evacuate primary waste? Above all, is somebody nonetheless presiding over the state authorities?
The Golden Benchmark: The Jakande Era vs. Present Ruin
To perceive the depth of our present desolation, one should revisit the historic governance benchmark set by Alhaji Lateef Jakande throughout his administration as governor of Lagos State from 1979 to 1983. The inhabitants of Lagos was already rising quickly on the time, which overstretched out there infrastructure as public faculties had been severely congested.
Instead of providing countless excuses or commissioning superficial media occasions, the Jakande administration revolutionized public training by constructing a whole bunch of reasonably priced major and secondary faculties to abolish the anxious and dehumanizing morning and afternoon shift methods.
His authorities constructed 1000’s of practical, low-cost lecture rooms grouped into main neighborhood faculties and complexes throughout native authorities areas like Mushin, Agege, Ipaja, Apapa, and Epe. Notable legacy instructional hubs established throughout this era embody, the distinguished Tolu Schools Complex in Ajeromi-Ifelodun, the Amuwo-Odofin Schools Complex, the Okota Schools Complex and the Odu Abore Primary School in Mushin.
Furthermore, Jakande’s administration established General Hospital zones all around the state with the agency assurance of free healthcare for the populace. In a testomony to his unmatched administrative imaginative and prescient, his authorities constructed extra libraries in Lagos State than all of the governors mixed since 1999, and he made historical past as the primary governor to current a billion-naira state price range in Nigeria.
In greater and technical training, his administration based Lagos State University (LASU) to offer greater studying alternatives for Lagos residents. He relocated and expanded the Lagos State College of Education (LACOED/now Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education) to coach skilled lecturers, and based Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) to spice up technical and vocational manpower throughout the federation.
Dedicated trainer coaching faculties and technical faculties had been additionally arrange throughout completely different divisions to quickly provide certified educators and expert employees.
Institutional Decay and Administrative Inertia
Today, the distinction between that golden period of purpose-driven management and the present dispensation beneath Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is stark, painful, and profoundly embarrassing.
Established secondary faculties and tertiary establishments—together with Lagos State University as its flagship, a number of housing estates in isolation (similar to Agbado-Ijaiye and Agege-Abesan), and important arterial roads—are languishing in terminal neglect.
Even although previous establishments just like the College of Education and Lagos Polytechnic have been administratively upgraded into full-fledged universities (specifically, the Lagos State University of Education [LASUED] and the Lagos State University of Science and Technology [LASPOTECH]), the overarching bodily surroundings and structural upkeep have deteriorated sharply.
Local authorities councils have been rendered toothless, structurally emasculated, and fully incapacitated. Why can’t they evacuate waste? Why are our industrial nerve facilities buried beneath decomposing refuse? Why has a state blessed with immense internally generated income degenerated right into a monument of administrative inertia?
Governance Failure: Sanitation, Infrastructure, and Grassroots Paralysis
When an city centre of world significance collapses beneath the burden of its personal refuse, the failure is neither unintended nor transient; it’s structural and systemic. The core disaster of up to date Lagos lies within the systematic dismantling of native governance constructions.
In any practical federation, the native authorities tier is uniquely positioned to deal with localized sanitation, tenement administration, and neighborhood-level waste assortment. Yet, beneath the current administration, native councils have been lowered to mere administrative ciphers, financially emasculated and stripped of the autonomy required to maintain their communities clear.
Private Sector Participation (PSP) waste administration operators wrestle beneath crippling bureaucratic bottlenecks, delayed subsidies, and an absence of infrastructural backing. The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has confirmed largely incapable of assembly the refuse disposal calls for of a surging mega-city inhabitants.
Consequently, main highways, secondary roads, and avenue corners have been transformed into unauthorized, everlasting waste dumps. This environmental degradation straight threatens public well being. Rainwater washes poisonous leachate from these rotting refuse heaps straight into open drainage channels, polluting the lagoon, contaminating the water desk, and exposing thousands and thousands of residents to preventable waterborne and airborne ailments. It is a slow-motion public well being emergency taking place in broad daylight.
The Contrast of Priorities: Substance vs. Spectacle
Governance should be measured by the tangible high quality of life it delivers to the odd citizen, not by flashy billboards, high-sounding slogans, or stage-managed media commissioning ceremonies.
When faculty kids in Agege and Ipaja should wade by way of flooded, waste-clogged gutters to achieve crumbling lecture rooms with leaking roofs, the promise of a “Smart City” is revealed as a merciless phantasm. When merchants in Idumota and Akpongbon conduct their day by day commerce surrounded by towering mountains of rubbish, the state authorities’s claims of financial excellence ring hole.
Jakande’s administration proved that with self-discipline, prudent useful resource administration, and profound empathy for the widespread man, monumental challenges may very well be overcome inside a brief span of 4 years. He didn’t construct his legacy on empty media optics; he constructed it on enduring bodily infrastructure, strong establishments, and a real dedication to public welfare.
Deepening the Critique: Urban Planning and Social Neglect
The regression of Lagos is additional mirrored within the state of its mass housing tasks. During the Second Republic, Jakande’s administration constructed over 30,000 low-cost housing models throughout various places—together with Ijaiye, Dolphin, Oke-Afa, Abesan, Amuwo-Odofin, Ipaja, and Iba.
These communities had been designed to offer shelter and dignity to low-income earners, civil servants, and the working class. Today, many of these similar housing estates are suffering from infrastructural decay, failing sewage methods, unpaved inner roads, and encroaching industrial shanties.
The disconnect between the ruling elite in Alausa and the on a regular basis realities of odd Lagosians has by no means been wider. While billions are funneled into elite ego massaging beautification tasks, densely populated settlements on the mainland are left to rot in filth.
The failure to take care of primary public infrastructure—starting from public libraries to well being facilities and technical faculties—has created an surroundings the place youth unemployment, social despair, and concrete decay thrive unchecked.
Reinventing the Centre of Excellence
Lagos State stands at a important historic crossroads. It stays the simple industrial heartbeat of West Africa and a monetary engine room that the remainder of the continent appears to be like as much as.
It can not proceed to wallow because the capital of filth, structural decay, and administrative indifference.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu should be referred to as to order. The present environmental tragedy is an simple indictment of government functionality.
The state requires a right away, complete, and aggressive overhaul of its waste administration structure, the total restoration of true native authorities monetary and operational autonomy, and a return to the disciplined, people-centric philosophy of governance exemplified by Alhaji Lateef Jakande.
The City of Excellence deserves true management, rigorous city planning, and environmental dignity. History is watching, and the judgment of the individuals shall be unsparing.
*Erasmus Ikhide contributed this piece through: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com
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